Morgan Spurlock, Director of ‘Super Size Me,’ Has Died at 53

Morgan Spurlock, director and star of the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me, died on Thursday at the age of 53 due to complications from cancer. His family confirmed his death to Variety.

“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” said Craig Spurlock, who collaborated with Morgan on several projects. “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.”

Born in 1970 in West Virginia, Spurlock graduated from NYU with a degree in film in 1993. He rose to national prominence in the early aughts with his 2004 documentary Super Size Me, which chronicled the psychological and physiological effects he suffered after eating McDonald’s for every meal—three times a day for 30 days. Spurlock devised a rule for the experiment that he had to accept the “supersize” meal option if it was offered to him while he was ordering, and he also exercised less to reflect the activity level of an average American. By the end of the experiment, Spurlock said that he was suffering from depression and liver dysfunction and that he had gained 25 pounds.

Super Size Me was a cultural sensation, grossing more than $20 million at the global box office and sparking a national conversation about American eating habits and fast-food consumption. It was nominated for best documentary feature at the 2004 Academy Awards, but lost to Born Into Brothels. While some questioned the validity of Spurlock’s findings and criticized his refusal to publicly share his food diary from the film, Super Size Me’s impact was undeniable. Six weeks after it debuted, McDonald’s discontinued its supersize option, though a company spokesperson said at the time that the documentary had “nothing to do with that whatsoever.”

The same year Super Size Me was released, Spurlock began a production company, Warrior Poets, producing and directing nearly 70 documentary films and television series, including 2008’s Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? and 2011’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. In the wake of #MeToo, Spurlock released a public letter confessing that he, too, was “part of the problem,” revealing that he had settled an allegation of sexual harassment from a former assistant, among other confessions of sexual misconduct. The day after he released the letter, he stepped down from Warrior Poets. One of his last documentaries was the 2017 sequel Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, in which Spurlock opened his own fast-food restaurant to explore how the industry had attempted to rebrand as healthier in the years since Super Size Me.

Spurlock is survived by his two sons, Laken and Kallen; mom Phyllis Spurlock; dad Ben; brothers Craig and Barry; and ex-wives Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, the mothers of his two children.

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