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Danielle Spencer, What’s Happening!! Star and Veterinarian, Passes Away at 60 After Cancer Battle
Danielle Spencer, Dee on What’s Happening!!, passes away at 60 after battling cancer, leaving a legacy as an actress, veterinarian and animal advocate.
Trigger Warning: This article contains references to an individual's death.
Danielle Spencer, best known for playing Dee Thomas on the 1970s sitcom What’s Happening!!, has passed away at the age of 60. According to family spokesperson Sandra Jones, Spencer died Monday, August 11, 2025, at a Richmond, Virginia, hospital after a years-long battle with cancer.
According to ABC News, Spencer became a household name as Dee Thomas, the witty and clever younger sister who often delivered deadpan roasts to her big brother, Roger 'Raj' Thomas and his friends Dwayne Nelson and Freddie 'Rerun' Stubbs. Her catchphrase, “Ooh, I’m gonna tell mama,” became iconic.
The show, which aired on ABC from 1976 to 1979, was among the first television series to focus on the lives of Black teenagers in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood and was inspired by the 1975 film Cooley High.
Here’s how Danielle Spencer overcame life challenges
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised in New York, Spencer started acting at the age of nine. What’s Happening!! was her first credited role. Early in the show’s first season, the then-12-year-old Spencer was involved in a severe car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. The crash left her in a three-week coma and killed her stepfather, Tim Pelt. She experienced long-term spinal and neurological problems that required multiple surgeries over the years.
Despite her health struggles, Spencer pursued education and a career in veterinary medicine. She attended the University of California, Davis, and UCLA before earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in 1993. Spencer became a veterinarian and an advocate for animal rights, while occasionally returning to acting, including a role as a veterinarian in the 1997 Jack Nicholson film As Good as It Gets.
Tributes from co-stars and legacy
Haywood Nelson, who played Dwayne on What’s Happening!!, paid tribute on Instagram, calling Spencer “Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior.” He added, “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.”
Spencer also appeared in the 1980s reboot, What’s Happening Now!!, which ran for three seasons. She survived a bleeding hematoma in 2018, linked to her 1977 car crash, and had been managing mobility issues since at least 2004. In 2014, she underwent a double mastectomy following a breast cancer diagnosis.
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