Morgan Spurlock, documentarian known for ‘Super Size Me,’ dies at 53
Morgan Spurlock, a documentary filmmaker who gained fame with his Oscar-nominated 2004 film “Super Size Me,” which followed him as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days — but later stepped back from the public eye after admitting to sexual misconduct — died Thursday in New York City. He was 53.
His brother Craig Spurlock said the cause was complications of cancer.
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Spurlock was a playwright and television producer when he rocketed to global attention with “Super Size Me,” which borrowed heavily from the confrontational style of Michael Moore and the up-close-and-personal influences of reality TV.
The film’s approach was straightforward: Spurlock would eat nothing but McDonald’s food for a month, and if a server at the restaurant offered to “supersize” the meal, he would accept.
The movie then follows Spurlock, splicing in interviews with health experts and visits to his increasingly disturbed physician. At the end of the month, he was 25 pounds heavier, depressed, puffy-faced and experiencing liver dysfunction.
The film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, grossed over $22 million, made Spurlock a household name, earned him an Academy Award nomination for best documentary and helped spur a sweeping backlash against the fast-food industry — although only temporarily.
But the film also came in for subsequent criticism. Some people pointed out that Spurlock refused to release the daily logs tracking his food intake. Health researchers were unable to replicate his results in controlled studies.
And in 2017, he admitted that he had not been sober for more than a week at a time in 30 years — meaning that, in addition to his “McDonald’s only” diet, he was drinking, a fact that he concealed from his doctors and the audience, and that most likely skewed his results.
The admission came in a statement in which he also revealed multiple incidents of sexual misconduct.
The statement, which Spurlock posted on Twitter in 2017, came as he was gearing up for the release of a sequel to the film, “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” on YouTube Red.
He stepped down from his production company, and YouTube dropped the film; it was instead released in 2019 by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Morgan Valentine Spurlock was born Nov. 7, 1970, in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and grew up in Beckley, West Virginia.
