R.I.P. Morgan Spurlock: ‘Super Size Me’ Documentary Filmmaker Dead at 53

Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker best known for his fast food industry takedown Super Size Me, has died. He was 53.

Spurlock’s death was confirmed by his family, who shared that he passed away Thursday (May 23) due to complications from cancer, and provided the following statement to Variety:

“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” shared Craig Spurlock, who collaborated with Morgan multiple times. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”

Spurlock’s 2004 documentary Super Size Me became a hit sensation after the filmmaker only ate McDonalds for 30 days to explore the impact of the fast food industry on consumers’ physical and mental health. He claimed he gained 25 pounds from the experiment and developed depression and liver dysfunction, per Variety. The documentary earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature and won Spurlock the best director title at Sundance Film Festival.

It also spawned a sequel, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, in which the documentary filmmaker got an inside look at the fast food industry by opening up his own restaurant.

His other credits include The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Mansome, Freakonomics and One Direction: This Is Us.

In 2017, however, the filmmaker’s career came to a screeching halt after he confessed to sexually harassing woman and being unfaithful to multiple partners in an unprompted post on social media.

Spurlock wrote that he had a “one night stand” with a girl that ended with her in tears. “I tried to comfort her. To make her feel better. I thought I was doing ok, I believed she was feeling better. She believed she was raped,” he wrote. He also acknowledged that he paid a settlement to a female assistant he sexually harassed.

The confession prompted him to step down from his production company the very next day. YouTube also announced that it would not premiere his Super Size Me sequel, and it was pulled from the Sundance Film Festival.

Spurlock was married to Sara Bernstein from 2016, but the pair divorced earlier this year.

He is survived by his parents Ben and Phyllis Spurlock, and his two sons, Laken and Jamieson, per Page Six.