Source: blogywoodbabes.blogspot.com
Bernie Mac wanted to be like
Bill Cosby: He wanted to make his mother laugh.
The actor-comedian, who told jokes on train platforms and plugged away for decades before coming into the spotlight on his own Fox sitcom, the Ocean's movies and more, died today—one week after it was learned he'd been hospitalized with pneumonia. He was 50.
1957-2008
Comedian and actor Bernie Mac, who starred in his TV comedy "The Bernie Mac Show" sitcom and appeared in the "Ocean's 11" movies, died in Chicago on Saturday after a bout with pneumonia.
Reactions poured in from Hollywood, which was taken by surprise because two days ago, Smith said he was "responding well to treatment" and remained in "stable condition."
"The world just got a little less funny. He will be dearly missed," said George Clooney, who starred with Mac in the "Ocean's" trilogy of hit box office films.
A spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office confirmed to E! News that Mac had been a patient at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital for "over a week," and that he died this morning of "natural causes."
Yesterday, Mac's publicist, Danica Smith, responding to rumors that the star had fallen critically ill, said Mac was in stable condition, and was "responding well to treatment."
Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that can affect any body organ, per the Mayo Clinic's website, but that Mac revealed in 2005 had taken root in his lungs. According to Smith, the pneumonia that struck down the star was unrelated to the disease, which had reportedly been in remission.
Prior to falling ill, Mac had been typically booked—shooting a new proposed Fox comedy series, Starting Under, finishing off a new big-screen comedy with Samuel L. Jackson, Soul Men, due out in November, and even offering himself as vice-presidential material to Barack Obama.
Mac made the overture to Obama at a fund-raiser last month for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Mac admitted to the audience that he wasn't likely to get the VP job because, as he put it, "I cuss."
While Mac did cuss, his comedy was, as is befitting a man married for more than 30 years, rooted in family.
From 2001 to 2006, Mac played the exasperated but thoroughly no-nonsense father figure on The Bernie Mac Show. Mac earned two Emmy acting nominations for playing a version of himself, or, maybe more accurately, of his stand-up act. The misadventures of a comedian charged with taking care of his sister's young children was not unfamiliar to fans of the concert film The Original Kings of Comedy, which saw Mac riff on the same topic.
In the movies, Mac wasn't quite as domestic, but, with the right material, he could be just as funny.
Mac was one of George Clooney's invaluable heist men in 2001's Ocean's Eleven, and its two follow-ups, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. He was the den mother to Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu in the 2003 Charlie's Angels sequel, Full Throttle, taking over Bosley duties from Bill Murray. And he was on Billy Bob Thornton's case in Bad Santa.
In 2004, he was the main man, at last, in the baseball comedy Mr. 3000.
A Chicago native born in 1957 as Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, a surname that naturally lent itself to the nickname "Mac," the future star was a school-age kid when he saw his crying mother give in to laughter while watching Bill Cosby on The Ed Sullivan Show.
"That's what I want to be, Mama. A comedian," Mac wrote in his 2003 autobiography, Maybe You Never Cry Again. "Make you laugh like that, maybe you never cry again."
Mac's mother never lived to see her son make good on his promise, at least professionally—she died of cancer while he was in high school. Mac's career in comedy started not long after. In 1977, while giving community college a go, the 19-year-old Mac started telling jokes on Chicago's "L" train platforms. Sometimes, a fellow commuter would slip him a bill. He was on his way.
Starting with 1992's Mo' Money, Mac began getting bit parts in movies. A 1995 HBO special, Midnight Mac, validated his comedy credentials, while a supporting role in 1999's Life, the prison comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, raised his profile.
Mac's game-changing break came in 2000, with the release of the Spike Lee-directed The Original Kings of Comedy. The film documented a show featuring Mac, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer, veteran comics who had long toured as the "Kings of Comedy." The movie enjoyed an unexpectedly strong opening weekend, and went onto become the second-biggest-grossing stand-up comedy film, after Eddie Murphy Raw.
Suddenly Mac, the only one of the four comics then without a prime-time vehicle, was a star.
"All of that was humble beginnings," Mac said in the Chicago Tribune in 2002. "And I say that with motivation because I remember them without any shame, without any sorrow, without any pity. That's what made me."
Once it kicked into high gear, Mac's career never slowed. While his new Fox series wasn't picked up for the fall, Mac had lots more going on, including voice-over work as Ben Stiller's lion father in Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa, due out in November.
"I always want to top myself. I want to get good," Mac told Time magazine in 2003. "You just don't know how much I want to get good. I want the audience to leave the theater and say, 'He did good.'"
Biography---------------------------------------------
Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957 – August 9, 2008), better known by the stage name Bernie Mac, was an American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy.
After briefly hosting the HBO show Midnight Mac, Mac appeared in several movies in smaller roles. His most notable movie role was as Frank Catton in the remake of Ocean's Eleven and its two sequels. Mac also starred in several movies, including Mr. 3000. He was the star of The Bernie Mac Show , which ran from 2001-2006, and earned two Emmy Award nominations.
Mac was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised by a single mother, Mary, who died of cancer when he was sixteen. Mac attended Chicago Vocational Career Academy, and started his career during high school, when he would put on shows for neighborhood kids in Chicago's South Side until moving to Tampa, Florida. During his 20s he worked in a variety of jobs, including furniture mover, UPS agent, and bread delivery sales rep.
Career
Mac started as a stand-up comedian in Chicago's Cotton Pickin' Club. He won the Miller Lite Comedy Search at the age of 32, at which point his popularity as a comedian began to grow. A performance on HBO's Def Comedy Jam thrust him into the spotlight. He opened for Dionne Warwick, Redd Foxx and Natalie Cole. He also had a short-lived talk show on HBO titled Midnight Mac. Later, Mac also began acting in minor roles, and received his big break as Pastor Clever in Ice Cube's 1995 film Friday. Following that role, Mac also worked in many other movies and had some television appearances in titles including Booty Call, How to Be a Player, Life and What's the Worst That Could Happen?. Mac was one of the few African American comedic actors to be able to break out of the traditional "black comedy" genre, having roles in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven and becoming the new Bosley for the Charlie's Angels sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. In 2003, he also turned in an impressive performance in a small but important role as Gin "The Store Dick" in Bad Santa. He also starred in Guess Who?, a comedic remake of the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. He also made an appearance in the 2007 movie Transformers as the car salesman Bobby Bolivia.
In 2000, Mac returned to his stand-up comedy roots, touring the country as one of The Original Kings of Comedy, along with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley. The comedy act was filmed by Spike Lee and was included later in the movie The Original Kings of Comedy.
In 2001, Fox gave Mac his own sitcom called The Bernie Mac Show, somewhat based on his own life. In the show, he suddenly becomes custodian over his sister's three children after she enters rehab. It was a success, in part because it allows Mac to stay true to his stand-up comedy roots, breaking the fourth wall to communicate his thoughts to the audience. The show contained many parodies of events in Bernie's actual life. However, the show was not renewed after the 2006 season. Viewers were left without a conclusion for the series, and no ending to the storyline where Bernie and Wanda were trying to have a baby. His character on The Bernie Mac Show was ranked #47 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [June 20, 2004 issue].
In 2004, Mac had his first starring role as a retired baseball player in the movie Mr. 3000. In the 2003 National League Championship Series, Mac sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Wrigley Field with the Chicago Cubs leading the Florida Marlins in the series 3-2 and in Game 6 by a 3-0 score. Instead of saying "root, root, root for the Cubbies" Mac said, "root, root, root for the champions!" The Cubs went on to lose the game and the series, with some fans claiming that Mac helped to jinx the Cubs. Mac later admitted that he had hated the North Side's Cubs his whole life, being a die-hard fan of the South Side's White Sox, and was seen during the White Sox' 2005 World Series victory at U.S. Cellular Field.
Mac was number 72 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. On March 19, 2007, Mac told David Letterman on the CBS Late Show that he would retire from his 30-year career after he finished shooting the comedy film The Whole Truth, Nothing but the Truth, So Help Me Mac. "I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know".
Filmography
- 1993 - Who's the Man?
- 1994 - Above the Rim
- 1994 - House Party 3
- 1995 - Friday
- 1996 - Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
- 1996 - Get on the Bus
- 1997 - B*A*P*S
- 1997 - Booty Call
- 1997 - How to Be a Player
- 1998 - The Players Club
- 1999 - Life
- 2001 - Head of State
- 2001 - Ocean's Eleven
- 2001 - What's the Worst That Could Happen?
- 2003 - Bad Santa
- 2003 - Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
- 2004 - Mr. 3000
- 2004 - Ocean's Twelve
- 2005 - Guess Who
- 2007 - Ocean's Thirteen
- 2007 - Pride
- 2007 - Transformers
- 2008 - Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - Zuba (voice)
- 2008 - Soul Men
- 2009 - Old Dogs
Personal life
Mac married Rhonda McCullough in 1977. They had one daughter, Je'Niece (born 1978), who attended Xavier University of Louisiana, where she received both her bachelor's degree in Psychology and master's degree in Mental Health Counseling. She has been married for three years and has one daughter, Jasmine.
Illness and death
Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005.
On August 1, 2008, Mac was hospitalized with - according to his publicist - pneumonia. The next day, responding to rumors that the actor was in "very, very critical condition", his publicist said that he was responding well to treatment, and should be released soon. On August 9, Bernie Mac died from - according to his publicist - complications of pneumonia.
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