{"id":339044,"date":"2025-08-12T17:54:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T17:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/339044\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T17:54:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T17:54:21","slug":"danielle-spencer-dead-at-60-whats-happening-child-star-passes-away-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/339044\/","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Spencer dead at 60: What’s Happening!! child star passes away after cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iconic child star Danielle Spencer has died aged 60.<\/p>\n

Spencer, best known for her role as the sassy\u00a0Dee Thomas on\u00a0What’s Happening!! which ran from 1976-1979, passed away on Monday, August 11, at a Richmond, Virginia<\/a> hospital after a battle with breast<\/a>\u00a0cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her former co-star Haywood Nelson, who played\u00a0Dwayne Clemens Nelson on the ABC show, confirmed her death in an emotional tribute.<\/p>\n

He wrote: ‘Brilliance! It comes in a great many forms. We all have them and we all have this family\u2019s – Dr. Danielle Spencer (June 24, 1965 – August 11, 2025).<\/p>\n

‘Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior, without fail, has finally found her release from the clutches of this world and a body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We celebrate Danielle Spencer and her contributions as we regret to inform her departure and transition from a long battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

‘We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, \u201cWhat\u2019s Happening\u201d 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.’<\/p>\n

\"Iconic <\/p>\n

Iconic What’s Happening!! child star Danielle Spencer has died aged 60 – pictured 1976<\/p>\n

\"Spencer, <\/p>\n

Spencer, best known for her role as the sassy Dee Thomas on What’s Happening!! which ran from 1976-1979, passed away on Monday, August 11, after a battle with cancer – pictured February 2025 in one of her final public outings<\/p>\n

As Dee, the sister of Raj Thomas (Ernest Thomas) and daughter of Mabel (Mabel King), she was known for her signature phrase, ‘Oooh I’m gonna tell mama!’<\/p>\n

She later reprised her role for the show’s sequel What\u2019s Happening Now! which aired for three seasons between 1985-1988.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1977 aged just 12 Spencer was involved in a five car crash in Malibu that killed her stepfather Tim Pelt and left her in intensive care for three weeks with a\u00a0a broken leg, arm and pelvis.<\/p>\n

She wrote in her 2010 memoir, Through the Fire \u2026 Journal of a Child Star: ‘I didn\u2019t even get a chance to say goodbye to my stepfather, Daddy Tim, whom I loved and who taught me show business as a young child in New York.’<\/p>\n

In 2004, she was diagnosed with spinal stenosis –\u00a0a condition where the spinal canal narrows, putting pressure on the spinal cord and nerves – as a result of her injuries from the 1977 car accident.<\/p>\n

A surgery left her partially paralyzed for eight months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After What\u2019s Happening!! was canceled, Spencer moved to the Ivory Coast with her family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She attended veterinary school at Tuskegee University, earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1993.<\/p>\n

\"As <\/p>\n

As Dee, the sister of Raj Thomas (Ernest Thomas) and daughter of Mabel (Mabel King), she was known for her signature phrase, ‘Oooh I’m gonna tell mama!’ – pictured with\u00a0Fred ‘Rerun’ Berry, Haywood Nelson and Ernest Thomas in 1979<\/p>\n

\"Her <\/p>\n

Her former co-star Haywood Nelson, who played Dwayne Clemens Nelson on the ABC show, confirmed her death in an emotional tribute<\/p>\n

\"Spencer <\/p>\n

Spencer is pictured with\u00a0What’s Happening!! co-star Thomas in 2011<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In 1977 aged just 12 Spencer was involved in a five car crash in Malibu that killed her stepfather Tim Pelt and left her in intensive care for three weeks with a a broken leg, arm and pelvis<\/p>\n

Spencer worked as a veterinarian in the Los Angeles area for 20 years before relocating in 2014 to Richmond.<\/p>\n

Spencer became a veterinarian in 1996 and the following year art imitated life when she played one in As Good As It Gets.<\/p>\n

Her final screen role was as a street vendor in a 2001 episode of Days of Our Lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2014 she was diagnosed with breast cancer.<\/p>\n

‘With everything that I\u2019ve been through with the spinal cord injury, I know God is not going to give me another affliction.<\/p>\n

\u00a0‘So I was completely shocked when the doctors told me.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2015 she became the only child star to be inducted into the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of African American History and Culture.<\/p>\n

In 2018, she had emergency brain surgery for a bleeding hematoma caused by the accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was married to Garry Fields, a marketing manager, from 1999-2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following year, Spencer married entrepreneur David L. David.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spencer is survived by her mother and brother Jeremy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iconic child star Danielle Spencer has died aged 60. Spencer, best known for her role as the sassy\u00a0Dee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92,77,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-339044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-tvshowbiz","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115017080672496945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}