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Danielle Spencer, who was most known for playing Dee Thomas, on the sitcom What’s Happening!! has died at 60 years old.
According to one of her co-stars, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, Spencer died on Monday in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. “She suffered for a very long time but did it with a great deal of courage,” Haywood Nelson told the publication.
Spencer was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy in 2014. Four years later, she underwent emergency brain surgery to remove a bleeding hematoma that was left undiscovered from a car accident back in 1976.
Due to the actor not having insurance at the time, her loved ones launched a GoFundMe page to pay for her medical expenses. The page raised over $10,000 at the time.
Born in June 1965, Spencer was raised by her mother, Cheryl, and her stepfather, Tim Pelt. She began acting at the young age of 7, where she landed roles in Serpico (1973) and Harry and Tonto (1974) before earning her role on What’s Happening!! when she was 11 years old.
“I had never seen any young black girl in that type of spotlight, so I didn’t have a reference point in the media as to how to deal with this opportunity,” she told Jet about earning the role during an interview in 2014. “I was from the Bronx. What I did was use my own family as the reference on how to portray my character.”
What’s Happening!! was based on the 1975 film, Cooley High, which followed two high school seniors and best friends, Leroy “Preach” Jackson and Richard “Cochise” Morris. However, the sitcom followed the lives of three working-class teenagers in the Los Angeles neighborhood, Watts.
In the show, Spencer played Dee, who was the sassy younger sister of Roger “Raj” Thomas (played by Ernest Thomas) and the daughter of Mabel (played by Mable King). She was most known for her signature phrase, “Ooooh, I’m gonna tell Mama!”
What’s Happening!! first aired in 1976 as a four-week summer series before returning in November and then for another two seasons.
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Spencer then reprised her role as Dee in the show’s sequel, What’s Happening Now!, which aired for three seasons. Following the cancellation of the sitcoms, Spencer and her family moved to the Ivory Coast, where she attended UC Davis, UCLA, and then veterinary school at Tuskegee University.
She worked as a veterinarian for two decades before relocating to Virginia, where she regularly ran a pet-care segment for CBS affiliate WTVR-TV.
The actor is survived by her mother and brother Jeremy, who is a jazz musician.
