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After 30 years of never stopping his search for the killers of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, O.J. Simpson is finally at rest. The former football star, Hollywood actor, disgraced celebrity, and accused killer died at age 76 from prostate cancer. 

His passing was announced on Twitter—err, X—by his family with the statement: “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”

After a celebrated football career where he became famous as one of the greatest ever to play the game, Simpson moved easily into acting, displaying an effortless comic timing in films like The Naked Gun. 

In 1994 he went from beloved American icon to polarizing would-be criminal when he was accused of killing his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. One of the defining images of the ’90s was Simpson being pursued by police, and news helicopters, in a white Bronco as it was being driven slowly up a Los Angeles highway. 

The subsequent murder trial was must-see TV in the States, the most famous moment of which had Simpson trying on a pair of gloves found at the murder scene. When the gloves proved too small, lawyer Johnnie Cochran told the jury, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” 

The trial and its fallout provided an endless amount of material for American comics, including Saturday Night Live’s Norm Macdonald.

When Simpson was found not guilty on October 3, 1995, the verdict turned a spotlight on race relations in America, with opinions on the case often split down racial lines. He would, however, be found liable for the deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman in a civil trial, where he was ordered to pay $33.5 million to the families.

Throughout the years, Simpson insisted he was innocent, pledging not to rest until the real killers were found. His tireless efforts were interrupted by a stint in jail in 2008 after he robbed a sports memorabilia collector in a Las Vegas hotel room.

One of his last high-profile public appearances came in 2018, when an in-disguise Sacha Baron Cohen sat down with him for a segment in his Showtime series Who Is America?.

In a USA Today story, Cohen said, “I asked him about 45 times whether he had murdered anyone and he was getting increasingly frustrated.”

The clip has him telling Simpson, “Me and you, we got something in common. We both, how you say, ‘ladykillers.’”

Simpson replied while laughing: “No, I didn’t kill nobody.”