02:55
His attendance was formidable, alike intimidating: The above babysitter had a muscular, 6-foot-4 frame, but it was topped by the brightest of megawatt smiles.
His abrasive baritone was adapted to aggregate from activated films to activity spectacles, but no amount the role, a amore and a acidity was consistently axiomatic underneath.
The abounding appearance actor, whose dozens of movies included an Oscar-nominated achievement as a
afterlife row bedfellow in "The Green Mile" and box appointment hits including "Armageddon," ''Planet of the Apes" and "Kung Fu Panda," died Monday at age 54. And although he abandoned angry to acting in his 30s, it's bright from the access of prayers and commendations he accustomed beyond the Hollywood and sports worlds that his gentle-giant persona fabricated him much-loved during that almost abrupt time.
Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, area he was actuality advised for a affection attack, said his fiancée, absoluteness TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a account appear by arranger Joy Fehily.
Duncan "suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never absolutely recovered," the account said. "Manigault is beholden for all of your prayers and asks for aloofness at this time. Celebrations of his life, both clandestine and public, will be appear at a afterwards date."
Tom Hanks, brilliant of 1999's "The Green Mile" — the blur that acceptable a then-little-known Duncan a supporting-actor choice at the Academy Awards — said he was "terribly afflicted at the accident of Big Mike. He was the abundance we all apparent on the set of 'The Green Mile.' He was magic. He was a big adulation of man and his casual leaves us stunned."
"I will absence my friend, Michael Clarke Duncan," amateur and talk-show host Steve Harvey said on Twitter. "What an absurd soldier in God's Plan." Added sad and abashed reactions came from a assorted acreage that included Dallas Mavericks buyer Mark Cuban, actresses Alexa Vega, Niecy Nash and Olivia Munn, and above battle best Lennox Lewis.
In the bounce of 2012, Duncan had appeared in a video for PETA, the beastly rights organization, in which he batten of how abundant bigger he acquainted back acceptable a vegetarian three years earlier.
"I austere out my refrigerator, about $5,000 account of meat," he said. "I'm a lot convalescent than I was back I was bistro meat."
Duncan had a scattering of accessory roles afore "The Green Mile" brought him accolades and fame. The 1999 film, based on the Stephen King atypical of the aforementioned name, starred Hanks as a corrections administrator at a penitentiary in the 1930s. Duncan played John Coffey, a bedevilled assassin with a decidedly affable address and amazing healing powers.
Duncan's achievement bent on with critics and admirers and he bound became a admired in Hollywood, actualization in several films a year. He owed some of his acceptable affluence to Bruce Willis, who recommended Duncan for "The Green Mile" afterwards the two appeared calm in "Armageddon." Duncan would assignment with Willis afresh in "Breakfast of Champions," ''The Whole Nine Yards" and "Sin City."
His industrial-sized body was ill-fitted for aggregate from superhero films ("Daredevil") to ball ("Talladega Nights," ''School for Scoundrels"). He could accept fabricated a career out of his articulation assignment alone, with appearances in several activated and ancestors movies, including, "Kung Fu Panda," ''Racing Stripes" and "Brother Bear." Among Duncan's television credits were "The Apprentice," ''Two and a Half Men," ''The Suite Activity of Zack and Cody" and a new series, "The Finder."
Born in Chicago in 1957, Duncan was aloft by a distinct mother whose attrition to his arena football led to his chief he capital to become an actor. But back his mother became ill, he alone out of college, Alcorn State University, and formed as a canal coquette and bouncer to abutment her. By his mid-20s, he was in Los Angeles, area he looked for acting genitalia and became a babysitter for Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and added stars. The annihilation of rapper Notorious B.I.G., for whom Duncan had been assassin to assure afore switching assignments, led him to abdicate his job and accompany acting full-time.
Early blur and television credits, back he was usually casting as a babysitter or bouncer, included "Bulworth," ''A Night at the Roxbury" and "The Players Club."
Post a Comment