OJ Simpson, the American football superstar and Hollywood actor whose acquittal in a 1995 murder trial sparked a rancorous debate about race and justice in the US, has died of cancer aged 76.
Orenthal James Simpson’s grace on the football field, good looks and charisma led to a successful career as a pitchman for Hertz rental cars and as an actor in films such as The Towering Inferno and The Naked Gun. But it was his 1995 trial over the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, that would leave an indelible mark on American society.
The Simpson case was a made-for-television affair from the beginning. The wall-to-wall coverage started with a bizarre slow-speed chase on the highways of Los Angeles on June 17, 1994. Nearly 100mn Americans tuned in to watch Los Angeles police pursuing Simpson’s white Ford Bronco, which was being driven by his friend and fellow ex-NFL player Al Cowlings.