The late Michael Clarke Duncan remembered by former co-star, friend Geoff Stults

Actor Geoff Stults was at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., Thursday to promote his new Fox comedy “Enlisted.”

An otherwise jovial panel discussion turned serious for a moment when Stults was asked about the late Chicago actor Michael Clarke Duncan, Stults’ former co-star on another Fox series, “The Finder,” which was canceled last year.

Duncan died last September in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack earlier that summer. The hulking, Oscar-nominated actor who shot to fame as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile,” was 54.

“It was an awful experience to watch somebody who’s so vibrant and full of life and seemingly healthy go through that experience,” said Stults, who visited Duncan in the hospital the day he died. Stults was a pallbearer at his friend’s funeral.

Stults tried to lighten the mood by recalling Duncan’s fondness for animals.

“Mike was a happy guy and he lived the life he wanted to with his creepy six cats and his dogs,” said Stults, adding that Duncan had made arrangements before he died to ensure his pets would be well taken care of. “His animals are living better today than I am for sure.”