Danielle Spencer, who performed the wisecracking and tattling little sister Dee Thomas on the Nineteen Seventies sitcom “What’s Happening!!” has died at 60.
Ms. Spencer, who grew to become a veterinarian later in life, died Monday (August 11, 2025) at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, after a yearslong battle with most cancers, household spokesperson Sandra Jones stated.
As Dee, Spencer was the smarter, extra critical youthful sister who supplied a gradual stream of deadpan roasts of huge brother Roger “Raj” Thomas and his associates Dwayne Nelson and Freddie “Rerun” Stubbs.
“Ooh, I’m gonna tell mama,” would change into Dee’s catchphrase.
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Danielle Spencer (L) and Cheryl Pelt relaxation at residence in Malibu, California, after Spencer’s launch from Santa Monica Hospital in September 1977.
| Photo Credit:
AP
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The present, set within the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Watts and among the many first on tv to give attention to the lives of Black youngsters, was primarily based on the film “Cooley High” and ran on ABC from 1976 to 1979. It had a protracted legacy because of its memorable characters, together with the geeky Raj, the catchphrase-spouting Dwayne, the red-bereted dancing phenom Rerun, and Dee together with her eyerolls and icy stare.
Early within the manufacturing of the present’s first season, Spencer, then 12, was in a serious automotive accident on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, that left her in a coma for 3 weeks and killed her stepfather, Tim Pelt. She would have spinal and neurological issues that may require a number of surgical procedures within the years afterward.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised in New York, Spencer started performing when she was about 9. “What’s Happening!!” can be her first credited function.
“Imagine being plucked from obscurity to star in a TV show,” she informed Jet journal in 2014. “I had never seen any young Black girl in that type of spotlight, so I didn’t have a reference point in the media as to how to deal with this opportunity. I was from the Bronx.”
Haywood Nelson, who performed Dwayne on the present, paid tribute Tuesday to “Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior.”
“We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, ‘What’s Happening’ cast member, veterinarian animal rights proponent and healer, and cancer heroine. Our Shero,” Nelson stated on Instagram. “Danielle is loved.”
Spencer additionally appeared on a mid-Nineteen Eighties reboot of the present, “What’s Happening Now!!,” which ran for 3 seasons.
In 2018, she had emergency surgical procedure for a bleeding hematoma, which stemmed from that 1977 automotive crash. In the rapid aftermath, a household spokesperson stated she may solely communicate barely and had to make use of crutches to stroll. She had been struggling signs from at least 2004, when she had to make use of a wheelchair and relearn how one can stroll. In 2014, she was recognized with breast most cancers and had a double mastectomy.
She went on to change into a veterinarian and advocate for animals. She attended the University of California, Davis, and UCLA, and acquired a doctorate in veterinary drugs from Tuskegee University in 1993.
Spencer continued to dabble in performing in her later years, together with an look as a veterinarian within the 1997 Jack Nicholson movie “As Good as it Gets.”
She is survived by her brother, musician Jeremy Pelt, and her mom, Cheryl Pelt.
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Published – August 13, 2025 07:31 am IST
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