OJ Simpson, the former football star and Hollywood actor whose murder trial for the killing of his ex-wife became a national sensation, died Wednesday at the age of 76 following a short battle with cancer.

Simpson became one of the greatest running backs in the history of college and then professional football.

His career began at the University of Southern California, where he was awarded the Heisman trophy in 1968 after setting the NCAA single-season rushing mark. He went on to be chosen first in the draft by the Buffalo Bills, for whom he played nine seasons, before wrapping up his career with the San Francisco 49ers.

In 1995, Simpson was cleared by a Los Angeles jury for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend in what was dubbed ‘the trial of the century.’

He avoided prison when he was found not guilty in the 1994 stabbing deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. 

He later served nine years in a Nevada prison after being convicted in 2008 on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel.

In 1995, Simpson was cleared by a Los Angeles jury for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend in what was dubbed ‘the trial of the century. He is shown here with his ‘dream team’ of defense attorneys

Football Star 

OJ Simpson – born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco – first rose to stardom on the football field at USC. He overcame childhood infirmity to become an electrifying running back at the Southern California school.

Over two years, he rushed for more than 3,100 years and had 33 total touchdowns.

His collegiate career culminated in 1968 when he was awarded the Heisman Memorial Trophy – given to the country’s top player.

His win was one of the largest blowouts in Heisman voting history, beating the next-highest vote-getter by 1,750 points.

Simpson was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1969 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills.

He played nine years for the New York team, with his best season coming in 1973 when he was named MVP. He rushed for 2,003 yards and 12 touchdowns, while also taking home the award as the top offensive football player.

Simpson finished in the top five of NFL MVP voting four times and was a top-five vote-getter for top offensive player during five seasons. He finished his career playing two seasons for the San Francisco 49ers.

Simpson became a football star while at USC where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1968

In this Dec. 16, 1973 file photo, Buffalo Bills’ O.J. Simpson (32) runs against the New York Jets in the first quarter of an NFL football game at Shea Stadium in New York

Throughout his career, Simpson was named to six Pro Bowls and was a first-team All-Pro player five times.

He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985 – his first year of eligibility.

Nicknamed ‘The Juice,’ Simpson was one of the best and most popular athletes of the late 1960s and 1970s. 

Throughout his time in the NFL, Simpson was married to his first wife Marguerite Whitley. The pair had three children together, two daughters and a son. 

Their second daughter, Aeren, tragically died in 1979, just one month shy of her second birthday.

The toddler was found unresponsive by the family’s pool. Paramedics were able to revive her, but she was placed on life support when she reached the hospital and died eight days later.

Simpson and Whitley’s marriage ended the same year their daughter passed. 

Throughout his NFL career, Simpson was married to Marguerite Whitley with whom he had three children, one of whom died after drowning in the family’s pool just shy of her second birthday

Simpson was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985

Second Career 

Ahead of the end of his football career, Simpson was eyeing his next move – another one that found him in front of cameras. 

The beloved celebrity set his sights on Hollywood, where doors were opening up to him following a run of successful commercials he starred in for the Hertz Rent-A-Car business. 

He remained the company’s spokesperson for another decade, in addition to appearing in a number of TV series and films, some of which he’d filmed during NFL offseasons.

In 1974, Simpson appeared alongside Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in ‘The Towering Inferno.’ 

He also appeared in the miniseries ‘Roots,’ and in the late 80s and 90s, he starred in the mega-hit ‘Naked Gun’ cop parody films, in which he played a hapless detective alongside Leslie Nielson.

Though he never achieved A-list star status, there were a number of years during which Simpson was a ubiquitous presence, appearing across popular media in shows and movies, commercials and as a football commentator on mainstream networks.

Simpson turned to acting after his NFL days, starring in the Naked Gun movies and appearing on TV

OJ Simpson stars in megahit ‘The Naked Gun’

The NFL hall-of-famer starred alongside comedy legends Leslie Nielson and George Kennedy

Trial of the Century 

Following a successful post-NFL run in Hollywood, Simpson’s life changed when Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ronald Goldman, 25, were found fatally slashed in an incredibly bloody scene outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994.

Simpson, then 46, was arrested and charged with the two murders five days later.

Simpson first met Brown, a beautiful, blonde, recent high school graduate, when she was an 18-year-old nightclub waitress and he was still married to his first wife. He was more than a dozen years her senior.

The pair married in 1985 and had two children. Over the course of their tumultuous marriage, Brown Simpson called the police on several occasions during her husband’s violent fits of rage.

In 1989, Simpson pleaded no contest to charges of spousal abuse. The pair divorced in 1992, but continued a messy on-again-off-again relationship under her death.

On the evening of Friday, June 17, 1994, Simpson led what became perhaps the most famous police chase in the nation’s history.

After failing to turn himself in to authorities, which he’d agreed to do, Simpson took off in a white Ford Bronco driven by his former teammate and friend Al Cowlings.

But, his famous celebrity turned to infamy after the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was later arrested in connection to their murders

The crime scene where Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were murdered

As police narrowed in on Simpson in the investigation he led them on a lengthy chase in a white Ford Bronco along LA highways

The police chase of OJ Simpson’s Bronco captivated the nation and had people in LA lining the streets to cheer on the NFL legend

The low-speed chase through Los Angeles lasted for 90-minutes and was filmed by news choppers hovering overhead in a scene that played live in the homes of some 95million Americans.

The chase was noted as the first time a police pursuit was televised nationwide and watched in a dramatic fashion. 

It led to the ongoing mass interest in the case against Simpson. NBC famously ran video of the chase alongside its coverage of Game 5 of the NBA finals. 

Simpson was eventually captured in his driveway after leading authorities along 60 miles of freeways and city streets.

All the while, friends and fans of Simpson were concerned the former footballer was on the brink of suicide.

Before fleeing his arrest, Simpson had written a letter proclaiming his innocence and saying goodbye to family and friends, making a last wish to ‘leave my children in peace.’

‘I’ve had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real OJ and not this lost person,’ he wrote.

Robert Shapiro, Simpson’s friend and attorney, said he feared the star was suicidal. 

Simpson’s mugshot after his arrest

Simpson then hired an expensive team of prominent attorneys who became known as ‘the dream team,’ and eventually successfully argued for his acquittal during the high-profile murder trial.

Robert Kardashian, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran. and F. Lee Bailey were among the attorneys whose names became ubiquitous in pop culture during and after the trial.

The lengthy Los Angeles trial was famously televised in its entirety for close to a year, which turned the gruesome murders into a worldwide media sensation.

Simpson’s October 1995 acquittal divided the nation along primarily racial lines. The country’s black population felt Simpson’s successful defense proved there was a significant strain of racism pervading the US justice system, which had worked to frame the former NFL player.

Prior to his trial, Simpson had rarely discussed his race or racism in the US.

In 1976, he told Playboy magazine: ‘I’m happy with being Black and I don’t trip about it.’

The reality of Simpson’s life then was that his wealth, talent, and star-power allowed him access to virtually all social circles, club, and environments that he ever might wish to visit.  

His status and wealth mitigated any negative reaction some in the upper echelons of society might have had to his race, and are ultimately what made it possible for him to procure and afford the legal team responsible for his acquittal.

Despite the acquittal, the once beloved star was never able to fully regain his commercial success as an actor, advertising star, or sports announcer.

The question of Simpson’s innocence and what really happened the night of June 12, 1995, never really subsided. The case has been the premise of several documentaries, books, podcasts, and fictionalized television shows.

Robert Shapiro, Simpson’s friend and attorney, said he feared the star was suicidal when he led police on the Bronco chase

Simpson hired an expensive team of prominent attorneys who became known as ‘the dream team,’ and eventually successfully argued for his acquittal during the high-profile murder trial 

The lengthy Los Angeles trial was famously televised in its entirety for close to a year, which turned the gruesome murders into a worldwide media sensation

The prosecution also had a team of lawyers who worked to put Simpson behind bars 

Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fiber tests linking Simpson to the murders. Pictured: Prosecutor Marcia Clark and LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman

‘If the glove does not fit you must acquit,’ became one of the most famous lines from Simpson’s infamous trial

The trial itself had everything: a rich celebrity defendant; a black man accused of killing his white former wife out of jealousy; a woman slain after divorcing a man who had beaten her; a ‘dream team’ of pricy and charismatic defense lawyers; and a huge gaffe by prosecutors.

Simpson, who at the outset of the case declared himself ‘absolutely 100 percent not guilty.’

Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fiber tests linking Simpson to the murders. 

The defense countered that the celebrity defendant was framed by racist white police.

The trial transfixed America. In the White House, President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office and watched the verdict on his secretary’s TV. 

Simpson reacts to his not guilty verdict following a year-long trial

Many black Americans celebrated his acquittal, seeing Simpson as the victim of bigoted police

Many other Americans were appalled by his exoneration in what they thought should have been an obvious win for the prosecution

The Goldman and Brown families subsequently pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court. Pictured: Fred Goldman is hugged by his daughter Kim while patting his wife Patti’s cheek during a news conference after the verdict

Many black Americans celebrated his acquittal, seeing Simpson as the victim of bigoted police. Many other Americans were appalled by his exoneration in what they thought should have been an obvious win for the prosecution.

Simpson waved at the jurors and mouthed the words ‘thank you’ after the predominately black panel of 10 women and two men acquitted him on Oct. 3, 1995. 

‘Based on the evidence presented to me in that case in trail – and i thought that the prosecution in that case did put on a very weak case – I had no alternative but to rule for reasonable doubt,’ juror Lionel Cryer later said years later. He raised his fist in the air as he left the court room after the verdict. 

One exceptionally weak moment for the prosecution during the trial was the testimony of Brian ‘Kato’ Kaelin, who had been staying in a guest house on Simpson’s estate and was the last person to see Simpson before the murders occurred.

Kaelin presented during his testimony as a dopey Hollywood wannabe who undermined the legitimacy of the prosecution’s argument that Simpson did not have a credible alibi for the time at which the murders were committed.

He became a widely recognized national laughingstock due to his dazed, dumb answers on the stand.

Following the trial, the Goldman and Brown families subsequently pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court. 

In 1997, a predominately white jury in Santa Monica, California, found Simpson liable for the two deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. 

After the civil case, some of Simpson’s belongings, including memorabilia from his football days, were taken and auctioned off to help pay the damages he owed.

In the mid-2000s, Simpson famously penned a novel title ‘If I did it: Confession of the Killer.’ The book was a supposed hypothetical description of the murders. However, some viewed as more an actual confession.

The books release was canceled after it was announced however 400,000 physical copies were printed and by June 2007 copies leaked online. 

A judge awarded proceeds from the book to go to the Goldman family to help cover the money owed from the civil trial. 

Prison Stint 

That same year, in September, nearly 12 years after his acquittal, Simpson was arrested for leading a group of men – some of them armed – into a Vegas hotel room, where they held at gunpoint two men as they robbed them of memorabilia worth thousands of dollars that Simpson said belonged to him.

At the time, Simpson claimed he was merely attempting to recover his own property.

Beforehand, he reportedly told Tom Riccio, one of the men involved: ‘This is not memorabilia. These are personal artifacts that were stolen from me.

‘Everyone thinks nothing bad happens to me. Here I am being robbed. Why don’t we show the world that I have to go by myself to get my stuff back?’

Memorabilia dealer Bruce Fromong testified during Simpson’s trial that he set up a meeting with one of the infamous star’s friends who he suspected was a legitimate buyer.

Instead, Simpson turned up to the meeting with other men and they all had guns. In recordings of the robbery afterwards, Simpson was heard shouting: ‘You think you can steal my s**t?’

Michael McClinton, one of the other men involved, later told how Simpson got drunk in the hours after the robbery and warned the other men never to reveal there were guns involved.

On Oct. 3, 2008, exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the murder trial, he was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery. He was then sentenced to prison

He was released on parole in 2017 and moved to a gated community in Las Vegas. He was then granted early release from parole in 2021 due to good behavior

In recent years, Simpson has appeared frail while out and about in Las Vegas

‘I didn’t want to hurt anybody,’ Simpsons said at his sentencing, to which he wore a blue prison jumpsuit and shackles around his legs.

‘I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.’ 

The next year, on the 13th anniversary of his acquittal, Simpson was convicted by a jury on 10 counts of armed robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy. 

He was sentenced to 33 years in prison, a sentence that was, to some degree, seen by the public as retribution for his questionable acquittal more than a decade prior.

His team’s appeals of the verdict failed. He served nine years in a Nevada prison for his crimes.

He was released on parole in 2017 and moved to a gated community in Las Vegas. He was then granted early release from parole in 2021 due to good behavior. 

In 2019, on the 25th anniversary of the murder, Simpson launched a Twitter account.

He quickly amassed hundreds of thousands of followers and soon made something of a name for himself as a presence on the app, often posting short videos of himself, where he offered his opinions and commentary on a range of subjects.

In recent months, Simpson was spotted looking frail during a number of outings in Las Vegas.

In October, Simpson looked nearly unrecognizable as he carried groceries around Sin City in a USC polo – his college team.