Morgan Spurlock Dies: Oscar-Nominated ‘Super Size Me’ Director Was 53

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, director of the groundbreaking documentary Super Size Me, has died after a private battle with cancer. He was 53.

Spurlock “passed away peacefully in New York surrounded by family and friends” on Thursday, according to a family statement that noted the cause was complications of cancer. Deadline understands he had been undergoing chemotherapy treatment earlier this year.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” said Craig Spurlock, one of the filmmaker’s older brothers. They collaborated on several documentary projects, including Morgan Spurlock Inside Man and 7 Deadly Sins. “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.”
For his breakthrough film, Super Size Me, which premiered 20 years ago at the Sundance Film Festival, Spurlock voluntarily ate nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days in an experiment meant to assess the health impact of a fast-food diet. He put himself on camera, Michael Moore-style, chronicling how his weight ballooned and he suffered near catastrophic damage to his liver by subsisting on Quarter Pounder combo meals, French fries, flapjacks, breakfast sausages and the like, while slurping soft drinks.
The film earned more than $20 million worldwide, a huge sum for a documentary, and set Spurlock on a path to becoming one of the most successful figures in nonfiction film. But his career derailed during the MeToo movement in 2017 when Spurlock wrote a blog post confessing to a history of sexual misconduct. He resigned from Warrior Poets, the production company he had founded in 2004.