Tower Blog

Bernie Mac, R.I.P. King of Comedy

August 9, 2008 by Bob

The world just got a little less funny.  Yesterday while the world was busy celebrating the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, Bernie Mac was losing his battle with pneumonia.  The celebrated comic, and one of The Original Kings of Comedy, was only 51 when he passed away today. Bernie Mac, born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease.  It went into to remission, but reappeared at the end of June, when he developed an infection which was later determined as pneumonia. Best known for his Fox sitcom The Bernie Mac Show, which was a fictionalization of his real-life as a father to his sister’s three children.  Bernie Mac also appeared in Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen films along with Mr. 3000, Transformers and a handful of other fantastic roles.