Comedian Bernie Mac died early this morning at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago at the age of 50. Although the cause of death was not disclosed, Bernie Mac had been hospitalized recently for pneumonia.

“Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital,” his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles.

The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body’s organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease.

All of us here at T2W would like to express our condolences to the family of Bernie Mac. He will be missed.