Tom Hanks and Stevie Wonder were among the celebrities that paid their respects at the funeral, held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.
Hanks lightened the sombre tone with a humorous tale of Duncan joining a gang as a youth. The video, which has since been uploaded to YouTube, has gone viral.
“’What’s that in your head Mic?’” said Hanks, mimicking Duncan mum in the story.
“’That’s my trademark, I’m in a gang,’
‘oh really you’re in a gang’, said his mum.
Then she came down with a frying pan across his head.”
The crowd erupted into laughter at various points of Hanks’ speech.
Stephen King also paid his tributes on the day, a reading included the writer’s message: “No one has ever done a character I wrote more justice.”
Actor Duncan, who played parts in Armageddon, The Whole Nine Yards and Planet of the Apes, died at aged 54 on September 3. Duncan was in hospital at the time of his death, after receiving two months of treatments since his July 13 heart attack.
“I will miss my friend, Michael Clarke Duncan. What an incredible soldier in God’s Plan,” said Steve Harvey via Twitter.Terry Crews also tweeted a comment “Rest in Peace to my brother who paved the way for me and many Black actors.”
