Bernie Mac blended expressive style, authority and a touch of self-conscious bluster to make audiences laugh and connect with him. For Mr. Mac, 50, wHO died Saturday, it was a taking mix that delivered him from a poor puerility to stardom as a stand-up comic, in films including the casino rip-off caper "Ocean's Eleven" and his acclaimed sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."
Though his comedy drew on tough experiences as a mordant man, he had mainstream appeal, befitting inspiration he found in a blanket range of humorists: Harpo Marx, Moms Mabley, Red Skelton and Redd Foxx.
Mr. Mac died from complications of pneumonia in a Chicago-area hospital, said his publicist, Danica Smith. A public monument is planned for noontide Aug. 16 at The House of Hope church in Chicago, Smith said.
"The world precisely got a little less funny," said "Ocean's" co-star George Clooney.
Don Cheadle, another member of the "Ocean's" gang, concurred: "This is a very sad sidereal day for many of us who knew and loved Bernie. He brought so much joy to so many. He will be missed, simply heaven precisely got funnier."
Mr. Mac � born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough � in 1983 contracted sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease that bathroom affect the lungs, merely had aforementioned the status went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publiciser said was not related to the disease.
Mr. Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished bringing up on Chicago's South Side. He began doing hold water as a child, and his cinema career started with a small role as a club doorkeeper in the Damon Wayans comedy "Mo' Money" in 1992. In 1996, he appeared in the Spike Lee dramatic event "Get on the Bus."
He was one of "The Original Kings of Comedy" in the 2000 documentary of that title that brought a new multiplication of black stand-up comedy stars to a wider audience.
Mr. Mac went on to maven in the popular "Ocean's Eleven" franchise with Brad Pitt and Clooney; he played a gaming-table monger who was in on the heist. In other films such as "Bad Santa" and "Mr. 3000," he oftentimes played evil-tongued but lovable rogues.
Mr. Mac and Ashton Kutcher topped the box office in 2005's "Guess Who," a comedy remake of the classic Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn drama "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
He also had starring roles in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," "Friday" and "Transformers."
But his life history and funny identity were forged in television.
In the late 1990s, he had a recurring role in "Moesha." Critical and pop acclaim came after he landed his own Fox series "The Bernie Mac Show," around a child-averse couple of a sudden saddled with three children.
Mr. Mac made a different kind of TV pappa, "more Ike Turner than Dr. Spock," Chris Norris wrote in a 2002 profile for The New York Times Magazine. Mr. Mac's particular style of tough love � "I'm gonna bust your head till the white meat shows," he warned his surly teenaged niece � set the show asunder from other family sitcoms and raised a few eyebrows. But audiences saw enough of the character's soft midpoint to find the evince touching.
Mr. Mac incorporated aspects of his stand-up do in the TV show, and during each episode would break the "fourth wall" and address the audience. On one usher, he swiveled in his chair and said, "Now America, tell me over again, why can't I whip that girl?"
"The Bernie Mac Show" exhibit ran for five seasons, and Mac received deuce Emmy nominations for salient lead worker in a comedy series in 2002 and 2003. The series won a Peabody Award in 2002. In real life, he was "the king of his household," very much like his character on that serial, his girl, Je'Niece Childress, said Saturday.
He also was nominated for a Grammy award for best comedy album in 2001 along with his "The Original Kings of Comedy" co-stars Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer.
In his 2004 memoir, "Maybe You Never Cry Again," Mr. Mac wrote about having a poor childhood � eating bologna for dinner � and a strict, no-nonsense upbringing.
"I came from a place where there wasn't a draw of joy," he aforesaid in 2001. "I distinct to try to name other masses laugh when there wasn't a circle of things to laugh about."
In July, Mr. Mac, a impassioned supporter of Barack Obama, dismayed the candidate during a get up routine at a fundraising dinner in Chicago. He told salacious jokes and drew a reprimand from Obama, wHO warned him, "Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time."
In addition to his girl, he is survived by his married woman, granddaughter and son-in-law.
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