Actor Michael Duncan passed away on September 3 at the age of 54. His health had slowly deteriorated after he suffered a heart attack in July. Best known for his role in the 1999 film, “The Green Mile,” Duncan was remembered for his gentle spirit, kind heart, and irrepressible humor. Indeed, he was commemorated by his fellow Hollywood stars with plenty of jokes and chortles, not the least of which surrounded an instance from his childhood. Growing up on the south end of Chicago, he had a brief stint with gang life; brief because when he told his mother, who was cooking pork chops for dinner at the time, that he had joined a gang, she promptly picked the frying pan up off the stove with the pork chops still inside, hit him over the head with it, and ordered him to leave the gang immediately. Among those in attendance at his memorial service on September 10 were actor Tom Hanks, talk-show host Jay Leno, musician Stevie Wonder, and Duncan’s fiance Rev. Omarosa O. Manigault.
