‘Super Size Me’ director Morgan Spurlock dead at 53 after cancer battle
Famed filmmaker Morgan Spurlock died Thursday evening from cancer-related complications, his family announced. He was 53.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who worked with his sibling on several projects, said in a statement to Variety Friday.
“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 fame exploded in 2004 when he directed and starred in the hit documentary “Super Size Me,” which followed him for 30 days as he claimed to consume a diet consisting only of McDonald’s food. Over the course of the month, his physical and mental health deteriorated.
The film, which received an Oscar nomination, spurred widespread debate about eating habits; however, the accuracy of Spurlock’s project has been questioned in years since, as he later admitted to drinking heavily throughout filming.
The award winner’s reputation fell apart in December 2017 when he confessed on X (formerly Twitter) to sexually harassing women and being unfaithful to “every wife and girlfriend I have ever had.”
Spurlock admitted to paying a settlement to a female assistant whom he would regularly refer to as “hot pants” or “sex pants,” a situation he described as “funny at the time, but then realized I had completely demeaned and belittled her to a place of non-existence.”
Spurlock first described a situation in college when a “one-night stand” ended with the girl he was with in tears while the two were having sex.
The day after his confessional, the storyteller stepped down from his production company.
He also directed 2008’s “Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?,” 2011’s “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” and 2013’s “One Direction: This Is Us,” in addition to starring in and executive producing the FX reality show “30 Days” from 2005 to 2008.
Spurlock was first married to Priscilla Sommer from 1996 to 2003. He then wed Alex Jamieson in 2006, but they divorced in 2011. He was married to his third wife, Sara Bernstein, from 2016 until their divorce earlier this year.
He is survived by his parents, Ben and Phyllis Spurlock, and his two sons, Laken, 17, whom he shared with Jamieson, and Kallen, 8, whom he had with Bernstein.
