Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar-nominee who made food and American diets his life's work, famously eating only at McDonald's for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.

Spurlock died Thursday in New York from complications related to cancer, according to a statement issued Friday by his family.

"It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan," Craig Spurlock, who worked with him on several projects, said in the statement.

"Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him."

Spurlock made a splash in 2004 with his groundbreaking Super Size Me, and returned in 2019 with Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! — a sober look at an industry that processes 9 billion animals a year in America.

Spurlock was a gonzo-like filmmaker who leaned into the bizarre and ridiculous.

His stylistic touches included zippy graphics and amusing music, blending a Michael Moore-ish camera-in-your-face style with his own sense of humour and pathos.

Since he exposed the fast-food and chicken industries, there was an explosion in restaurants stressing freshness, artisanal methods, farm-to-table goodness and ethically sourced ingredients.

But nutritionally not much has changed.

"There has been this massive shift and people say to me, 'So has the food gotten healthier?' And I say, 'Well, the marketing sure has,'" he told the AP in 2019.

In 2017 Spurlock confessed to sexual harassment and infidelity, saying he had been accused of rape.

AP