Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, whose most famous works skewered America's food industry and who mostly ate only McDonald's for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
Spurlock died Thursday in New York of complications from cancer, his family said in a statement Friday.
“It was a sad day as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who worked with him on several projects, said in the statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special person. I'm so proud to have worked with him.”
Spurlock made a splash in 2004 with his breakthrough film Super Size Me, which was nominated for an Oscar. The film chronicled the devastating physical and psychological consequences of Spurlock eating only McDonald's food for 30 days. He gained about 25 pounds, saw a spike in his cholesterol, and lost his sex drive.
“Everything is bigger in America,” he said in the film. “We have the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food and finally: the biggest people.”
In one scene, Spurlock showed the kids a picture of George Washington and none recognized the Founding Father. But everyone immediately knew the mascots for Wendy's and McDonald's.
The film grossed more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget and preceded the release of Eric Schlosser's Influence Fast Food Nationwhich accused the industry of being bad for the environment and fraught with labor issues.
Spurlock returned in 2017 with Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! — a sobering look at an industry that processes 9 billion animals a year in America. It focused on two issues: chicken farmers stuck in a weird financial system and fast food chains trying to trick customers into thinking they're eating healthier.
“We're at an amazing moment in history from a consumer perspective where consumers are starting to have more and more power,” he told the Associated Press in 2019. “This is not about shareholder returns. It's about giving back to consumers.”
Spurlock was a gonzo-like director who leaned into the weird and ridiculous. His stylistic touches included gloomy graphics and fun music, combining an in-your-face camera style like Michael Moore with his own sense of humor and passion.
“I wanted to be able to lean into the serious moments. I wanted to be able to breathe in the moments of levity. We want to give you permission to laugh in places where it's really hard to laugh,” he told them AP.
After exposing the fast food and chicken industries, there was an explosion in restaurants that emphasized freshness, artisanal methods, farm-to-table goodness and ethical ingredients. But nutritionally not much had changed.
“There's been this huge change and people are saying to me, 'So the food just got healthier?' And I'm like, 'Well, marketing sure has,'” he said.
Not all of his work was about food. Spurlock made a documentary about the band One Direction and the geeks and fanboys at Comic-Con. One of his films looked at life behind bars at the Henrico County Jail in Virginia.
With 2008 Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?Spurlock went on a global search to find the al Qaeda leader, who was killed in 2011. POM Wonderful Presents: The Best Movie Ever Sold, Spurlock dealt with issues of product placement, marketing and advertising.
“Knowing is half the battle, I think. Literally, knowing all the time when you're being promoted is a wonderful thing,” Spurlock said AP at that time. “A lot of people don't realize that. They can't see the forest for the trees.”
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! it was set to premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, but was shelved at the height of the #MeToo movement when Spurlock came forward to detail his own history of sexual harassment.
He admitted that he had been accused of rape while in college and had settled a sexual harassment case with a female assistant. He also admitted to cheating on multiple partners. “I am part of the problem,” he wrote.
“For me, there was a moment of realization — as someone who tells the truth and someone who has set out to try to do what's right — to recognize that I could do better in my life. We should be able to admit we were wrong,” he told the AP.
Spurlock grew up in Beckley, West Virginia. His mother was an English teacher who remembered correcting his work with a red pen. He graduated with a BA in Cinema from New York University in 1993.
He has two sons — Laken and Kallen. his mother Phyllis Spurlock; Father Ben; brothers Craig and Barry; and ex-wives Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, mothers of his children.
