Green Mile actor Michael Clarke Duncan has died at the age of 54, after never recovering from the heart attack he suffered on July 13th.
The brawny actor was well-known for his Oscar-nominated role as a death row inmate in The Green Mile. He also appeared in several other box office hits such as Armageddon, Planet of the Apes and Kung Fu Panda.
Michael Clarke Duncan died on Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancée and reality star, Reverend Omarosa Manigault, in a statement released by publicist Joy Fehily.
Manigault expressed in the statement she is “grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date.”
Born in Chicago in 1957, Michael Clarke Duncan was raised by a single mother who refused to let the super-sized actor play football. This led him down the path of becoming an actor, When his mother became sick, Duncan dropped out Alcorn State University to work as a ditch digger and bouncer to support her.
He went to Los Angeles in his mid-20s to look for acting parts, eventually becoming a bodyguard for Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and other stars. The murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G., for whom Duncan had been hired to protect led him to quit his bodyguard career and pursue acting full-time.
Our condolences go out to the family of Michael Clarke Duncan
