LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson died age 76 earlier this month from prostate cancer, his longtime representative confirmed to media outlets Friday.
The former football hero, actor and celebrity murder defendant died April 10. A post on April 11 from Simpson’s family on X, formerly Twitter, said Simpson “succumbed to his battle with cancer." It asked on their behalf for “privacy and grace.”
"I was pretty certain it was prostate cancer; ultimately, that was the cause," attorney Malcolm LaVergne told People.
Simpson announced in May 2023 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. His health declined rapidly in early April just before his death, his lawyer said.
Simpson was a record-setting football star during 11 years as a running back in the NFL and became a movie actor, sportscaster and television advertising pitchman before he was famously acquitted of criminal charges alleging he stabbed his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman, to death in 1994 in Los Angeles. The proceedings in California in 1996 became known as the “trial of the century.”
Simpson was found liable for the deaths in 1997 by a California civil court jury.
LaVergne acknowledged that Simpson died without paying the families of Simpson’s slain ex-wife and Goldman the bulk of a $33.5 million judgment they were awarded in the 1997 civil liability case. Attorney David Cook, representing the Goldman family, said that he thought the judgment owed today, including unpaid interest, is more than $114 million.
Simpson was cremated with no plans for a public memorial, his attorney said.