Actor/comedian Bernie Mac died this morning in a Chicago hospital from complications related to pneumonia. He was 50 years old.

The actor, who’s real name was Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, had been hospitalized and treated pneumonia this past week.

Mac also suffered from the inflammatory lung disease sarcoidosis and had been in remission for the disease since 2005. Mac’s publicist said that his death was not related to the disease.

Rising from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago’s South Side, which the actor wrote about in his 2004 memoir Maybe You Never Cry Again, Mac went from stand-up and bit movie roles to mainstream success with his Fox TV series The Bernie Mac Show, which ran from 2001 to 2006.

Mac brought laughter to his many film roles, which included the Ocean’s movies, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and the 2007 blockbuster Transformers.

No further details regarding Mac’s death have been disclosed.

[Source: Yahoo!]