Yahoo News Hollywood Heavyweights Mourn Late 'Super Size Me' Director Morgan Spurlock
Hollywood is paying tribute to Morgan Spurlock, the “Super Size Me” director who died Thursday at age 53 from complications of cancer.
“Devastated to hear of the passing of my friend and colleague, Morgan Spurlock,” Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, who made “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “Taxi to the Dark Side,” wrote Friday on X, formerly Twitter. “Requiescat in pace.”
“V v v sad to learn of the passing of Morgan Spurlock,” wrote Al Jean, a longtime writer and executive producer on “The Simpsons.”
“A very talented, funny and brilliant man and a true friend to @TheSimpsons,” he added. “A great loss.”
“Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” documentarian Brett Morgen shared similar sentiments.
“Morgan Spurlock achieved what most artists only dream: he actually changed the world with his art,” Morgen wrote. “He was an amazing father, brother, friend and one of the most important and influential filmmakers of my time. My heart breaks for his family and friends.”
Spurlock helped change the fast-food industry when 2004′s Oscar-nominated “Super Size Me” documentary, which chronicled the effects of eating only McDonald’s for 30 days, pushed restaurants to adjust their menus.
“Saddened to hear about the passing of director and friend Morgan Spurlock,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote on Instagram. “At just 53, he had so much more to do. He was a real force in the documentary world bringing broader audiences and raising the profile of independent documentary film.”
After “Super Size Me,” Spurlock tackled politics with “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” and the impact of product placement with “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.” He later returned to the topic that made him a star with “Super Size Me 2” in 2017.
Amid the #MeToo movement that year, Spurlock opened up about past instances in which he was accused of sexual misconduct. He said that he was surprised in college to learn that a sexual partner had accused him of rape, and that he once “settled a sexual harassment allegation” in a separate incident.
“I am part of the problem. We all are,” he wrote at the time. “But I am also part of the solution. By recognizing and openly admitting what I’ve done to further this terrible situation, I hope to empower the change within myself.”
In 2019, he reflected on these admissions, saying: “For me, there was a moment of kind of realization — as somebody who is a truth-teller and somebody who has made it a point of trying to do what’s right — of recognizing that I could do better in my own life.”
In the months before his death, the father of two reportedly finalized a divorce with producer Sara Bernstein.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
