Actor Michael Clark Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, as reported by the New York Daily News.
Duncan first came to prominence in the role of John Coffey in The Green Mile, a film adaptation of the Stephen King serialized novel of the same name. He earned an Oscar nomination for the role, a shock to many considering his relative inexperience in the field.
Since that time, he has starred in several films including Armageddon, Talladega Nights, Planet of the Apes and Kung Fu Panda.
Duncan has long been know to the MMA community as a passionate fan of the sport and was a fixture at UFC events going back as early as UFC 44, when he predicted Tito Ortiz would defeat Randy Couture.
Duncan’s massive physique, baritone voice and easy smile made him an approachable figure who was always accessible to the fans.
Born in Chicago in 1957 and raised by a single mother, Duncan saw his life take many turns before he began acting in this thirties. He was a bodyguard for Will Smith and Jamie Foxx among others, and the murder of one of his clients—the Notorious B.I.G.—led Duncan to quit the profession and go into acting full time.
The condolences of everyone at Bleacher Report go out to his family in this time of need.
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