Peabody Award-winning funnyman Bernie Mac, star of the Ocean's movies and TV's The Bernie Mac Show, passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia, The Associated Press reports.
According to AP, the 50-year-old actor had previously suffered from sarcoidosis, an "inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs." However, the disease had gone into remission in 2005 and "was not related" to the pneumonia diagnosis, Mac's publicist, Danica Smith, declared in a statement.
Puzzlingly, Smith had announced just yesterday that Mac was "responding well to treatment" and would be returning to work in a few weeks. It's unclear at this point what caused the sudden downturn in the actor's condition.