Bernie Mac died at 50 years old due to complications of pneumonia, but the sarcoidosis he dealt with for half his life played a significant role as well.
But it isn’t entirely accurate to say that Bernie Mac died solely of pneumonia. McCullough had for decades suffered the effects of sarcoidosis, a chronic inflammatory lung disease that, despite being in remission, had weakened his immune system.
Bernie Mac’s final days were spent in the hospital, hooked up to a ventilator as he struggled to breathe and fight for his life. For over two weeks, the Ocean’s Eleven star held on, with his family by his side, until he eventually succumbed to the illness.
In life, Bernie Mac was a celebrated comedian and actor, as well as a loving father and husband. In the wake of his death, he left behind a legacy of comedic authenticity unmatched by many of his contemporaries.
Bernard McCullough’s Early Life And Career
Bernie Mac was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on October. May 1957 in Chicago, Illinois to Mary McCullough and Jeffrey Harrison. He grew up in a fairly large family on the South Side of Chicago, raised mainly by his single mother.
From a young age, Mac showed a talent for performance and comedy, establishing what could be considered his first standup routine at just eight years old, when he impersonated his grandparents during a church congregation dinner. His grandfather had been the deacon of a local Baptist church.
Unfortunately, Mac lost his mother to cancer when he was 16 years old, and shortly after, his older brother, estranged father, and grandmother died as well.
“I came from a place where there wasn’t a lot of joy,” Mac said, according to 19 News. “I decided to try to make other people laugh when there wasn’t a lot of things to laugh about.”
While working various odd jobs, Mac further invested himself in his comedy, telling jokes for spare change in the Chicago subway. With his clear gift for making people laugh, Mac was able to eventually create his own variety show at the Regal Theater.
It was in 1977, however, that his comedy career truly began to take off as he joined the comedy club circuit. It was also the same year that he married his high school sweetheart, Rhonda, to whom he would stay married until his untimely death.
Bernie Mac’s Rise To Stardom
Eventually, Bernie Mac broke into acting, appearing in small roles in several films, including 1992’s Mo’ Money and 1995’s Friday.
It was when he briefly hosted the HBO variety show Midnight Mac and performed alongside the likes of Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D.L. Hughley in Spike Lee’s The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), however, that Mac’s brand of comedy rose to the forefront and he established himself as a more than capable performer and comedian.
2001 was truly a landmark year for Mac. That year, not only did Fox premiere The Bernie Mac Show, which would later earn a number of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations as well as a Peabody Award, but Mac also starred in Steven Soderbergh’s famous film Ocean’s Eleven alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest actors, including George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
After that, Bernie Mac was a mainstay in numerous large-scale productions. In 2003, Mac appeared in both Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Billy Bob Thornton’s Bad Santa and starred alongside Chris Rock in Head of State.
