Danielle Spencer, Child Star Of ‘What's Happening!!', Dies At 60
'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),' wrote Haywood Nelson. '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.'
Nelson continued: '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.'
Born June 24, 1965, in the Bronx, New York, Spencer was cast in 1976 as Dee Thomas, the precocious younger sister on What's Happening!!, a sitcom loosely based on the 1975 film Cooley High. Initially a summer replacement, the series ran for three seasons and was revived in first-run syndication as What's Happening Now!! from 1985 to 1988. Spencer reprised her role as a now college-aged Dee on a recurring basis.
During the second season of the original show, on September 6, 1977, Spencer was involved in a serious car accident that left her in a three-week coma and claimed the life of her stepfather, Tim Pelt. She spent six months recovering.
Spencer later experienced paralysis due to spinal stenosis and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, which she overcame after chemotherapy. In 2018, she underwent emergency brain surgery for a bleeding hematoma resulting from the 1977 car accident.
After What's Happening!! ended, Spencer and her mother spent time living in Africa before she enrolled at the University of California, Davis, to pursue veterinary medicine — a career path encouraged by her late stepfather. Following the cancellation of What's Happening Now!!, she attended Tuskegee University Veterinary School in Alabama and became a veterinarian in 1996.
In addition to her veterinary career, Spencer shared her story in the memoir Through the Fire: Journal of a Child Star.
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