Tony Todd, an actor who performed the killer in Candyman and its 2021 sequel and appeared within the Final Destination franchise and Platoon amongst greater than 240 movie and TV credit spanning 40 years, died November 6 at his residence in Los Angeles. He was 69.
His reps confirmed the information to Deadline however didn’t present a reason behind dying.
Tony Todd in ‘Platoon’
Tony Todd through Fb
Born on December 4, 1954, in Washington, D.C., Todd pursued performing on the Eugene O’Neill Nationwide Actors Theatre Institute and Trinity Rep Conservatory, the place he honed his expertise and developed his commanding model. Amongst his first display screen roles was taking part in the heroin-addicted Sergeant Warren in Oliver Stone’s Greatest Image Oscar-winning Vietnam Battle traditional Platoon.
Todd went on to visitor on such standard Eighties and ’90s collection as 21 Soar Avenue, Night time Courtroom, MacGyver, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Legislation & Order, The X-Information, NYPD Blue, Beverly Hills 90210, Xena: Warrior Princesss and Homicide, She Wrote and Star Trek: The Subsequent Era, Deep Area 9 and Voyager. He additionally recurred as pesky TV information reporter Matt Rhodes on Murder: Life on the Avenue and as Gus Rogan in additional than a dozen 2013 episodes of The Younger and the Stressed.
Tony Todd, left, and Michael Dorn in ‘Star Trek: Deep Area 9’
, 1993-99. ph: Robbie RobinsParamount Tv/Everett Assortment
All of the whereas, Todd continued to behave for the massive display screen. He appeared in Eighties dramas Lean on Me, Colours and Charlie Parker biopic Chicken, starring Forest Whitaker. However his best-known movie roles got here throughout the next decade.
The 6-foot-5 Todd starred within the 1990 remake Night time of the Dwelling Useless as Ben, the function performed by Duane Jones in George A. Romero’s iconic 1968 unique. His subsequent massive function probably is his most well-known — taking part in the legendary title creep with a hook for a hand in Candyman (1992) — a personality he reprised within the 2021 sequel of the identical title.
Tony Todd, left, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in 2021’s ‘Candyman’
Common Photos/Everett Assortment
Candyman within the 1992 movie was the ghost of Daniel Robitaille, whose dad and mom have been enslaved within the 1800s and have become an completed painter. However ultimately he fell for a white lady whose enraged father despatched a lynch mob to kill him. Robitaille was burned on a spot the place a public housing undertaking later is constructed and the place a collection of unexplained murders happens.
The Candyman legend lived on within the 2021 sequel directed by Nia DaCosta. It was amongst a variety of horror roles for Todd that will proceed all through his 40-year profession, together with taking part in funeral residence proprietor William Bludworth in Last Vacation spot and a number of sequels. He additionally performed Grange, the right-hand man of High Greenback (Michael Wincott) in 1994’s The Crow starring Brandon Lee.
“You gotta have viewers sympathy for the character in a roundabout way or one other,” Todd told Deadline in a 2022 interview. “There’s gotta be one thing engaging concerning the character that makes individuals wish to root for them however on the similar time really feel repulsed by the concept. And for me personally, for each movie that I do, I create a backstory for all my tortured individuals and my heroes alike.”
Todd continued to work steadily in movie, TV and video video games all through the twenty first century, together with a recurring gig because the CIA director on NBC’s Chuck, Freeform’s Useless of Summer season and MTV/VH1’s Scream. His silver-screen roles primarily have been in B-movies.
He additionally was a sought-after voice actor, lending his wealthy and resonant pipes to dozens of roles starting from Star Trek and Name of Responsibility video games to TV’s Transformers Prime and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo and such movies as Transformers: Rise of the Fallen.
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Tony Todd in 2017
Michael Tullberg/Getty Pictures
Possessed of a heat chortle and beneficiant spirit that belied his hulking look, Todd continued to work into this yr together with Stream and a lead role in The Bunker — one in all greater than a dozen up upcoming credit, per IMDb. He appeared in final yr’s Stream, Realm of Shadows and Werewolf Game and within the 2022 SXSW-premiering Bitch Ass.
Todd additionally a few half-dozen small movies in the course of the 2000s and appeared as himself in dozens of principally horror-themed documentaries and docuseries.
Info on survivors was incomplete.
