OJ Simpson, who died aged 76, will be remembered as the star of the series football who was tried and acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife, a verdict that did not save him from falling from grace.
He was sentenced to 33 years in prison for another case of armed robbery and kidnapping, of which he served nine years before being released on parole in 2017.
Orenthal James Simpson was considered a god in the United States and his fame did not fade when he hung up his boots and entered the world of entertainment.
But the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman brought him down from Olympus and brought him to the bench in 1994 in the so-called “Trial of the Century”.
The jury declared him innocent, although he was later found guilty in civil court and forced to pay $33.5 million in damages, a score he never settled.
From poverty to glory.
Simpson was born on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco. When he was five years old, his father abandoned the family and left him in the care of his mother in a very poor home. His legs were deformed by rickets due to vitamin and calcium deficiency.
Without money for surgery, his mother made him wear simple orthotics and put shoes on opposite feet to strengthen his legs.
The method worked so well that he was able to run 100 yards (91.4 m) in 9.9 seconds.
But even then, OJ was becoming a “problem child” who spent a week in prison at the age of 15 for robbing a liquor store.
After his release, he was greeted by baseball star Willie Mays, who guided him to stay out of trouble and devote himself entirely to exploiting his talent.
He began running on the tough circuit of a public housing project in San Francisco and from there catapulted himself to American football fame and stardom with the Buffalo Bills.
He won the coveted Heisman Trophy in 1968 and the Most Valuable Player award in 1973. In 1985 he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
Not wanting to give up fame but aware that his legs wouldn’t last forever, he began a less illustrious career as a sports commentator and then focused on Hollywood.
He said he was fortunate to come into the world of cinema when black actors were most in demand, but with the exception of a few hits like “Hell in the Tower” and “Capricorn One,” that was in the films he worked on contributed, the case did not have much influence.
He was successful in the advertising industry, with advertisements for well-known brands, including the car rental company Hertz, which brought him recognition and a lot of money.
Main suspect.
In 1977, he met Nicole Brown, then 18 years old and a waitress in a nightclub when he was already a star. He separated from his first wife, with whom he had three children, and married Brown in 1985, with whom he had two daughters. They divorced in 1992.
Two years later, on June 12, Brown and Goldman were found stabbed to death outside their home in suburban Los Angeles.
Simpson became the prime suspect in the brutal murders.
After he failed to surrender to justice, police pursued him for hours across the Californian highways, an action that was broadcast live and became a media phenomenon across the country.
His long trial – which was the subject of several documentaries and television series and captured the attention of much of the world – ended in an acquittal that divided the country.
He couldn’t avoid bars when he was arrested in Las Vegas in 2007 for kidnapping and robbing two sports memorabilia collectors at gunpoint.
The case cost him 33 years in prison, of which he served the minimum sentence and was released in 2017.
On Wednesday “he succumbed to his battle with cancer,” his family wrote on the social network X this Thursday.
SPRING: AFP.