O.J. Simpson dies of cancer at 76

O.J. Simpson is dead following a battle with cancer, his family confirmed on Thursday. He was 76.

A post to Simpson’s X account shared the news, saying he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren on April 10 when he died.

“During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace,” the family wrote.

Simpson, an ex-NFL great, was most widely known for the notorious ’90s court case watched around the world, when he stood trial for the double-murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

He was acquitted of the charges, but it became one of the most talked-about court cases of the last century, and its live, of-the-minute coverage on TV changed everything.

From the police chase of Simpson’s Bronco along the Los Angeles freeway to the now-infamous line, “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” the court case transfixed the world.

On the day of the low-speed chase, Simpson was expected to turn himself in to the police, but he never showed.

Hours later, Simpson’s lawyer and friend Robert Kardashian read a letter from Simpson to the media. It read, “First, everyone understand. I had nothing to do with Nicole’s murder…I think of my life and feel I’ve done most of the right things. So why do I end up like this? I can’t go on.”

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Many took the letter to be a suicide note, and when a police officer approached the Bronco, Cowlings said Simpson was in the back seat with a gun to his head — prompting police to back off but continue the chase at 56 kilometres per hour.

The 80-kilometre chase ended at Simpson’s home, where eventually he surrendered to police.

Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fibre tests linking Simpson to the murders. The defence countered that the celebrity defendant was framed by racist white police.

The trial transfixed America. In the White House, President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office and watched the verdict on his secretary’s TV. Many Black Americans celebrated his acquittal, seeing Simpson as the victim of bigoted police. Many white Americans were appalled by his exoneration.

His case sparked debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, celebrity justice and police misconduct.

A criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay US$33.5 million to family members of Brown and Goldman.

A decade later, still shadowed by the California wrongful death judgment, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a cramped Las Vegas hotel room. Two men with Simpson had guns. A jury convicted Simpson of armed robbery and other felonies.

Imprisoned at age 61, he served nine years in a remote northern Nevada prison, including a stint as a gym janitor. He was not contrite when he was released on parole in October 2017. The parole board heard him insist yet again that he was only trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and family heirlooms stolen from him after his criminal trial in Los Angeles.

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In May 2023, Simpson shared a video to X, revealing that he had recently “caught cancer” and “had to do the whole chemo thing.” He added, “It looks like I beat it.”

He did not reveal the type of cancer.

Then, earlier this year, a TV station in Las Vegas reported that Simpson was again undergoing treatment for cancer.

Simpson responded that same day, denying rumours he was in hospice care. He didn’t confirm or deny whether the cancer had returned.

Orenthal James Simpson was born in San Francisco on July 9, 1947. He contracted rickets at age 2 and was forced to wear leg braces until he was 5 but recovered so thoroughly that he became one of the most celebrated football players of all time.

During nine seasons for the Buffalo Bills and two for the San Francisco 49ers, Simpson became one of the greatest ball carriers in NFL history. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He retired in 1979.

Simpson also became an advertising pitchman, best known for years of TV commercials for Hertz rental cars. As an actor, he appeared in movies including The Towering Inferno (1974), Capricorn One (1977) and the The Naked Gun cop spoof films in 1988, 1991 and 1994, playing a witless police detective.

Simpson married his first wife, Marguerite, in 1967 and they had three children, including one who drowned in the family’s swimming pool at age 2 in 1979, the year the couple divorced.

Simpson met future wife Brown when she was a 17-year-old waitress and he was still married to Marguerite. Simpson and Brown married in 1985 and had two children. She later called police after incidents in which he struck her. Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse charges in 1989.

— with files from Global News, Reuters and The Associated Press

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