O.J. Simpson dies of cancer at age 76, family says - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — O.J. 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.

The family announced on Simpson's official X account that Simpson died Wednesday after battling prostate cancer. Simpson's attorney confirmed to TMZ he died in Las Vegas.

«On April 10th, 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 please respect their wishes for privacy and grace,» the family posted on Simpson's X account.

Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.

On June 12, the bodies of Brown Simpson and Goldman were found outside her condo in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Simpson was a person of interest in the murders, but rather than turn himself in five days later, he led police on a low-speed chase throughout Los Angeles as a passenger in a white Ford Bronco driven by former NFL player Al Cowlings. An estimated television audience of 95 million watched the drama unfold, with live coverage interrupting regular programming, including the NBA Finals.

Simpson gained widespread popularity across society as the Heisman Trophy-winning tailback for the University of Southern California in the late 1960s, as a rental car ad pitchman rushing through airports in the late 1970s, and as a commentator for «Monday Night Football» and an actor in movies such as «The Naked Gun» series in