Michael Clarke Duncan, the iconic character actor whose films included an Oscar-nominated role as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile” (1999) and box office successes such as “Armageddon,” “Planet of the Apes” and “Kung Fu Panda,” is dead at age 54.
Duncan a former bodyguard who chose the acting career in his 30s, “suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered”, said publicist Joy Fehily in a statement.
Clarke passed away Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancee, Reverend Omarosa Manigault.
It was Duncan’s girlfriend Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, a reality star and former contestant on “The Apprentice,” who had acted swiftly and gave first aid when the actor had the cardiac arrest 7 weeks ago.
Duncan’s co-star in the TV series “The Finder”, Mercedes Masohn wrote on Twitter: “Today is a sad day. Michael Clark Duncan died this morning. Known for his moving performance in The Green Mile. RIP MCD. You’ll b missed.”
Duncan was also famous for his deep voice.
A Chicago native, Duncan went to college at Alcorn State University in Mississippi with plans to major in communications, but he dropped out and moved home.
In his 20s, he worked digging ditches for Peoples Gas during the day and as a bouncer at night. He told CNN in 1999 that his coworkers at the gas company called him “Hollywood” because he’d often talk about becoming a movie star.
“I’d be digging a ditch and they’d say, ‘Hey, man, Bruce Willis wants to talk to you about a movie.’ And they’d just crack up laughing,” he said while doing press for ‘The Green Mile.’
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“Those coworkers had no way of knowing how that joke would turn on them.”
In 1990, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a bodyguard and then got a part in a commercial as a drill sergeant.
More roles followed — often ones that depended more on his 315-pound frame than his acting skills. He was a guard in “Back in Business,” a bouncer in “A Night at the Roxbury,” a bouncer for 2 Live Crew in “The Players Club,” and a bouncer at a bar in the Warren Beatty film “Bulworth.”
1998 was a crucial year for him as he played Bear in the film “Armageddon,” where a team of drillers from an oil rig save the Earth from being destroyed by an asteroid.
“Armageddon” marked the beginning of his friendship with Bruce Willis. They showed up in 4 movies together. And it was Willis who recommended Duncan to ‘The Green Mile’ director Frank Darabont.
In the Oscar-nominated film, Duncan played John Coffey, the giant black guy mistankenly sentenced in a Louisiana city for raping and killing 2 white girls. Coffey featured supernatural powers as he could heal people with his hands and even turn the dead alive.
Coffey is a messenger who develops a relationship with Tom Hanks’ character, a guard called Paul Edgecomb.
Duncan was nominated for an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, which was won by Michael Caine for “The Cider House Rules.”
