Bernie Mac Dies at 50
Complications due to pneumonia claim actor, comedian.
By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/9/2008 5:26:00 PM
Actor and comedian Bernie Mac died Saturday morning at age 50 in a Chicago-area hospital from complications due to pneumonia, AP reported.
Mac won a Peabody Award for his starring role in Fox sitcom The Bernie Mac Show and starred in the Ocean's Eleven feature-film franchise alongside Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
He was also nominated for a Grammy Award for best comedy album in 2001 with his co-stars in The Original Kings of Comedy (Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer).
"Bernie Mac was a gifted talent whose comedy came from an authentic and highly personal place," Fox said in a statement. "He was a tremendous live performer and a wonderful actor. Fox was proud to be the home of The Bernie Mac Show and all of us at Fox and 20th Century Fox Television extend our deepest sympathies to wife Rhonda and daughter JeNiece.
"The majority of his core fan base will remember that when they paid their money to see Bernie Mac ... he gave them their money's worth," Harvey told CNN Saturday.
