O.J. Simpson, who rose to fame on the football field, made a fortune in film, television, and advertising, and was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife and her friend in a trial in 1995 that captivated the nation, died on Wednesday (10) at his home in Las Vegas. He was 76 years old.
The cause of death was cancer, his family announced on social media.
“On April 10, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you respect their wishes for privacy and grace,” a statement from his family said.
Simpson, nicknamed “The Juice,” broke records as a college and professional football player and expanded his celebrity and fortune as a sports broadcaster, film and television actor, and corporate spokesman, primarily for Hertz car rental.
All of that changed on June 12, 1994, when Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were brutally stabbed to death in Los Angeles. Within days, police announced their intention to arrest the former football star for the murders.
Five days after the murders, 95 million Americans watched on TV as Simpson’s white Ford – with longtime friend Al Cowlings at the wheel and Simpson in the back seat with a gun, threatening to kill himself – was pursued by police on a 90-mile chase.
Simpson eventually surrendered to police and was tried for the murders. In October 1995, after 11 months from jury selection to verdict, Simpson was acquitted in a trial that was broadcast daily on television and became an international sensation.
But the case changed the trajectory of his life. In 1997, a civil lawsuit brought by the victims’ families found him liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. He paid little of the debt, moved to Florida, and struggled to rebuild his life, raise his children, and stay out of trouble.
In 2006, he sold the manuscript of a book titled “If I Did It” and a TV interview, giving a “hypothetical” account of the murders he has always denied committing. A public outcry ended both projects, but Goldman’s family secured the rights to the book, added material implicating Simpson, and published it.
In 2007, Simpson was arrested in September after leading a group of men to a Las Vegas hotel and casino to steal, at gunpoint, what he claimed were his own sports memorabilia. Simpson was charged with a series of crimes, including kidnapping and armed robbery. The following year, he was found guilty and sentenced to up to 33 years in prison. Simpson was paroled on October 1, 2017.
Over the years, O.J. Simpson’s story has generated a wave of books, films, studies, and revealing debates about issues of justice, racial relations, and celebrity in a nation that adores its heroes, especially those shaped in stereotypes from rags to riches.
The poor boy who became a football star
Simpson was born on July 9, 1947, and raised in Potrero Hill, a low-income neighborhood near San Francisco. His mother, Eunice, worked as a nurse in a psychiatric ward, and his father, Jimmy Lee, worked as a cook and janitor at a private club. When Simpson was just a child, his father left the family, leaving Simpson’s mother to raise and support four children on her own.
Despite having bowed legs and pigeon toes due to a bout of rickets in childhood, Simpson developed a strong interest in sports as a child. In the spring of 1967, he enrolled at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and that same year he married his high school sweetheart, Marguerite Whitley, with whom he had three children.
Playing for USC as a running back, Simpson quickly became the top rusher in college football. When he left school, he had set 13 records in college football and won the 1968 Heisman Trophy.
The charismatic young athlete’s television career took off like a rocket. On the night he won the Heisman, Simpson signed a television contract with ABC Sports. The following year, Simpson was the first overall pick in the 1969 draft, signing a record five-year contract worth $650,000 with the Buffalo Bills. In 1973, Simpson scored an NFL record of 23 touchdowns in a season. He also set the record for most rushing yards in a single game, with 250, and broke the record for most rushing yards in a season, with 2,003.
Simpson was the first player selected in the 1969 draft, signing with the Buffalo Bills a record five-year contract worth $650,000. In 1973, Simpson scored an NFL record of 23 touchdowns in a season. He also set the record for most rushing yards in a single game, with 250, and broke the record for most rushing yards in a season, with 2,003.
Simpson’s exploits on the field also made him a star off the field. In 1975, Hertz hired Simpson as the first black man to be signed for a major national corporate advertising campaign. The success of the advertising campaign led other companies to sign sponsorship deals with Simpson, increasing both his wealth and the recognition of his name.
O.J. Simpson leaves behind four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage, and Sydney and Justin from his marriage to Nicole Brown Simpson.
Source: The New York Times and ABC News