Sad News

BERNIE MAC PASSES AWAY

FITSNews – August 9, 2008 – It’s always particularly tragic to us when funny people die. Especially people who were as funny as Bernie Mac, one of the original “Kings of Comedy,” and a guy who spent three decades of his life making people laugh.

From Entertainment Weekly:

Comedian-actor Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist has confirmed. Mac had been admitted to Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial hospital on Aug. 1, but had been expected to recover. The 50-year-old actor had battled sarcoidosis, a chronic disorder that can cause inflammation in the lungs. He spoke about his battle with the disease in 2005, after production was halted on his sitcom, The Bernie Mac Show, delaying its season premiere by more than two months.

Mac is best remembered for five seasons of that series, for which he earned two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations. It debuted in 2001, a year after the Spike Lee-directed concert film The Original Kings of Comedy introduced a wider audience to the stand-up routines of tour mates Mac, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, and Cedric the Entertainer. Mac had been a working comedian for 31 years.

Just as it was a few weeks ago when George Carlin died, it seems harder to laugh today. Oh well, while you enjoy Mac’s famous cataracts entreaty and “The Lord Is My Shepherd, He Know What I Want” line from Friday, we hope you’ll join us in keeping Mac’s friends and family in your thoughts and prayers today.