Michael Clarke Duncan

actor

Personal Information

Born on December 10, 1957, in Chicago, IL; son of single mother, Jean; one sister (Judith).
Education: attended Alcorn (Mississippi) State University and Kankakee (Illinois) Community College.

Career

Actor; worked as ditch digger and nightclub bouncer after college years; landed job as security guard for traveling theater troupe; moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting career, 1995; worked as bodyguard for actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence; began to land small parts as guards and bouncers, 1997; broke through with starring role in Armageddon, 1998; recommended by costar Bruce Willis for starring role opposite Tom Hanks in The Green Mile, 1999; costarred with Willis and Matthew Perry in The Whole Nine Yards, 2000.

Life's Work

Noted most of all for his physical stature--he stands six feet, five inches tall and weighs 315 pounds--Michael Clarke Duncan burst into the American national consciousness with his portrayal of a death row inmate with miraculous powers in the 1999 film The Green Mile. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in that film, and it seemed certain to jump-start his film career. As noteworthy as his impressive physical presence, though, was the personal odyssey that led him to the top of his profession.

Duncan was born in Chicago on December 10, 1957. He and his sister, Judith, were raised on the city's south side by their single mother Jean, who despite the family's modest circumstances had ambitions for her children. She steered her son away from the drugs and alcohol that were beginning to gain a foothold on Chicago's South Side, and encouraged him to concentrate on academics. Duncan's size made him a natural for his high school's football team. His mother, however, feared the injuries that come from playing football, and urged him to pursue other extracurricular activities. Dreams of fame on the silver screen led Duncan into acting.

Worked as Ditch Digger

Duncan attended historically black Alcorn State University in Mississippi for a time, but his mother's serious illness led him to return to Chicago to help support the family. He attended Kankakee Community College in Illinois and played basketball there. The family's financial difficulties forced Duncan to take a job that was inconsistent with both his educational and acting goals. For several years, he worked a gas-company ditch digger.

Duncan's journey back into the world of acting was a roundabout one. Finding it easy to pick up side work as a bouncer thanks to his commanding physical appearance, Duncan began working in nightclubs. In one nightclub, he met a theatrical producer who happened to be looking for a security guard for his traveling company. Duncan quit his gas-company job, signed on, and found that being in the theater world reignited his passion for acting. In 1995, he relocated to Los Angeles.

Success did not happen instantly, as Duncan lived the life of a struggling actor and went to audition after fruitless audition. Facing bankruptcy, he went back into security work, and served as a bodyguard for actors such as Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. One night, while sitting in his roach-infested motel room, Duncan began to reexamine his priorities. As he related to People magazine, he told himself, "You have no life, no money, and you're talking to bugs on a wall. Something is wrong here." Duncan considered giving up acting, and tried to parlay his security experience into a job with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Landed Roles as a Bouncer

Ironically, things began to improve for Duncan when he landed bit parts as a bouncer. In the films Back in Business (1997), The Players Club (1998), and Bulworth (1998), he appeared as a bouncer or guard. In addition, television and commercial work began to flow his way. However, Duncan's big break occurred in 1998 when he earned a role in the hit film Armageddon. In the film, he played an oilfield worker who was part of a crew sent to deflect an asteroid that threatened to wipe out the Earth. While working on Armageddon, Duncan developed a friendship with co-star Bruce Willis, one of Hollywood's top actors. "A lot of people told me that when Bruce Willis gets in character you can't look at him," Duncan told People. "But we became friends right off the bat."

Duncan tried to cheer up Willis after the latter's breakup with actress Demi Moore. Willis returned the favor by recommending Duncan to director Frank Darabont, who was in the midst of screening a cast for his new film, The Green Mile. "There are not a lot of roles for big, black, bald-headed men," Duncan was quoted as saying in Entertainment Weekly. However, the Green Mile role seemed custom made for him, and he landed the part. Duncan poured his heart and soul into the role. "I'm an emotional person," he told Entertainment Weekly. "All those tears you see in the movie were mine."

In the film, which was adapted from a story by Stephen King, Duncan played a 1930s Death Row inmate named John Coffey, who is imprisoned for the murder of two young girls. With his peaceful, spiritual demeanor, Coffey seems incapable of having committed the murders. Coffey also possesses miraculous healing powers that lead to a friendship with prison guard Paul Edgecomb (played by Tom Hanks), who begins to question Coffey's guilt. As Duncan explained to Jet, "John Coffey is one of the biggest men that anybody has ever seen. He's 7 feet tall and 330 pounds--an apparent cold-blooded murderer with two dead girls in his arms. But John Coffey is also a very special individual who understands Paul, sees the kindness that is in Paul and most of the other guards. And that's kind of the ironic twist to it."

Garnered Oscar Nomination

Duncan earned extremely positive reviews for his performance in The Green Mile, for which he garnered a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination in 2000. Jet praised his "powerful, heartfelt performance," and Entertainment Weekly opined that "Duncan imbues a potentially stereotypical character--the saintly African American--with a tangible human soul." Duncan also was named Male Star of Tomorrow at the ShoWest exhibitors' convention in Las Vegas, and earned a best supporting actor award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and an NAACP Image Award nomination. Although Duncan was eventually edged out for the Oscar, his career seemed ready to advance to a new level.

In the year 2000, Duncan reunited with Bruce Willis in the comedy The Whole Nine Yards. This film, in the words of allmovie.com writer Rebecca Flint, "cast him [Duncan] as a brutish thug who terrorizes mild-mannered dentist Matthew Perry". Duncan is single and lives alone in Los Angeles. "Right now," he told People, "it's just me and the business--and she's being pretty good to me."

Awards

Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Awards; Best Supporting Actor, Screen Actors Guild awards; Best Supporting Actor, Broadcast Film Critics Association; NAACP Image Award; Male Star of Tomorrow award, ShoWest exhibitors' meeting (all for The Green Mile, 1999-2000).

Further Reading

Periodicals

• Entertainment Weekly, March 1, 2000, p. 71; June 16, 2000, p. 67.
• Jet, December 20, 1999, p. 58.
• New York Times, March 19, 2000, p. AR13.
• People, August 17, 1998, p. 110; January 1, 2000, p. 103.
• Variety, February 7, 2000, p. 18.

Other

• Additional information for this profile was obtained from http://www.allmovie.com; and http://www.imdb.com (The Internet Movie Database).

— James M. Manheim

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Biography

Standing 6'5" and weighing over 300 pounds, African American actor Michael Clarke Duncan inarguably possesses one of Hollywood's more unforgettable figures. A former bodyguard and bouncer, Duncan first gained attention when he appeared as one of a group of oil drillers sent to stop an asteroid from annihilating the Earth in the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon. A year later, Duncan's career got another significant boost when the actor earned lavish critical plaudits for his portrayal of a wrongfully convicted death row inmate in The Green Mile.

Born in Chicago on December 10, 1957, Duncan was raised on the city's south side by his single mother. A serious student, Duncan decided that he wanted to play football in high school; after his mother refused to let him, fearing he would get hurt, he developed an interest in acting instead. Following his graduation from high school, the aspiring actor studied communications at Mississippi's Alcorn State University. His studies were cut short when he returned to Chicago to attend to his mother, who had fallen ill. He subsequently found work digging ditches with the Peoples Gas Company and moonlighted as a club bouncer. His work led to a chance encounter with a stage producer who hired him as a security guard for a traveling theatre company, which eventually brought Duncan to Hollywood.

Upon his arrival in L.A., Duncan, who was hovering dangerously close to bankruptcy, secured further work as a security guard and found his first agent. He got his professional start on television, appearing in commercials, sitcoms, and on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. He started his film career playing -- surprisingly enough -- bouncers in such films as The Players Club and Bulworth (both 1998), finally getting his big break -- and the first role that didn't require him to boot people out of clubs -- in Armageddon.

Thanks to the great commercial success of Armageddon, Duncan was able to find subsequent employment in a number of productions, most notably The Green Mile. He earned overwhelmingly strong reviews for his portrayal of doomed, saintly John Coffey, a man whose conviction for a brutal double murder seems at odds with his exceedingly gentle, almost child-like demeanor. Duncan garnered Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for his work in the film. He next switched genre gears, re-teaming with Armageddon co-star Bruce Willis to star in the comedy The Whole Nine Yards, which cast him a brutish thug who terrorizes mild-mannered dentist Matthew Perry. Once again utilizing his massive girth to maximum effect in the following year's The Planet of the Apes Duncan followed up the big budget remake with the made-for-television They Call Me Sirr before once again flexing formidably, this time opposite The Rock, in The Scorpion King. Later turning up as the villainous Kingpin in the comic book superhero film Daredevil (2003), Duncan would also loan his voice to the same character in Spider-Man: The Animated Series later that same year. A string of vocal performances in such animated efforts as Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time, The Proud Family, and Crab Nebula found Duncan's vocal chords in increased demand in television, films, and even videogames, yet by 2005 the hard-working actor was back on the big screen with roles in both Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, and Michael Bay's The Island. Though action may have always been the best genre for the physically imposing actor to make an impression on the big screen, fans would take note that the hulking Duncan also had a keen sense of humor, a point made all the more evident by his role in the 2006 Will Ferrell NASCAR laugher Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

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