Veteran American NFL football player, Orenthal James Simpson, professionally known as O.J. Simpson, has died at the age of 76.
His family broke the news of his death in a terse statement released on Thursday, noting that he succumbed to his battle with cancer.
In 1995, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the so-called “trial of the century” for the brutal murders of his wife and a male friend.
“On April 10, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” the family wrote on Twitter.
O.J. Simpson appeared to have made it after rewriting the record books as an American football star.
The former National Football League running back was famously acquitted of those charges in 1995, but was sent to prison years later for a bungled armed robbery.
According to the family, statement, Simpson will forever be remembered in connection with the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.
His sensational racially charged 1995 double murder trial transfixed America and was dubbed “The Trial of the Century.”
Simpson’s spectacular fall from grace came after a meteoric rise to stardom that saw him go from an impoverished childhood to the football field and then to Hollywood.
