Bernie Mac was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised by a single mother, Mary, who died of cancer when he was 16. He put on shows for neighborhood kids on the city's South Side. He attended Chicago Vocational High School (Class of 1976). Later, he moved to Tampa, Florida. During his 20s he worked in a variety of jobs, including as a furniture mover and a UPS agent.One of Mac's earliest comic influences was from The Three Stooges and listening to stand-up comedians Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx. Mac started as a stand-up comedian in Chicago's Cotton Club. After he won the Miller Lite Comedy Search at the age of 32, his popularity as a comedian began to grow. A performance on HBO's Def Comedy Jam thrust him into the spotlight. He opened for Dionne Warwick, Redd Foxx and Natalie Cole. He played a small role in 1994's House Party 3 as Uncle Vester. He also had a short-lived talk show on HBO titled Midnight Mac. Later, Mac also acted in minor roles and got his big break as "Pastor Clever" in Ice Cube's 1994 film Friday. Following that role, Mac had his first starring role as "Dollar Bill", a silly, slick-talking club owner in The Players Club. Mac was able to break from the traditional "black comedy" genre, having roles in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven and becoming the new Bosley for the Charlie's Angels sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. In 2001, he gave an impressive performance in a supporting role as the villain "Gin Slagel" in Bad Santa. He also starred in Guess Who?, a comedic remake of the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and made an appearance in the 2007 film Transformers as the car salesman "Bobby Bolivia." In his later years he hosted Last Comic Standing (2002 TV Show). He also served as the voice of Zuba, Alex the Lion's long lost father in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. He co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson in the 2008 musical comedy Soul Men as "Floyd Henderson". His final film role was as "Jimmy Lunchbox", a flamboyant children's entertainer in the 2009 Disney film Old Dogs which was released a year and a half after his passing. He starred alongside John Travolta and Robin Williams in that particular film.
In 2001, the Fox Network gave Mac his own semi-autobiographical sitcom called The Bernie Mac Show portraying a fictional version of himself. In the show, he suddenly becomes custodian of his sister's three children after she enters rehab. It was a success, in part because it allowed Mac to stay true to his stand-up comedy roots, breaking the fourth wall to communicate his thoughts to the audience. The show contained many parodies of events in Bernie's actual life. It was not renewed after the 2005-2006 season. The series finale aired on April 14th, 2006. However, the finale barely left a conclusion for the series, and no ending to the storyline of Bernie and Wanda trying to have a baby which had been abandoned a few episodes earlier. Among other awards, the show won an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Writing’, the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, and the Humanitas Prize for television writing that promotes human dignity.[2] His character on The Bernie Mac Show was ranked #47 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time".
Mac was number 72 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time. On March 19, 2007, Mac told David Letterman on the CBS Late Show that he would retire from his 30-year career after he finished shooting the comedy film, The Whole Truth, Nothing but the Truth, So Help Me Mac. "I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1978. ...I was on the road 47 weeks out of the year."
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