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O. J. Simpson dead: a life between American football, cinema and a murder trial

He was 76 years old. Accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and his friend Ronald Goldman, the former champion was eventually exonerated due to lack of evidence. He had long had cancer

O.J. Simpson (Photo by Jae C. Hong / POOL / AFP)

3' min read

3' min read

Former American football player O.J. Simpson has dead after a battle with cancer. He was 76 years old.

This was announced by the family in a post on X. "On 10 April, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, lost his battle with cancer, he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren," the post read.

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'The Juice', as he was known in his golden years when he wore the San Francisco 49ers jersey, was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and his friend Ronald Goldman.

Addio a O.J. Simpson, l’ex star travolta dallo scandalo

Photogallery23 foto

The trial had gone on for months and had split America, even sparking a furious debate on the racial issue. The former champion was eventually exonerated for lack of evidence. In 2008, however, he went to prison for robbery and kidnapping. In 2017 he left prison.

The whole judicial affair of the African-American champion had a huge following in America, but above all it was a television event, starting with the famous police chase of O.J.'s Ford Bronco - who had failed to show up at the police station two days after his ex-wife Nicole Brown had been found murdered with his friend Ron Goldman in his Brentwood home on 17 June 1994 - broadcast live for hours from news helicopters flying over the Los Angeles motorways.

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The trial then became one of the most watched American television events in history, in particular the moment when, on 3 October 1995, by a majority African-American jury, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty. A result achieved thanks to the 'dream team' of lawyers, led by African-American Johnnie Cochran, who succeeded in shifting the focus not to the obvious elements of guilt, but to the racist misconduct of the Los Angeles police department.

Elements of guilt that were recognised in the civil trial two years later, in which Simpson was convicted of paying $25 million in compensation to the families of the two victims.

Before the court case that will always be linked to his name, O.J. had been one of the most famous and beloved football stars of his time, changing the way African-American athletes were perceived in the mainstream.

So much so that at the same time as his sports career, first as a star in the USC and then in the Nfl, with the San Francisco 49ers and the Buffalo Bills, O.J. became a celebrity, appearing in films, TV series, commercials - such as the Hertz commercial - and gracing the covers of magazines such as Rolling Stone. Once he left the sports field, he was among the stars of the movie series 'The Bullet', and was also a sports commentator for 'Monday Night Football'.

A decade after the murder trials, Simpson was at the centre of another court case: in 2008, he was convicted of robbery and kidnapping in Nevada, in connection with an incident at a Las Vegas hotel involving memorabilia from his sports career that Simpson claimed had been stolen from him.

He thus spent nine years in prison before being released.

However, the O.J. murder trial remains one of the most famous in American history, used as a touchstone for all the media trials that followed.

In 2016 Fx made the series 'The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' which was a hit, while Espn the following year made the documentary 'O.J.: Made in America'.

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