Danielle Spencer dead at 60
The 60-year-old former actress – who was best known for playing precocious youngster Dee Thomas on the 1970s sitcom What's Happening!! – passed away in hospital in Richmond, Virginia on Monday (11.08.25) after a 'long battle with cancer'.
Her What's Happening co-star Haywood Nelson wrote on Instagram: 'Brilliance! It comes in a great many forms. We all have them and we all have this family's - Dr. Danielle Spencer (June 24, 1965 - August 11, 2025).
'Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior, without fail, has finally found her release from the clutches of this world and a body. We celebrate Danielle Spencer and her contributions as we regret to inform her departure and transition from a long battle with cancer.
'We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, What's Happening 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. @ernestleethomas @extrap72 @cheryl.pelt.52 @danygirl624.'
Danielle underwent a double mastectomy in 2014 after being diagnosed with breast cancer and in 2018 she had emergency surgery to relieve bleeding on her brain.
Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter: 'She suffered for a very long time but did it with a great deal of courage.'
What's Happening!! – which was loosely based on the 1975 film Cooley High – ran for three seasons from 1976 to 1979.
Spencer reprised her role for the sequel What's Happening Now!, which aired for another three seasons from 1985.
In 1993, Spencer earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine and she played a vet in James L. Brooks' 1997 film, As Good as It Gets.
She worked as a vet in the Los Angeles area for 20 years before moving to Richmond in 2014.
Nelson said: 'She had a great love of animals, she was like Betty White in that way.'
In 2014, she was inducted into the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
She is survived by her mother Cheryl and her brother Jeremy, a jazz musician.
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