OJ Simpson, the American football star whose 1995 acquittal in the so-called “trial of the century” for the murder of his ex-wife and a male friend gripped the world, has died at the age of 76.
“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” a message signed by the family said on Thursday on social media site X.
“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”
Simpson was a running back for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, before being acquitted of murder in a trial in the mid-1990s and later served jail time for an armed robbery.
Once a beloved national figure, his fame turned to infamy after the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in a suburb of Los Angeles.
The televised police chase to apprehend Simpson, and the extraordinary subsequent trial featuring high-octane lawyers and allegations of racism, were watched by millions on television.
OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson in the 1990s. Source: Getty / Vinnie Zuffante
His acquittal in October 1995 after nine months in court was greeted with disbelief by many Americans who had followed every twist and turn in the arguments over details as intricate as whether a pair of gloves really fitted the former athlete’s hands.
Simpson grew up in poverty and ill health but developed into an elite athlete, rising rapidly to stardom first as a college football player and then in the National Football League, where he won the 1973 Most Valuable Player award.
His popularity only grew with a post-NFL career as an actor and an ad pitchman, where his appearances promoting everything from orange juice to car rentals made him one of the most recognizable black faces in the country.
That all came to an abrupt end on 12 June 1994 when Brown Simpson, 35, and waiter Goldman, 25, were found stabbed to death outside her home. Public views on whether Simpson was guilty or innocent of murder divided sharply along racial lines. And although allowed to walk free, there was no happy next chapter for Simpson.
Simpson was subsequently found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages totalling $33.5 million to the families of the victims.
Simpson also served nearly nine years in prison for a bungled armed robbery, before a parole board in the western state of Nevada approved his release in 2017.
But the public’s fascination in Simpson’s trial never waned. OJ: Made in America, a nearly eight-hour documentary about his murder trial, won the best documentary Oscar in 2017. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, a television mini-series starring Cuba Gooding Jr as the athlete, won multiple Emmy awards in 2016.
