Danielle Spencer, the former child star best known for her role in “What’s Happening!!,” has died. She was 60.
Spencer’s death was announced by her co-star Haywood Nelson on Tuesday.
“Brilliance! It comes in a great many forms. We all have them, and we all have this family’s — Dr. Danielle Spencer (June 24, 1965 – August 11, 2025),” Nelson, 65, wrote.
“Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior, without fail, has finally found her release from the clutches of this world and a body,” the actor continued. “We celebrate Danielle Spencer and her contributions as we regret to inform her departure and transition from a long battle with cancer.”
Nelson’s statement added, “We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, ‘What’s Happening’ cast member, veterinarian animal rights proponent and healer, and cancer heroine. Our Shero.”
“Danielle is loved. She will be missed in this form and forever embraced,” Nelson said in conclusion.
Spencer played Dee Thomas, the sassy younger sister of the Thomas family, on “What’s Happening!!” The series, which was loosely based on the 1975 film “Cooley High,” aired on ABC from 1976 to 1979.
The cast also included Ernest Thomas as Raj Thomas, Nelson as Dwayne Clemens Nelson, Fred Berry as Freddie “Rerun” Stubbs, Mabel King as Mabel “Mama” Thomas and Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson.
In 1985, the show was revived as a sequel series, “What’s Happening Now!!,” which aired in syndication for three seasons.
During production of the second season of the original show in 1977, Spencer and her stepfather, Tim Pelt, got into a severe car accident. Spencer was left in a three-week coma while Pelt died after trying to protect the actress in the crash.
“I don’t remember the hospital stay. I don’t remember almost that entire period,” Spencer said on an episode of “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” in 2016. “However, of course it changed my life.”
“I broke my right leg and my right arm. I was in a coma for three weeks. I also broke my pelvis,” Spencer recalled. “Fortunately for me, I had the whole summer to heal, and I was right back on the show for the final season.”
But years later, Spencer suffered paralysis due to injuries sustained in the crash. She had surgery and did physical therapy which eventually helped her walk again.
After “What’s Happening!!” ended, Spencer and her mom moved to Africa before she enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where she studied veterinary medicine.
Spencer attended Tuskegee University Veterinary School in Tuskegee, Alabama and became a vetenarian after graduating.
In 2011, Spencer released a memoir, “Through The Fire… Journal of a child star,” where she opened about her accident and her career change.
Three years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“With everything that I’ve been through with the spinal cord injury, I know God is not going to give me another affliction. So I was completely shocked when the doctors told me,” she told Black America Web in 2014 after her cancer diagnosis.
Spencer shared in the same interview that she was happy she quit acting to work with animals.
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