BERNIE MAC DIES

Posted by Jenniffer Sheldon on Thursday, May 16, 2024

Bernie Mac, the gravelly voiced Original King of Comedy whose brutally honest and straight-to-the-point humor earned him a successful TV and film career, died today morning in Chicago. He was 50 years old.

Mac died from complications of pneumonia after being hospitalized for more than a week, his spokeswoman said. The comedian suffered from an inflammatory lung disease known as sarcoidosis, but the spokeswoman said the pneumonia was not related to that.

Born into poverty on Chicago’s South Side, Mac prided himself on being able to bring a little joy into people’s lives, even when there was little to laugh about.

“I came from a place where there wasn’t a lot of joy,” he said in 2001. “I decided to try to make other people laugh when there wasn’t a lot of things to laugh about.”

The longtime standup comic broke through as one of “The Original Kings of Comedy,” a Spike Lee film from 2000 that introduced four rising black comics.

He and fellow comics Steve Harvey, DL Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer were all nominated for Grammy Awards for best comedy album for the recording of the film.

“The majority of his core fan base will remember that when they paid their money to see Bernie Mac . . . he gave them their money’s worth,” Harvey told CNN.

The movie’s success landed him “The Bernie Mac Show,” on Fox, where he played a man who takes in his drug-addicted sister’s three kids.

The show ran for five seasons through 2006, winning Mac a Peabody award as well as several Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.

He parlayed that into a major film career. In addition to appearing in the “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise, he also had roles in “Bad Santa,” “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” and “Transformers.”

Born Bernard McCullough, Mac told David Letterman last year that he intended to retire soon.

“I want to enjoy my life a little bit,” he said.

He is survived by Rhonda McCullough, his wife of 30 years, his daughter Je’Niece, a stepson and a granddaughter.

lukas.alpert@nypost.com

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