Michael Clarke Duncan — best known for his Oscar-nominated role as a death row inmate who possessed magical healing powers in the 1999 film “The Green Mile” — died on Monday at the age of 54, according to his fiancee Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth. (from yahoo.com)
Duncan had been in a Los Angeles hospital since July 13 following a heart attack and died on Monday morning after close to two months of treatment.
Duncan was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his role as gentle giant prisoner John Coffey in “The Green Mile,” also starring Tom Hanks. Duncan won the role, in part, due to a recommendation by Bruce Willis, who he worked with on 1998’s “Armageddon.” Duncan went on to appear with Willis in three more films — “Breakfast of Champions,” “The Whole Nine Yards” and “Sin City.”
Before he broke into acting, Duncan worked as a bodyguard for stars including Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, and The Notorious B.I.G. — whose 1997 death prompted him to quit that line of work.