Danielle Spencer, best known for her role as the witty, no-nonsense Dee Thomas on the 1970s sitcom What’s Happening!!, has died at the age of 60 after a long battle with cancer, her family confirmed.
Spencer passed away Monday at a Richmond, Virginia hospital, said family spokesperson Sandra Jones, News.Az reports, citing AP News.
From 1976 to 1979, Spencer charmed audiences as Dee — the sharp-tongued little sister who kept her brother Raj and his friends Dwayne and Rerun in check with her deadpan humor and the unforgettable catchphrase, “Ooh, I’m gonna tell mama.” The ABC sitcom, set in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood, was among the first to center on the lives of Black teenagers and became a cultural touchstone.
Spencer’s life was marked by resilience. At just 12, during filming of the first season, she survived a devastating car accident that killed her stepfather and left her in a coma for three weeks. She endured lasting spinal and neurological issues, multiple surgeries, and decades of health struggles, including a 2014 breast cancer diagnosis.
Despite these challenges, Spencer built a second career as a veterinarian and animal rights advocate, earning her doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in 1993. She also reprised her role in the 1980s reboot What’s Happening Now!! and appeared in the 1997 film As Good as it Gets.
Tributes poured in from friends and colleagues, including Haywood Nelson, who played Dwayne. “We have lost our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior… Danielle is loved,” he wrote.
Spencer is survived by her mother, Cheryl Pelt, and her brother, musician Jeremy Pelt.
