O.J. Simpson dead at 76

• O.J. Simpson died at the age of 76, his family said on Thursday.
• Simpson's family wrote on X that the ex-football star died on Wednesday surrounded by his children.
• Simpson was charged with the murder of his ex-wife and acquitted in a high-profile trial.

O.J. Simpson, the ex-football star who was acquitted of murder in a highly publicized trial in 1995, died on Wednesday, his family announced.

Simpson had been diagnosed with cancer, his family said.

"He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren," they wrote in a post on X.

Simpson was 76.

Simpson had a successful football career before becoming the center of a high-profile trial after the death of his former wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman, at her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994.

The notorious trial — and Simpson's arrest, including an infamous slow-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco — was broadcast to millions across the US.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995, but Brown and Goldman's families later sued the former football star. A civil jury found him liable for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman in 1997, and he was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the families.

Simpson's football career began in college when he was noticed by coaches while playing for the City College of San Francisco. Simpson chose to transfer to the University of Southern California, where he won the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the most outstanding player in college football, in 1968.

Simpson — known to fans as "the Juice" — was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1969 and spent the next 11 years in the NFL, playing for the Bills and the San Francisco 49ers before retiring. In 1985, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After leaving football, Simpson appeared in numerous TV shows, movies, and advertisements.

These achievements were overshadowed by Simpson's legal problems, which continued after his trials in 1995 and 1997. In 2007, he was arrested on charges including robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy.

Simpson, who was 60 at the time of his arrest, was found guilty a year later and sentenced to 33 years in prison. Simpson was 70 when he was released on parole in 2017.

Even decades after the trials, Simpson never escaped the shadow of Brown and Goldman's deaths. In 2016, ESPN released a five-part documentary about the case and FX premiered an anthology series, "American Crime Story," which was based on a book about the case.

Simpson told the Associated Press in 2019 that despite the renewed interest, he did not want to reflect on the situation.

"We don't need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives," he said. "The subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the 'no negative zone.' We focus on the positives."

Correction: April 11, 2024 — A previous version of this story misstated where Simpson attended college. He attended the University of Southern California, not the University of South Carolina.