Star Actor From The ’90s Passes Away At 69

Tony Todd, the Hollywood leading man in the “Candyman” film franchise, has died at 69.

The New York Post reported that Todd passed away at his California home on Wednesday night, according to a statement by his longtime publicist. “I regretfully can confirm that my dear friend and client of over 30 years, Tony Todd has passed away,” Jeffrey Goldberg told The Post. “What an amazing man and I will miss him every single day.” TMZ said Goldberg confirmed the towering 6’5″ actor died of natural causes at his Marina del Rey home in Los Angeles.

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Virginia Madsen, who worked alongside Todd during the franchise’s three horror films, told followers she had learned of his death in a distraught Instagram video Saturday. “I just, just, just found out about Tony, and I don’t know what to say right now,” she said, adding in her post, “My beloved. May you rest in power sweet to the sweet in heaven. The great actor Tony Todd has left us and now is an angel. As he was in life. More later but I can’t right now. I love you.”

The classically trained actor landed in pop culture’s milieu while filming the 1992 horror film hit “Candyman” where he plays the eponymous killer terrorizing inner-city residents. The murderous hook-handed villain is accidentally summoned to reality by a graduate student studying the myth and became one of American cinema’s first nightmarish villains targeting Black communities. Roger Ebert wrote that Todd, who embodied the Black character wrongly killed only to seek vengeance on the innocent, sufficiently evoked the fears of untested urban myths. “What we do discover is more frightening, and more intriguing,” he wrote about Todd’s performance. “He may literally be a product of the imagination.”

Speaking with TMZ in 2019, the Washington, D.C. native said he was intrigued to see what Jordan Peele would bring to a reboot of the franchise. “I think it’s going to be fantastic, it’s in the right hands,” he said at the time. “Candyman,” released in 2021, garnered a stellar 84% in positive reviews by critics and 72% by fans on Rotten Tomatoes, outpacing the classic.

Todd’s long list of credits also includes significant supporting roles in “The Crow,” “The Rock, ” “Final Destination,” “Platoon and “Night of the Living Dead.” In the middle of his career, Todd dabbled in television as well; his credits span “Boston Public,” “Law & Order,” “Smallville,” “Charmed,” “21 Jump Street” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” His name is attached to more than 240 projects since his career began in 1980, including “Night Court,” “MacGyver,” “Matlock,” “Jake and the Fatman,” “Law & Order,” “The X-Files,” “NYPD Blue,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine” and “Voyager.””