Morgan Spurlock, the director of Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me and concert film One Direction: This Is Us, has died due to complications of cancer, Variety reports. He was 53 years old.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” his brother Craig Spurlock said in a statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
Spurlock’s directorial debut Super Size Me, where he documented the changes to his physical and mental well-being after eating only McDonald’s food for 30 days straight (it later came out that he was drinking heavily at the time), was a surprise hit. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the Oscars and spawned a sequel, 2017’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!.
Spurlock’s other documentaries include Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? and Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope; he also followed boy band One Direction around during the Take Me Home Tour for One Direction: This Is Us, which made an impressive $68 million at the box office.
In 2017, Spurlock admitted to committing sexual misconduct, including “that he was accused of rape in college, settled a sexual harassment lawsuit and has cheated on all of his romantic partners, including both of his wives,” according to NBC News. “As I sit around watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realization of their past indiscretions, I don’t sit by and wonder ‘who will be next?’ I wonder, ‘when will they come for me?’ You see, I’ve come to understand after months of these revelations, that I am not some innocent bystander, I am also a part of the problem,” he wrote in a lengthy Twitter post.
Spurlock is survived by his two kids.
(Via Variety)