The giant from the Green Mile. How did he get so upset and how tragic was his fate? (7 photos)

In fact, African-Americans in general are often distinguished by their enormous height and strength - their ancestors went through a very powerful culling in the form of a long journey in a ship's hold across the ocean and subsequent hard work on sugar plantations. The weak simply did not survive there. And, what’s more, they didn’t leave any offspring...





The same story happened with Michael Clarke Duncan. Born in the pitch-black ghetto of South Chicago, a huge black man stood two meters tall. The owner of 50-centimeter biceps, weighed approximately 130 kilograms.



Even in his youth, having started working as a bouncer in a bar, he became very interested in sports - he played basketball and American football, and practiced jiu-jitsu. And he worked tirelessly in the gym, several times a week.





Our hero even developed his own training program with iron. Worked with car tires and a hammer. I regularly squatted with a barbell and did bench presses. And every day I did push-ups on the floor at least a hundred times.



It is curious that with such a frightening appearance, Michael, like his hero from “The Green Mile,” was known among his friends as an incredible good-natured man with an excellent sense of humor. Never hurt a fly in vain.

Despite the fact that his life was extremely difficult - even as a child, Duncan was left without a father who abandoned his family. He was forced to stop studying to care for his seriously ill mother. At school, he, who stood out among the other kids like King Kong, was constantly teased by his classmates.

In the end, Michael got mixed up with bad company and almost ended up in jail. Only my strict mother saved me. As Duncan himself recalled:

She grabbed the biggest frying pan and hit me between the eyes a couple of times. Knocked all the criminal crap out of my head forever.



Michael's path to big cinema turned out to be extremely difficult and thorny. He worked as a security guard, a bouncer, and even a stripper. He then became a successful bodyguard, protecting Will Smith himself. Moved to Los Angeles - the capital of American cinema. It was then that this big guy was noticed by Bruce Willis, who invited him to try out on the screen.

“I got out of poverty and achieved something in life only thanks to my own efforts,” our hero said in an interview. - They told me that with my appearance I would always play the only thugs in the crowd. But as you can see, everything turned out differently. One day I was working out in a rocking chair - and then my friends laughed and said: “Hey, Big Mike, Bruce Willis is calling you and offering you the main role...”

Michael Duncan has played more than fifty large and small roles in films. He appeared in music videos and on TV, and was nominated for an Oscar.



Alas, like many African-Americans, Michael had congenital heart problems. The actor was even forced to give up meat and become a convinced vegetarian.

But the problems with our hero’s heart, alas, did not leave him that way. Michael Duncan died in 2012 from a heart attack, at just 54 years of age. Just on the eve of his own wedding with the charming mulatto beauty Omarosa Manigault-Stolvor.



They say that the reason for the actor’s premature death was a persistent reluctance to give up heavy loads in the gym. Or at least just reduce the prohibitive weight of the bar a little!