Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has passed away. He was renowned for his groundbreaking 2004 documentary, where he consumed only McDonald’s fast food for a month to examine the fast food industry. The film achieved immense success, grossing over $20 million globally.
Spurlock passed away on Thursday, May 23, in New York due to complications from cancer, according to a statement from David Magdael, a publicist. He was 53 years old.
Spurlock’s brother, Craig, expressed his sentiments in the statement, saying, “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.”
Spurlock would produce and direct nearly 70 film and TV shows, all of them documentaries. They included null, about the U.S. war in Afghanistan and null, a meta movie about marketing a movie.
In 2017, amidst the #MeToo movement, Spurlock made a startling revelation in which he described himself as "part of the problem."
He recounted a sexual encounter in college that his female partner perceived as nonconsensual, a situation he admitted left him bewildered. Spurlock also addressed a sexual harassment claim within his office, which he stated occurred around 2011. "It wasn’t physical harassment," he wrote, "but rather verbal, which was equally reprehensible. I would address my female assistant as ‘hot pants’ or ‘sex pants’ when calling out to her from across the office. Initially meant as a joke, I later realized it was demeaning and belittling, reducing her to a mere object."
Following the revelation, Spurlock stepped down from his production company, and both YouTube and Sundance opted not to screen his documentary, "Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken," which delved into the corporate dominance over family farms. Despite eventual release, as confirmed by Business Insider in 2019, his IMDb page does not list any projects he produced post-2017.
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