Documentarian Morgan Spurlock, whose first feature film was the Oscar-nominated Super Size Me, which shifted public perceptions of junk food and McDonald’s, died Thursday in upstate New York from complications of cancer. He was 53.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” 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 family said he died peacefully surrounded by family and friends.
A native of West Virginia, Spurlock was raised Methodist and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1993. Over the following decade, he was a playwright — with his show The Phoenix taking awards at the New York International Fringe Festival and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition — and an MTV host. The latter came when his web series, I Bet You Would, was picked up by MTV. The show had everyday competitors performing stunts or doing experimental tasks for cash (like eating a “worm burrito” for $265).
Spurlock became comfortable in front of a camera and in 2004 turned up at the Sundance Film Festival with Super Size Me, a docudrama sensation that won him the Grand Jury Prize for directing and a subsequent Academy Award nomination. The film altered how Americans perceived fast food and brought about changes as to how it was served at McDonald’s restaurants nationwide.
A personal essay-style documentary, the film shows Spurlock eating nothing but McDonald’s thrice daily for 30 days. He cuts his walking to the U.S. average of 1.5 miles a day and throughout the experiment only “super-sized” his meals when suggested by a McDonald’s staff member.
Watching Spurlock gain 24.5 pounds — a 13 percent body mass increase that shot up his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL — and deal with depression, mood swings and sexual dysfunction — opened millions of people to the potential impact of a fast food-heavy diet. Six weeks after the documentary was released, McDonald’s killed its Super Size menu. Although it has denied any connection to the film, healthier options quickly appeared on its menus.
The multi-hyphenate followed with several documentaries, most of which he inserted himself into, to ask questions or explore topics that were both pressing and lightweight fun, including: Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (the search for the most wanted man behind the 9/11 attacks); Comic-Con IV: A Quest for Hope (the pop-culture event phenomenon); The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (product placement and marketing in the movies); and One Direction: This Is Us (about the boy band); as well as the FX series 30 Days (guests spend a month in a lifestyle wildly different from their own) and the CNN show Inside Man. His final film was the sequel Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! (2017), which ruffled the feathers of the powerful chicken industry.
Spurlock also inserted himself into the #MeToo movement when, as sexual misconduct stories began to spread across media, Hollywood and other industries, wrote a 2017 blog post titled, “I Am Part of the Problem,” where he admitted to a history of sexual misconduct and told the world that he was accused of sexual assault while in college.
He subsequently stepped down from his production company, Warrior Poets, which has produced and directed nearly 70 documentary films and television series, and largely stepped away from the industry.
He is survived by his sons, Laken and Kallen; his parents, Phyllis and Ben; brothers Craig and Barry; sisters-in-law Carolyn and Buffy; and former spouses Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, the mothers of his children.