Bernie Mac – 50 – Sarcoidosis

Chicago native Bernie Mac didn’t achieve success in comedy until relatively later in life, making a prominent debut in an HBO Def Jam Comedy special at age 32. Mac, whose birth name was Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, steadily built his earnings in the following years, scoring his own self-titled sitcom in 2001 since his skills in stand-up comedy were outstanding. The actor suffered from the chronic tissue disease sarcoidosis, a condition that led to his untimely death at age 50 in August 2008. His last two films, including Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, were released posthumously.