O.J. Simpson, the former champion football running back-turned-actor who was convicted in a dramatic trial of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, died of cancer on Thursday, his family revealed. He was 76.
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His family posted on his official X account, “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer.” He was surrounded by his kids and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family requests that you respect their privacy and grace.”
Though Simpson was not found guilty of the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, he was found liable in a civil claim filed by the victims’ families three years after his criminal trial.
Orenthal James Simpson was born in San Francisco and won the Heisman Trophy at USC before going on to set records as a professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills.
He began acting while still at USC, appearing on “Medical Centre” before turning professional as a football player. He played in films such as “The Klansman,” “The Cassandra Crossing,” and “The Towering Inferno,” as well as the miniseries “Roots,” while still playing in the NFL.
After retiring from sports, he appeared in three “Naked Gun” films and the comedy “Back to the Beach.” He had finished a two-hour pilot for the adventure series “Frogmen” when he was arrested, bringing the project for NBC to an abrupt end.
On June 12, 1994, his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were discovered slain outside her Brentwood condominium. Simpson, who had previously pleaded no guilty to a domestic abuse charge against Nicole Brown Simpson while they were married, was identified as a person of interest in the deaths and charged accordingly. Instead of turning himself in, he attempted to run in his white Ford Bronco, becoming a media spectacle as police pursued him at a slow speed. The televised chase on June 17 drew an audience of some 95 million people.
The ensuing trial became a media circus and Simpson was found not guilty for the two murders. But in 1997, Goldman’s family brought a civil suit against Simpson, and he was found liable for wrongful death and battery against Goldman and battery against Nicole Brown Simpson. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.
He later served nearly nine years in prison for robbery, abduction, and other charges in a Las Vegas sports memorabilia fraud before being released in 2017.
Hollywood films and docuseries have chronicled the infamous trial, including Fox’s “The O.J. Simpson Story” (1995), CBS’ “American Tragedy” (2000), Investigation Discovery’s “OJ: Trial of the Century” (2014), the Oscar-winning “O.J.: Made in America” (2016), and FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (2016), starring Cuba Gooding Jr.