(Newser)
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The heart attack that ultimately killed Michael Clarke Duncan happened in July, the AP reports. The gentle giant of an actor "suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered," reads a statement from Duncan's fiancée, Apprentice-star-turned-minister Omarosa Manigault. Duncan was still being treated at LA's Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when he died yesterday. The AP notes that Duncan became a vegetarian three years ago, and just this spring did a video for PETA saying he was "a lot healthier" since giving up meat.
Duncan and Manigault were planning to wed in January, reports TMZ. Wedding preparations had just begun when Duncan went into full cardiac arrest. Though doctors were flown in to help him, he never left the hospital. Tributes to the actor are rolling in from all corners of Hollywood, but one of the most touching comes from Tom Hanks, Duncan's co-star in The Green Mile. "I am terribly saddened at the loss of Big Mike," Hanks tells Entertainment Tonight. "He was the treasure we all discovered on the set of The Green Mile. He was magic. He was a big love of man and his passing leaves us stunned."
