Morgan Spurlock, the director and star of McDonald’s documentary Super Size Me, has died aged 53.
The filmmaker’s family announced the news, revealing he died “peacefully” on Thursday (23 May) “surrounded by family and friends in New York from complications of cancer”.
Spurlock’s brother Craig said: “It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan. Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
As well as Super Size Me, Spurlock directed Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008) and One Direction documentary This Is Us (2013). But it was Super Size Me, an investigative documentary designed to explore the spread of obesity in America as well as the effects of fast food on society, that made Spurlock a household name.
For the Oscar-nominated film, which was released in 2004, Spurlock claimed to eat McDonald’s three times a day for one month, and charted the drastic physical and psychological issues this caused his health.
During the 30-day period, Spurlock ate 90 meals at McDonald’s, which he said was the amount an ordinary person might eat in eight years. At the time of its release, Super Size Me caused worldwide debate, with many questioning the truthfulness of Spurlock’s claims made in the film.
Inspired by the documentary, Spurlock created 30 Days, an FX reality series that saw participants immerse themselves in a particular lifestyle, vastly different from their own, for one month.
Spurlock released a Super Size Me sequel in 2017, titled Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, which looked at the ways the fast food industry had rebranded itself as healthier since his original film.
The documentarian had one son with his third wife Sara Bernstein, whom he married in 2016, and the filmmaker, who started his career as a playwright, has another son from a previous marriage.
In 2017, the filmmaker stepped down from his production company Warrior Poets after admitting to a history of sexual misconduct.
