Actor Bernie Mac was hospitalized this week for pneumonia and reports soon appeared that he was fighting for his life but his rep has dispelled such rumors, emphasizing that he “is still alive.”

Danica Smith, representative for actor-comedian Bernie Mac downplayed rumors that he was in a life and death situation after several reports said his condition was severe. One source who knows the comedian’s family told the Chicago Sun-Times that the 50-year-old actor was in “very, very critical” condition late Saturday at a Chicago hospital.

Smith told People.com that Bernie Mac “is still alive and being treated in a Chicago hospital for pneumonia.” He is “expected to make a full recovery.”

“We once again ask that the press respect his privacy and that of his family,” Smith added.
Mac, whose real name is Bernard Jeffery McCullough, was hospitalized in Chicago for pneumonia but his rep told the magazine that the current health problem was not connected to the comedian’s diagnosis of sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease which causes inflammation in the lungs, lymph nodes and other organs.

Mac has been in remission from sarcoidosis since 2005. It was then that he revealed he had been suffering from the disease for twenty years.

He is expected to be released soon, according to his rep.

Bernie Mac has appeared in “Ocean’s Eleven,” alongside Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and the subsequent “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen.” He also starred in the Fox sitcom titled “The Bernie Mac Show” from 2001 to 2006.