Morgan Spurlock

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Morgan Valentine Spurlock (November 7, 1970 – May 23, 2024) was an American documentary filmmaker, writer and television producer. He directed 23 films and was the producer of nearly 70 films throughout his career.[1] Spurlock received acclaim for directing the documentary Super Size Me (2004), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.[2] He produced What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) and directed Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008), POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (2011), and One Direction: This Is Us (2013).

Spurlock was executive producer and star of the reality television series 30 Days (2005–2008). In June 2013, he became the producer and host of the CNN show Morgan Spurlock Inside Man (2013–2016). Spurlock was also the co-founder of the short-film content marketing company Cinelan, which produced the Focus Forward campaign for GE.[3]

The documentary Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! was set to be released in 2017, until Spurlock wrote a social media post saying that he had a history of sexual misconduct and referring to himself as "part of the problem", leading to a distribution drop and his resignation from the production company.[4] The film was instead distributed in 2019 by Samuel Goldwyn Films. In 2024, Spurlock died at age 53 due to complications related to cancer.[5]

Early life

Morgan Valentine Spurlock was born to Benjamin and Phyllis Spurlock on November 7, 1970, in Parkersburg, West Virginia.[6] Benjamin owned an auto repair shop,[7] and Phyllis was an English teacher and guidance counselor.

Spurlock and his two older brothers, Craig and Barry, were all raised in Beckley, West Virginia. Ben and Phyllis raised their sons as Methodist,[8] and all three boys attended ballet dance lessons.[9]

Spurlock graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley, then attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1993 with a BFA in film.[1][10] He was a member of the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta.[11]

Career

File:MSpurlockSundance08.jpg
Spurlock at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival

Spurlock was a playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000.[12] In 2004, Spurlock co-founded the production studio Warrior Poets which would be the production studio for the films he directed and produced for the rest of his career.[1]

The list of documentary films that inspired Spurlock includes Brother's Keeper, Hoop Dreams, The Thin Blue Line, Roger and Me, Harlan County, USA, and The Last Waltz. He considered Brother's Keeper the greatest documentary of all time.[13][14]

Super Size Me

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Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me was released in the United States on May 7, 2004. He conceived the idea for the film when he was at his parents' house for Thanksgiving, and while watching television saw a news story about a lawsuit brought against McDonald's by two teenage girls who blamed the fast food chain for their obesity.[5] The film was produced for $65,000 and made $22 million in return.[10]

The film depicts an experiment Spurlock conducted in 2003, in which he claimed he ate three McDonald's meals every day, and nothing else, for 30 days, although he later disclosed he also drank copious amounts of alcohol. The film's title derives from one of the rules of Spurlock's experiment: he would not refuse the "super-size" option whenever it was offered to him, but would never ask for it himself. The result, according to Spurlock, was a diet with twice the calories recommended by the USDA. Spurlock attempted to curtail his physical activity to better match the exercise habits of the average American. He previously walked about Script error: No such module "convert". a day, whereas the average American walks Script error: No such module "convert"..[15]

Over the course of filming, Spurlock gained 25 pounds (11 kg), became quite puffy, and suffered liver dysfunction and depression by the end. His supervising physicians noted the effects caused by his high-calorie diet—once even comparing it to a case of severe binge alcoholism. Following Spurlock's December 2017 assertion that he had not been "sober for more than a week" in three decades, the claims of his liver dysfunction being caused by eating McDonald's food solely for 30 days have been called into question.[10][16] Spurlock also did not publicly release a diet log documenting his diet while filming the documentary.[8]

After completing the project, it took Spurlock 14 months to return to his normal weight of 185 pounds (84 kg). His then-girlfriend, and later wife, Alexandra Jamieson, took charge of his recovery with her "detox diet", which became the basis for her book, The Great American Detox Diet.[17] Super Size Me was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and Spurlock won the first Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.[18] In 2005, Spurlock wrote a book as a follow-up to Super Size Me titled Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America.[19]

30 Days

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This series ran on FX between 2005 and 2008.[20] In each episode, a person, sometimes Spurlock himself, or a group of people spent a month immersing themselves in a mode of life markedly different from their norm. For example, a devout Christian living in a Muslim family, or a homophobe staying with a homosexual person. The intent was to give the subject a new perspective, while Spurlock discussed the relevant social issues involved. In the second-season finale, Spurlock spent 25 days locked in a Henrico County, Virginia, a county outside of Richmond, jail to experience life as an inmate.[21]

The third season of 30 Days premiered in June 2008.[22] The first episode of the third season, titled "Working in a Coal Mine", was filmed in Bolt, West Virginia. Bolt is located roughly Script error: No such module "convert". from Beckley, West Virginia, where Spurlock was raised.[23]

In 2008, Spurlock signed a deal to develop similar programming with Fox Television Studios.[24]

I Bet You Will

Spurlock also created I Bet You Will for MTV. I Bet You Will began as a popular Internet webcast of five-minute episodes featuring ordinary people doing stunts in exchange for money. Examples of the scenarios which transpired include eating a full jar of mayonnaise (US$235), eating a "worm burrito" (US$265), and taking shots of corn oil, Pepto-Bismol, lemon juice, hot sauce, cold chicken broth, and cod liver oil (US$450.00 for all nine shots). MTV later bought the show and aired it, which Spurlock hosted.[25]

Subsequent films

In January 2008, Spurlock's second feature documentary, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In the film and during interviews, Spurlock explored the fight against terrorism and views the argument from both sides, in which he tries to find Osama bin Laden.[26]

Spurlock directed The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!.[27][28]

Freakonomics is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2010 and had a theatrical release later that year.[29] Spurlock was at the helm of this project alongside five directors, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, and Eugene Jarecki. Spurlock's segment dealt with people with unusual names.[29]

The one-hour documentary Committed: The Toronto International Film Festival premiered on AMC on October 12, 2010.[30]

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a 2011 documentary film about product placement, marketing, and advertising which was reportedly itself financed through product placement.[31][32] The Greatest Movie Ever Sold premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011.[33] In the United States, the film had a limited release, opening on April 22, 2011, in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas.[31] Six days later, the film opened the 2011 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[34]

In mid-2010, Spurlock worked with Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, Ain't It Cool News founder Harry Knowles, and comic book creator Stan Lee to create the documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope, to cover the stories of convention fans.[35][36] Whedon, Lee, and Knowles served as executive producers. Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull, who independently financed the documentary, told Variety, "We look forward to capturing the spirit, energy and people that Comic-Con has infused into legions of fans, bringing these audiences and projects out of the halls and onto a world stage."[37]

Spurlock's documentary Mansome was announced on March 8, 2012, as a Spotlight selection for the Tribeca Film Festival. The film takes a comedic look at male identity as defined through men's grooming habits featuring celebrity and expert commentary.[38]

Spurlock hosted and produced the CNN series Morgan Spurlock Inside Man, which aired from June 2013 to August 2016.[39]

Spurlock helped distribute A Brony Tale, a documentary directed by Brent Hodge on the brony phenomenon and on the musician and voice acting career of Ashleigh Ball. The film was selected for theatrical distribution under the label Morgan Spurlock Presents. The film was released in theaters on July 8, 2014.[40]

Spurlock teamed up with Hodgee Films again on the 2015 web series Consider the Source, in association with Disney's Maker Studios.[41]

While attending a screening of the movie Catfish, Spurlock approached the film's producers afterwards and called Catfish "the best fake documentary" he had ever seen.[42][43]

Other work

File:Morgan Spurlock and Lady Alex.jpg
Morgan Spurlock with Highland Titles in Scotland during filming Morgan Spurlock's New Britannia

Sexual misconduct and resignation

In December 2017, Spurlock wrote a blog post admitting to what he described as a history of sexual misconduct.[48] In the midst of the #MeToo movement, Spurlock stated: "I've come to understand after months of these revelations, that I am not some innocent bystander, I am also a part of the problem."[4] In the post, he said that he committed sexual misconduct in his past, including being "unfaithful to every wife and girlfriend [he] ever had".[49] Spurlock recounts settling a sexual harassment allegation, brought by his assistant at his production company, Warrior Poets, for verbal harassment including yelling for her as "hot pants" or "sex pants" from across the office.[49]

In the same post, Spurlock also recounted that he had been accused of sexual assault while in college.[8] Spurlock wrote that while still "in college, a girl who I hooked up with on a one night stand accused me of rape. Not outright. There were no charges or investigations, but she wrote about the instance in a short story writing class and called me by name." He wrote: "This wasn't how I remembered it at all [...] She believed she was raped. That's why I'm part of the problem." Spurlock said both he and the woman had been heavily drinking the night of the incident, and that during sex she had begun crying, and they had stopped.[1][49]

After publishing his blog post, Spurlock stepped down from his position with Warrior Poets, the company he had co-founded in 2004.[50] The move ended his career as a documentary filmmaker.[8] Spurlock told the Associated Press in 2019: "For me, there was a moment of kind of realization—as somebody who is a truth-teller and somebody who has made it a point of trying to do what's right—of recognizing that I could do better in my own life. We should be able to admit we were wrong."[7] Additionally, he told Deadline: "Part of the reason I wrote that essay in the first place was to be on the right side of it. I'm hopeful that in time, with the work that I do and the changes that I continue to go through, that I can be there on the right side."[51]

In the blog post, Spurlock further disclosed that he had been the victim of sexual abuse as a boy and teenager, and that he had "consistently been drinking since the age of 13."[1]

Spurlock released a sequel film, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, in 2017,[52] to be distributed by YouTube Red, but it was dropped following Spurlock's admission of sexual misconduct. Samuel Goldwyn Films instead distributed the film in September 2019.[53] In October 2022, The Washington Post reported that Spurlock had "suffered career death" as a result of his misconduct.[54]

Personal life and death

Spurlock's marriages to Priscilla Sommer, Alexandra Jamieson, and Sara Bernstein all ended in divorce.[16] He had two sons,[8] Laken James (December 9, 2006, with Jamieson)[55] and Kallen Marcus (May 22, 2016, with Bernstein).[56] Spurlock was of Scots-Irish and English descent.[57] Although he was raised Methodist, he stated in a 2014 interview with TV Guide that he had become agnostic.[8][58] In December 2017, he revealed that he had been sexually abused as a child.[1] On May 23, 2024, Spurlock died in upstate New York[8] from complications of an unspecified cancer, at the age of 53.[10][59]

Bibliography

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Filmography

Films

Year Film Role Notes
1994 Léon: The Professional Production assistant: New York[5]
1995 Kiss of Death Office production assistant[60][61]
2004 Super Size Me Himself Director, screenwriter[5]
2004 The Future of Food Executive producer[62]
2004 Czech Dream Executive producer[62]
2006 Chalk Executive producer[62]
2006 Class Act Executive producer[63]
2007 Drive Thru Robbie, The Hella-Burger Manager[64]
2007 The Third Wave Executive producer[65][66]
2007 What Would Jesus Buy? Producer[62]
2008 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? Himself Director, writer[62]
2008 Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong Executive producer[67][68]
2009 The Entrepreneur Executive producer[69][70]
2009 Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days Himself[71][72][73]
2009 New Brow: Contemporary Underground Art Himself[74][75]
2009 Abraham Obama Himself
2010 Freakonomics Himself Director, writer (segment "A Roshanda by Any Other Name"), narrator[76]
2010 Pool Party Executive producer[77][78]
2011 POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Himself Director, executive producer, writer[62][79]
2011 Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope Director, writer, producer[62][80]
2011 The Other F Word Executive producer[81]
2011 How We Covered It Himself
2011 The Unauthorized Documentary, The Hangover Part II Himself[82][83]
2012 Mansome Himself Director, writer, producer[62][84]
2012 Knuckleball! Executive producer[85]
2012 Glue Man Himself Stars[86]
2013 One Direction: This Is Us Director, producer[87]
2013 Web Junkie Executive producer[88]
2013 Dancing in Jaffa Executive producer[89]
2013 Waiting for Mamu Executive producer[90][91]
2013 Chronic-Con, Episode 420: A New Dope Himself
2013 You Don't Know Jack Director, writer[92][93]
2013 Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery Himself[94]
2014 A Brony Tale Executive producer[95][96]
2014 I Am Santa Claus Executive producer[97][98]
2014 We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss Director, producer[99][100]
2014 That Film About Money Executive producer[101]
2015 Man Under Executive producer[102]
2015 Censored Voices Executive producer[103][104]
2015 Made in Japan Executive producer[105][106]
2015 I Am Dale Earnhardt Himself[107]
2015 Crafted Director[108]
2015 The Princess of North Sudan Producer[109][110]
2016 Rats Director, writer[111]
2016 The Eagle Huntress Executive producer[112][113]
2017 Tough Guys Executive producer[114]
2017 No Man's Land Executive producer[115][116]
2017 Good After Bad Executive producer[117][118]
2017 Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! Himself Director, writer, producer[5]

Television

Year Show Role Notes
2002 I Bet You Will Host TV series[119]
2004 Last Laugh '04 Himself Not credited, TV movie
2004 Know Your Enemy: Al Qaeda's Third Wave Executive producer, TV movie[120]
2005 The 50 Greatest Documentaries Himself TV movie[121]
2005 Merry F %$in' Christmas Himself TV movie[122]
2005 30 Days Himself Creator, Executive producer, host[123]
2010 The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice! Himself Director[124]
2011 A Day in the Life Director, Executive producer[125][126]
2012 Morgan Spurlock's New Britannia Himself Writer, host[127]
2013 Morgan Spurlock Inside Man Himself Director, writer, Executive producer[128]
2013 Losing It with John Stamos Creator, Executive producer[129]
2014 7 Deadly Sins Host Executive producer, Creator[130][131]
2018 Hell's Kitchen Himself Chef's table guest diner for the red team; Episode: "Hell Freezes Over"

References

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External links

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