Morgan Spurlock, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker who in “Tremendous Dimension Me” documented the deleterious bodily and psychological results of a fast-food weight-reduction plan, has died at 53.
He died from problems of most cancers, in line with a press release from his household.
“It was a tragic day, as we mentioned goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who labored with him on a number of initiatives, wrote within the assertion issued Friday morning. “Morgan gave a lot via his artwork, concepts, and generosity. The world has misplaced a real inventive genius and a particular man. I’m so proud to have labored along with him.”
Morgan Spurlock, via his documentaries, put a microscope on elements of the trendy human expertise that had been usually neglected in media — from males’s struggles with masculinity and self-image in “Mansome” to the advanced however centuries-long relationships folks and rodents have shared in “Rats.” He additionally took large swings with extra mainstream subjects in documentaries together with “The place within the World Is Osama Bin Laden” and “One Route: This Is Us.”
Spurlock first gained noteriety for “Tremendous Dimension Me” in 2004. He threw himself into his filmmaking course of, consuming solely McDonald’s meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days in his personal tackle weight problems and over-consumption within the U.s.. Throughout filming, he gained 25 kilos and suffered sick results.
The title got here from a rule he set for himself for the documentary: Each time a McDonald’s cashier requested him if he needed to “super-size it,” he had to take action.
“Tremendous Dimension Me” sparked bigger conversations about weight-reduction plan and way of life, not directly prompted McDonald’s to cut back its super-size choices and earned Spurlock his first Oscar nomination in 2005. The movie was nominated together with Lauren Lazin and Karolyn Ali’s “Tupac: Resurrection,” however Spurlock and the opposite nominees misplaced to Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, who made “Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Crimson Mild Children.”
“The one factor I do know is that I don’t know every thing,” Spurlock advised The Instances in 2008. “Removed from it.”
Spurlock directed 23 movies and produced nearly 70 beneath his Warrior Poet manufacturing firm, which he co-founded in 2004 with Jeremy Chilnick.
Warrior Poet produced the documentary “‘What Would Jesus Purchase?” in addition to CNN docuseries “7 Lethal Sins” and “Inside Man” and the “Tremendous Dimension Me” follow-up “Tremendous Dimension Me 2: Holy Hen.” Within the 2017 follow-up to his breakout movie, Spurlock examined the fast-food business’s extra health-conscious rebranding efforts by opening a hen restaurant of his personal.
The documentarian, who constructed a profession and legacy of uncovering neglected truths, turned the digicam lens again on himself in 2017, amid the peak of the #MeToo motion. In December 2017, he revealed he had been accused of rape in faculty and had paid to settle a sexual harassment declare from a feminine worker.
“I’m not some harmless bystander, I’m additionally a part of the issue,” he mentioned in a assertion posted on social media, by which he admitted to dishonest on “each spouse and girlfriend I’ve ever had.”
Spurlock additionally revealed that he was sexually abused as a baby, how he struggled with sobriety and the way he deliberate to maneuver ahead. “The one particular person I’ve management over is me,” he wrote.
Shortly after his revelations, Spurlock stepped down from his manufacturing firm. Experiences concerning the alleged “fratty” work surroundings at Warrior Poets emerged amid his exit.
“For me, there was a second of sort of realization — as any person who’s a truth-teller and any person who has made it some extent of making an attempt to do what’s proper — of recognizing that I might do higher in my very own life,” he advised the Related Press in 2019. “We must always be capable of admit we had been incorrect.”
Spurlock was born Nov. 9, 1970, in West Virginia and grew up pursuing quite a lot of extracurricular actions, together with scholar authorities, baseball, soccer, observe and ballet. He graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in movie from New York College in 1993.
Earlier than turning into a documentarian, he labored as a stand-up comedian, manufacturing assistant and spokesman for Sony Electronics. He additionally directed movies for companies and created the MTV web present “I Wager You Will” earlier than starting the journey to “Tremendous Dimension Me.”
He’s survived by two sons, Laken and Kallen; his mom, Phyllis Spurlock; father Ben; brothers Craig and Barry; and former spouses Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, the moms of his kids.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
