老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料

Skip to content

O.J. Simpson, legendary football player and actor brought down by his murder trial, dies at 76

LAS VEGAS (AP) 鈥 O.J. Simpson , the football star and Hollywood actor acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend in a trial that mesmerized the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in America, has died. He was 76.
20240411110412-6617fe4b6013bbf0db27b759jpeg
FILE - In this June 17, 1994, file photo, a white Ford Bronco, driven by Al Cowlings carrying O.J. Simpson, is trailed by Los Angeles police cars as it travels on a freeway in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (AP Photo/Joseph Villarin, File)

LAS VEGAS (AP) 鈥 , the football star and Hollywood actor acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend in a trial that mesmerized the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in America, has died. He was 76.

The family announced on that he died Wednesday of prostate cancer. He died in Las Vegas, officials there said Thursday.

Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. He was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and then served nine years in prison on unrelated charges.

Live TV coverage of his arrest after a marked a stunning .

He had seemed to transcend racial barriers as the star Trojans tailback for college football's powerful University of Southern California in the late 1960s, as a rental-car ad pitchman rushing through airports in the late 1970s, and as the husband of a blond and blue-eyed high school homecoming queen in the 1980s.

鈥淚鈥檓 not Black, I鈥檓 O.J.,鈥 he liked to tell friends.

captured America's attention on live TV. The case sparked gender, celebrity justice and .

Evidence found at the scene seemed overwhelmingly against Simpson. Blood drops, bloody footprints and a glove were there. Another glove, smeared with blood, was found at his home.

Simpson didn't testify, but the prosecution asked him to try on the gloves in court. He struggled to squeeze them onto his hands and spoke his only three words of the trial: 鈥淭hey're too small.鈥

His attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. told the jurors, 鈥淚f it doesn't fit, you must acquit.鈥

The jury of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown

A decade later, still shadowed by the California wrongful death judgment, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with 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 61, in a remote Nevada prison, including a stint as a gym janitor. He wasn't contrite when he released on parole in October 2017. The insist yet again that he was only trying to retrieve memorabilia and heirlooms stolen from him after his Los Angeles criminal trial.

鈥淚鈥檝e basically spent a conflict-free life, you know,鈥 said Simpson, whose parole .

Public fascination with Simpson Many debated whether he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was the subject of an FX miniseries and a

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think most of America believes I did it,鈥 Simpson told The New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury determined he did not kill Brown and Goldman. 鈥淚鈥檝e gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me.鈥

Twelve years later, following an outpouring of public outrage, Rupert Murdoch canceled a planned book by the News Corp.-owned HarperCollins in which Simpson offered his hypothetical account of the killings. It was to be titled 鈥淚f I Did It.鈥

Goldman鈥檚 family, still the multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgment, won control of the manuscript. They retitled the book 鈥淚f I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.鈥

鈥淚t鈥檚 all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals,鈥 Simpson told The Associated Press at the time. He collected $880,000 in advance money for the book, paid through a third party.

鈥淚t helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead,鈥 he said.

Less than two months after losing rights to the book, in Las Vegas.

David Cook, an attorney who has been seeking since 2008 to collect the civil judgment in the Goldman case, said he'd spoken with Ron's father, Fred, on Thursday about Simpson鈥檚 death. Cook declined to say what Fred Goldman said or where he was.

鈥淗e died without penance,鈥 Cook said of Simpson. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what he has, where it is or who is in control. We will pick up where we are and keep going with it.鈥

Simpson played 11 NFL seasons, nine of them with the Buffalo Bills, where he became known as 鈥淭he Juice鈥 and ran behind an offensive line known as 鈥淭he Electric Company.鈥 He won four NFL rushing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his career, scored 76 touchdowns and played in five Pro Bowls. His best season was 1973, when he ran for 2,003 yards 鈥 the first running back to break the 2,000-yard rushing mark.

鈥淚 was part of the history of the game,鈥 he said years later. 鈥淚f I did nothing else in my life, I鈥檇 made my mark.鈥

Simpson鈥檚 football rise happened simultaneously with a television career. He signed a contract with ABC Sports the night he in 1968. That same year, he appeared on the NBC series 鈥淒ragnet鈥 and 鈥淚ronside.鈥 During his pro career, Simpson was a color commentator for a decade on ABC followed by a stint on NBC. In 1983, he joined ABC鈥檚 鈥淢onday Night Football.鈥

Simpson became a charismatic pitchman. In 1975, Hertz made him the first Black man hired for a corporate national ad campaign. The commercials, featuring Simpson running through airports toward the Hertz desk and young girls chanting 鈥淕o, O.J., go!鈥 were ubiquitous.

Simpson made his big-screen debut in 1974's 鈥淭he Klansman,鈥 an exploitation film in which he starred alongside Lee Marvin and Richard Burton. The film flopped, but Simpson would go on to appear in several dozen films and TV series, including 1974鈥檚 鈥淭he Towering Inferno,鈥 1976鈥檚 鈥淭he Cassandra Crossing,鈥 1977鈥檚 鈥淩oots鈥 and 1977鈥檚 鈥淐apricorn One.鈥

Most notable, perhaps, was 1988鈥檚 鈥淭he Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad鈥 and two sequels. Simpson played Detective Nordberg in the slapstick films, opposite Leslie Nielsen.

Of course, Simpson went on to other fame.

One of the artifacts of his murder trial, the tailored tan suit he wore when acquitted, was donated and displayed at the Newseum in Washington. Simpson had been told the suit would be in the hotel room in Las Vegas, but it wasn鈥檛 there.

Orenthal James Simpson was born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, where he grew up in government-subsidized housing.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco for a year and a half before transferring to the University of Southern California for the spring 1967 semester.

He married his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, on June 24, 1967, moving her to Los Angeles the next day so he could begin preparing for his first season with USC 鈥 which, in large part because of Simpson, won that year鈥檚 national championship.

On the day he accepted the Heisman Trophy, his first child, Arnelle, was born.

He had two sons, Jason and Aaren, with his first wife; one of those boys, Aaren, drowned as a toddler in a swimming pool accident in 1979, the same year he and Whitley divorced.

Simpson and Brown were married in 1985. They had two children, and divorced in 1992. Two years later, Nicole Brown Simpson was found dead.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,鈥 he 鈥淭he subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the 鈥榥o negative zone.鈥 We focus on the positives.鈥

___

Biographical material in this story was written by former AP Special Correspondent

Ken Ritter, The Associated Press

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks