Heart attack kills star of Green Mile

Michael Clarke Duncan, the Oscar-nominated actor who played a death row inmate in The Green Mile and appeared in other box office hits such as Armageddon, Planet of the Apes and Kung Fu Panda, is dead at the age of 54.

By The Newsroom

Published 5th Sep 2012, 07:00 BST

Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancée, reality TV personality Reverend Omarosa Manigault.

The muscular, 6ft 4in Duncan, a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s, “suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered”.

Duncan had a handful of minor roles before The Green Mile brought him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his stand-out performance as John Coffey, a wrongfully convicted murderer with extraordinary healing powers.

Born in Chicago in 1957, Duncan became a bodyguard for Will Smith and Jamie Foxx. He turned to acting after the murder of his client rapper Notorious B.I.G.

Chicago Will Smith