Michael Clarke Duncan, best known for his Academy Award nominated role as wrongly imprisoned John Coffey in the 1999 film The Green Mile, died in the hospital yesterday after two months of treatment from a heart attack he suffered last July. He was 54 years old.

The hulking Duncan got his start in Hollywood by working as a bodyguard for celebrities including Will Smith and Jamie Foxx before beginning to play bouncer/bodyguard roles on-screen in movies such as A Night at the Roxbury. He eventually landed a more significant role in the 1998 film Armageddon, where he struck up a friendship with Bruce Willis and the actor put in a good word to help him land his biggest role in The Green Mile. Most recently, he co-starred in Fox show The Finder, which was cancelled last May.

Click after the jump to find out what some celebrities had to say about his passing.