MICHAEL Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in The Green Mile, has been remembered as a gentle giant.
Duncan, whose other box office hits included Armageddon, Planet of the Apes and Kung Fu Panda, died in a Los Angeles hospital on Monday after suffering a heart attack.
"I am terribly saddened at the loss of Big Mike," Tom Hanks, Duncan's co-star in The Green Mile, said in a statement. "He was the treasure we all discovered on the set. He was magic. He was a big love of man and his passing leaves us stunned."
GALLERY: Michael Clarke Duncan
American actor and comedian Tommy Davidson joined a host of celebrities expressing their grief yesterday on Twitter. "The MOST gentle of Giants. RIP, my friend Michael," he tweeted.
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The muscular, 196cm-tall Duncan was a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s.
He had a handful of minor roles before The Green Mile brought him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. The 1999 film, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, starred Tom Hanks as a corrections officer at a penitentiary in the 1930s. Duncan played John Coffey, a convicted murderer with a gentle demeanour and extraordinary healing powers. Duncan's performance caught on with critics and filmgoers and he quickly became a favourite in Hollywood, appearing in several films each year.
He owed some of his good fortune to Bruce Willis, who recommended Duncan for The Green Mile after the two appeared together in Armageddon. Duncan would work with Willis again in Breakfast of Champions, The Whole Nine Yards and Sin City.
His industrial-sized build was suited for everything from superhero films (Daredevil) to comedy (Talledega Nights, School for Scoundrels). His gravelly baritone alone was good enough for several animated movies, including Kung Fu Panda, Delgo and Brother Bear. Among Clarke's television credits were The Apprentice, The Finder, Two and a Half Men and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Born in Chicago in 1957, Duncan was raised by a single mother whose resistance to his playing football led to his decision to become an actor. But when his mother became ill, he dropped out of college at Alcorn State University and worked as a ditch digger and bouncer to support her.
By his mid-20s, he was in Los Angeles, where he looked for acting parts, and became a bodyguard for Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and other stars. The murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G., for whom Duncan had been hired to protect before switching assignments, led him to quit his job and pursue acting full-time.
Early film and television credits, when he was usually cast as a bodyguard or bouncer, included Bulworth, A Night at the Roxbury and The Players Club.
Earlier this year Clarke had appeared in a video for PETA, the animal rights organisation, in which he spoke of how much better he felt since becoming a vegetarian three years earlier.
"I cleared out my refrigerator, about $5000 worth of meat," he said. "I'm a lot healthier than I was when I was eating meat."
The actor's fiancee, American TV personality Omarose Manigault, told mourning fans she was "grateful for all of your prayers".
