Actress-turned-veterinarian Danielle Spencer has died.
Spencer was 60 years old.
TMZ reported her former “What’s Happening!!” co-star, Haywood Nelson, confirmed Spencer’s death. She died at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, following complications from cancer. Her mother and brother, jazz musician Jeremy Pelt, were with her.
Haywood said he considered Spencer his little sister and that they just spoke two weeks ago, adding that she sounded upset during the call, TMZ reported.
He posted a tribute to her on Instagram.
Forbes said Spencer was born in the Bronx in 1965. She started acting at the age of 7 and was cast as Dee Thomas on “What’s Happening!!,” in 1976, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 11 years old.
She was known for the catch phrase, “Ooooh, I’m gonna tell Mama!”
“I had never seen any young black girl in that type of spotlight, so I didn’t have a reference point in the media as to how to deal with this opportunity,” she told Jet. “I was from the Bronx. What I did was use my own family as the reference on how to portray my character.”
Spencer also appeared on the sequel series “What’s Happening Now!!” in a recurring role, portraying Dee as a college student.
During the second season of the original “What’s Happening,” Spencer was injured in a car accident that killed her stepfather and left her in a three-week coma. It took six months for her to recover.
“I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to my stepfather, Daddy Tim, whom I loved and who taught me show business as a young child in New York,” Spencer wrote in her memoir, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
After “What’s Happening!!” ended, Spencer and her mother lived in Africa for a bit before she returned, attending the University of California, Davis, for a career in veterinary medicine.
When the show’s sequel was canceled, she went to Tuskegee University Veterinary School and became a veterinarian in the 1990s, Forbes reported.
She was a doctor in Los Angeles for about 20 years before moving across the country to Richmond, where she was a regular on WTVR’s morning news, talking about pet care.
Years after the crash, the injuries from the accident caused paralysis in her legs. In 2014 was diagnosed with breast cancer, WTVR reported after her cancer diagnosis.
In 2018, she had emergency brain surgery for a bleeding hematoma caused by the accident more than 40 years prior.
Spencer leaves behind her mother and brother, THR reported.
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