R.I.P. Morgan Spurlock, Super Size Me documentarian
Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me and One Direction: This Is Us, died of cancer at age 53
Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian most notable for the Oscar-nominated fast food documentary Super Size Me, has died, according to Deadline. The filmmaker “passed away peacefully in New York surrounded by family and friends” on Thursday due to complications of cancer, which he had been treating privately. He was 53 years old.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” the director’s brother and collaborator Craig Spurlock said in a statement. “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 was known for gimmick-heavy unscripted film and television, in which he often featured heavily as the host or the subject. He captured the zeitgeist with his first feature-length documentary, 2004’s Super Size Me, in which he ate only McDonald’s food for a month and chronicled his resulting mental and physical health issues. The film was a response to the so-called obesity epidemic in the United States and the overwhelming popularity of fast food, and it became a sensation. Super Size Me was frequently used in health education programs and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. However, in the years after its release, critics have questioned the methodology of Spurlock’s experiment, many noting that Spurlock never published a food log to show what his actual intake during that period was. Additionally, Spurlock later revealed ongoing issues with alcohol abuse which could have impacted health problems that were attributed to his fast food diet.
Nevertheless, he went on to have a prolific career as a director and producer of documentary films and television, including Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, CNN’s Morgan Spurlock Inside Man, and Showtime’s 7 Deadly Sins. In a break from his typical style (which frequently put himself in front of the camera), he directed the 2013 film One Direction: This Is Us, which became one of the highest-grossing concert films of all time.