NEW YORK (AP) — Morgan Spurlock, the Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker who made a lifelong career out of food and the American diet and famously ate only McDonald’s for a month to highlight the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died at the age of 53.
Spurlock died Thursday in New York from complications from cancer, according to a statement released by his family on Friday.
“It was a sad day as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who worked with Morgan on several projects, said in a statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, his ideas and his generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special person. I am so proud to have worked with him.”
FILE/PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 16: Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock poses for a portrait at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on January 16, 2004. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
Spurlock first came to prominence in 2004 with his groundbreaking “Super Size Me.” Returned in 2019 “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” is a sobering portrayal of an industry that slaughters 9 billion animals a year in the United States.
Spurlock was an eccentric filmmaker with a penchant for the quirky and the ludicrous, and his style involved vibrant graphics and rollicking music that combined a Michael Moore-esque, camera-to-camera style with his own sense of humor and pathos.
FILE / “Super Size Me” director Morgan Spurlock, May 26, 2004 (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
Since his expose on the fast food and poultry industries, there has been a surge in restaurants emphasizing fresh, artisanal, farm-to-table and ethically sourced ingredients, but not much has changed on the nutrition front.
“There’s been a big change, and people ask me, ‘So has the food become healthier?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, the marketing has definitely become healthier,'” he told The Associated Press in 2019.
