UPDATE
Apr 27, 2024 10:00 AM CDT
Turns out the rumors were true: OJ Simpson had prostate cancer, and that's what he died of earlier this month at the age of 76. TMZ Sports says it got the confirmation from Simpson's longtime attorney and executor of his estate, Malcolm LaVergne, who said he received a copy of Simpson's death certificate with verification. Earlier this year, Simpson wouldn't confirm or deny the prostate cancer whispers, though he did directly say he wasn't in hospice, another rumor that had been floating around. He'd announced he had cancer in May 2023, though he didn't specify what kind. "I was pretty certain it was prostate cancer; ultimately, that was the cause," LaVergne tells People. "He thought [he] had beaten it. I thought this was done, but you know how cancers go. They come back, and they come back with a vengeance."
Apr 11, 2024 10:05 AM CDT
OJ Simpson has died at age 76, his family announced Thursday. The statement said he "succumbed to his battle with cancer" and was surrounded by his children and grandchildren when he died on Wednesday. TMZ reports that Simpson was rumored to have had prostate cancer and had been in hospice care in recent months. The outlet describes the former football star as "one of the most infamous high-profile Americans of all time," thanks to his acquittal in the 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. While Simpson was acquitted in the murders, he later served nine years of a 33-year sentence for kidnapping and armed robbery in an unrelated case in Nevada.
As the Washington Post notes:
- "It was a stunning downfall for a man who had risen from a San Francisco slum to become one of the greatest running backs in football history, an actor in more than 20 Hollywood movies, a corporate pitchman—sprinting through airports for Hertz Rent-a-Car in his most memorable television commercials—and a TV sports commentator. He had good looks, a warm smile and a poised manner that made him a popular sports media personality long after his playing days had ended."
Simpson, whose name was Orenthal James but who later came to be known as "The Juice" to football fans, played 11 seasons in the NFL, per
NBC News. However, that sports legacy faded during his televised murder trial that "gripped America and divided the country largely among racial lines," per
USA Today. A subsequent civil trial found him liable for the double-murder. (More
OJ Simpson stories.)
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