Actor/Comedian/Family Man "Bernie Mac" dead at 50

Bernie Mac with wife Rhonda

Steve Harvey on Bernie Mac
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2008/08/09/steve.harvey.on.bernie.mac.cnn

Bio of Bernard Jeffrey McCullough - "Bernie Mac" (October 5th. 1957 - August 9th, 2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Mac

Chicago Tribune article By Kelley L. Carter and Glenn Jeffers below:

Just four weeks ago, soulful crooner Gladys Knight paid tribute to an old friend and a famed Chicago native son.Standing center stage at the Country Club Hills Theatre, the singer asked her audience to give a round of applause to one of her friends and favorite comedians, Bernie Mac. The crowd clapped fiercely, their enthusiasm suggesting that they too considered Mac to be one of the reigning kings of comedy. Mac, in turn, stood up from his front-row seat, turned around to address the crowd, took his hat off and waved.It was one of the last public commendations Mac would hear.

Mac died early Saturday morning of complications due to pneumonia, his publicist said. Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to his spokeswoman. A few years ago, Mac disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs.

"I think what Bernie Mac did that few, if any, have been able to do was become a success here in Chicago," said Bert Haas, executive vice president of Zanies Chicago, the city's longest-running comedy club. "Most of our homegrown talent has to go to L.A. or New York to become famous. But Bernie? . . . He was selling out the Chicago Theater before he went out to New York. [That's] next to impossible."The comic born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough cut an imposing figure. He stood a sturdy 6-foot-3 and carried himself with a bouncer's reticence. But perhaps the strongest weapon was that voice, that amalgam of thought and that delivery that could rise like a tidal wave, outpace a Gatling gun and one that remained, to his last days, loud and unapologetic.He wasn't scared, he told us time and again, to tell anyone what he thought, to say what others were afraid to say. That fearlessness wasn't always welcome, considering Mac didn't get his big break until his 30s. But when he did, the comic skyrocketed to success in stand-up, television and film.

"What's interesting about Bernie's career is that he wasn't a mainstream comic at first. His act was very edgy and very raw," said Gary Hardwick, a screenwriter and director based in Los Angeles. "Bernie would talk about things that other black comics wouldn't talk about, like skin color, and how being a very dark-skinned black man like him made his life very different from other people's."But Mac's humor appealed to white audiences too, Hardwick said."He didn't so much cross over as people crossed over to him," he said.Mac shared screen time with some of Hollywood's larger-than-life leading men, co-starring with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon in the "Ocean's Eleven" remake and sequels.

Most recently, Mac had garnered attention for using salty language and making unsavory comments at a benefit for Sen. Barack Obama from which the presumptive Democratic candidate had to distance himself.Growing up on the South Side a hard-core White Sox fan, Mac discovered early on that he wanted to make a go at being a comedian. Before his 10th birthday, he was performing comedy stand-up, honing his skills on CTA trains and in parks before graduating to well-known haunts such as the Regal Theater and the Cotton Club. He came to a realization during those first years as a struggling comic: If he could kill in front of a black crowd, he could kill in any crowd."Black audiences are hard," he told the New York Times in 2002. "You got to come with a little extra to satisfy them."Mac struggled early in his career, driving a Wonder Bread delivery truck to pay the bills. But life changed dramatically when he was 32.

He won the Miller Lite comedy search that year and got regular gigs on popular shows such as HBO's "Def Comedy Jam."While Mac's comedy hit home with African-Americans, he always strived to reach all audiences."When I started in comedy in the clubs in 1977, blacks couldn't do certain clubs—not because they were segregated. They just didn't want to put the [black comics] out there," Mac told the Tribune in 2007. He said when clubs in Los Angeles asked him to perform at "black-only" comedy nights, he told them, "I'm a comedian—don't put a title on me.""If you let people put tags on you, you'll never be able to remove them," he said. "You've got to make people respect you. Respect is bigger than dollars and cents."Mac got his respect and national attention after his set on "Def Comedy Jam" in 1992. Mac expounded on one taboo subject after another, from the benefits of snitching to his prowess in the bedroom.

"I ain't scared of you, [expletive]!" became a signature tag line."People tried to imitate his style, his gestures or how he bugged his eyes out when he [got] to the punch line. That's a Bernie Mac trait," said local comic Bryant Lee Turner (known as BLT). "Someone just can't have that; he took it as he ran with it."Soon he earned a bit part in 1992's "Mo' Money," and later an HBO Special, "Midnight Mac."In 1995, Mac played Pastor Clever in the cult classic "Friday," and, despite the small role, was one of the film's highlights. Then in 2001, he got his big chance. "The Bernie Mac Show" made its debut on Fox , drawing critical acclaim and numerous awards, including two Emmy nominations for Mac. Its premiere episode drew 11.4 million viewers; the second 12.4 million.

For the next four years, Mac spoke to the American public with all the befuddlement of a 40-something taskmaster father lost in a sea of talk therapy and time outs."Now, America," Mac would often begin before going into a rant about undisciplined children, coddling parents or—one of his favorite topics—the differences between black people and white people.But in 2006, the show went off the air. Its ratings had dropped, and Mac was getting more lucrative offers from the movie studios.Mac's health was also a factor. In 2004, he halted production on the show while recovering from exhaustion. A year later, he disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis.In spite of that, his star had risen.

In addition to the highly popular "Oceans" films, he co-starred with Ashton Kutcher in the 2005 comedy "Guess Who," a twist on the 1967 classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.".Last spring, Mac said that he was ending his stand-up career to focus more on movies. In 2007, he co-starred in "Ocean's Thirteen," "Pride" and had a role in the blockbuster "Transformers." Scheduled for release later this year is "Soul Men," with Samuel L. Jackson, and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa." "Old Dogs," with Robin Williams, is due next year. "What he achieved, even at a later age, has been inspiring," said Hannibal Buress, 25, a Chicago comic.Mac, who lived in southwest suburban Frankfort, is survived by his wife, Rhonda McCullough; their daughter, Je'Niece; and a granddaughter, Jasmine.

Chicago Tribune journalists:

Kelley L. Carter: Jasmine.klcarter@tribune.com

Glen Jerrers: gjeffers@tribune.com