Danielle Spencer, a former youngster actor finest recognized for her position as Dee within the Nineteen Seventies sitcom “What’s Occurring!!”, has died, a publicist for her household confirmed to ABC Information.
Spencer died Aug. 11, as a result of gastric most cancers and cardiac arrest. She was 60, in accordance with Sandra Jones, a household pal who’s serving because the household’s spokesperson.
“This premature loss of life is actually arduous to course of proper now,” Jones informed ABC Information Tuesday. “She is a candy and mild soul and she or he goes to be missed very, very a lot.”
Spencer starred in 65 episodes of “What’s Occurring!!”, an ABC sitcom about three teenage boys rising up within the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, according to IMDb.
Spencer performed Dee Thomas, the boys’ youthful sister. She additionally appeared in 16 episodes of the present’s sequel, “What’s Occurring Now!”
Danielle Spencer from ‘What’s Occurring!!’ poses for a photograph in November 1976, in Los Angeles.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Pictures
In 1977, Spencer survived a deadly automotive crash that killed her stepfather and supervisor, Tim Pelt, in accordance with her biography on her web site.
After recovering from her accidents, Spencer went onto earn a doctorate diploma in veterinary medication in 1993.
She moved from California to the Richmond, Virginia, space in 2014.
On the time of her loss of life, Spencer, who beforehand battled breast most cancers, lived together with her mother in an space outdoors of Richmond, in accordance with Jones.
Along with her mother, Cheryl Pelt, Spencer can be survived by her youthful brother, jazz musician Jeremy Pelt.
In an e mail Tuesday, Jeremy Pelt informed ABC Information that Spencer was, “a really loving spirit who fought courageously till the very finish.”
Jeremy Pelt additionally shared a tribute to his sister on Instagram Tuesday, writing, “Lots of you knew her as ‘Dee,’ however she was greater than a toddler actress.”
“She was a pal, an auntie to my three youngsters who adored her, she was a daughter- and in some ways, my mom’s finest pal, she was a veterinarian, she was somebody who all the time remained constructive even throughout her darkest days preventing this illness,” he continued. “And he or she was MY sister and protector.”
He added that he was “grateful” to be together with his sister when she took her final breath and was “gutted” by her loss of life, writing, “I really like you, without end.”
In a 2016 interview with an area Richmond TV station, Spencer mirrored on her performing profession being featured on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition in Washington, D.C.
“I severely cannot even digest it,” Spencer mentioned. “I imply, to begin with, that the present is remembered from 40 years [ago], however then additionally to be featured on this museum together with different exhibits which were trailblazers.”
Spencer mentioned that her late stepfather introduced her into the world of performing. At age 9, she mentioned she received the decision that she had gained the position of Dee in “What’s Occurring!!”
“A month later I received a telephone name, they usually mentioned, ‘Fly out to California. You may have the position.’ And it was similar to my life modified,” she mentioned.
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