Danielle Spencer has handed away at age 60. The actress was finest identified for enjoying the wisecracking and tattling little sister Dee Thomas on the Nineteen Seventies sitcom ‘What’s Occurring!!’ Spencer died Monday (August 11) after a yearslong battle with most cancers. Household spokesperson Sandra Jones confirmed the information.
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As Dee, Spencer was the smarter, extra severe youthful sister who provided a gradual stream of deadpan roasts of huge brother Roger “Raj” Thomas and his mates Dwayne Nelson and Freddie “Rerun” Stubbs.
“Ooh, I’m gonna inform mama,” would change into Dee’s catchphrase.
The present, set within the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts and among the many first on tv to concentrate on the lives of Black youngsters, was primarily based on the film “Cooley Excessive” and ran on ABC from 1976 to 1979. It had an extended legacy due to its memorable characters, together with the geeky Raj, the catchphrase-spouting Dwayne, the red-bereted dancing phenom Rerun, and Dee along with her eyerolls and icy stare.
Early within the manufacturing of the present’s first season, Spencer, then 12, was in a significant automotive accident on the Pacific Coast Freeway in Malibu, California, that left her in a coma for 3 weeks and killed her stepfather, Tim Pelt. She would have spinal and neurological issues that may require a number of surgical procedures within the years afterward.
In 2018, she had emergency surgical procedure for a bleeding hematoma, which stemmed from that 1977 automotive crash. Within the fast aftermath, a household spokesperson mentioned she may solely communicate barely and had to make use of crutches to stroll. She had been struggling signs from at the least 2004, when she had to make use of a wheelchair and relearn tips on how to stroll. In 2014, she was identified with breast most cancers and had a double mastectomy.
Thomas additionally appeared on a mid-Nineteen Eighties reboot of the present, “What’s Occurring Now!!,” which ran for 3 seasons.
She went on to change into a veterinarian and advocate for animals. She attended the College of California, Davis, and UCLA, and obtained a doctorate in veterinary drugs from Tuskegee College in 1993.
Spencer continued to dabble in appearing, together with an look as a veterinarian within the 1997 Jack Nicholson movie “As Good because it Will get.”
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