Born in Chicago in 1957, Duncan Clarke was raised by a single mother
whose resistance to his playing football led to his deciding he wanted to
become an actor. But when his mother became ill, he dropped out of college,
Alcorn State University, and worked as a ditch digger and bouncer to support
her. By his mid-20s, he was in Los Angeles, where he looked for acting parts
and became a bodyguard for Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and other stars. The murder
of rapper Notorious B.I.G., for whom Duncan had been hired to protect before
switching assignments, led him to quit his job and pursue acting full-time.
The muscular, 6-foot-4 Duncan,
a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s, “suffered a myocardial
infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered,” the statement said.
“Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this
time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a
later date.”
In the spring of 2012, Clarke
had appeared in a video for PETA, the animal rights organization, in which he
spoke of how much better he felt since becoming a vegetarian three years
earlier.
“I cleared out my refrigerator,
about $5,000 worth of meat,” he said. “I'm a lot healthier than I was when I
was eating meat.”
UPDATED 5/09/2012:
Michael Clarke Duncan's cause of death has been released.
The actor's recent heart attack caused many to believe it was the main factor leading to the actor's death, and today the coroner confirmed that Duncan died of natural causes.
Assistant Coroner Chief Ed Winter said Duncan's personal physician signed off on the star's death as natural and added that the coroner's office found no reason to contradict that finding.
Duncan "never fully recovered" from his July 13 heart attack, his fiancée, reality-TV personality Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth's rep told E! News. "Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time."
The 6-foot-5-inch, 300-pound star earned himself an Oscar nomination for The Green Mile,and continued to grow his career with films like Daredevil, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes remake and Armageddon.
