Los Angeles, USA:

Good looks, fame and fortune: OJ Simpson rewrote the record books as an American football star.

But it all came crashing down in 1994 when Simpson, who had parlayed his sporting fame into a career as an actor and advertising pitchman, was charged with murdering his ex-wife and a male partner. has been.

Simpson was famously acquitted of those charges in 1995, but years later was jailed for armed robbery.

The notorious former National Football League running back — who has died at age 76, his family said Thursday — is dealing with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. will always be remembered in relation to

His racially charged 1995 double-murder trial changed America and was called the “trial of the century.”

Simpson’s spectacular fall from Grace followed a rise to stardom that saw him go from poor childhood to the football field and then Hollywood.

From rags to NFL stardom

Born Oriental James Simpson in San Francisco on July 9, 1947, he was left in the care of his mother at the age of five when his father left, poor and suffering from rickets, a calcium and vitamin deficiency that Because of this, his legs were damaged.

Unable to afford the operation, his mother created crude braces with a wrong shoe on each foot, and his legs became so strong that he eventually ran the 100-yard dash in 9.9 seconds.

Simpson won the prestigious Heisman Trophy — for the best player in American collegiate football — at the University of Southern California in 1968 and was selected number one overall in the NFL draft the following year by the Buffalo Bills.

In 1973, he won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award after becoming the first rusher to gain more than 2,000 yards in a single season.

Simpson retired from football in 1979 and was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

He had a short-lived career as a sports broadcaster before setting his sights on Hollywood.

Simpson has said she was lucky to be in movies at a time when Americans were looking for more black faces on the big screen.

He appeared in several successful films including “The Towering Inferno”, “The Naked Gun” series and “Capricorn One” but never achieved A-list stardom.

However, he had great success with corporate America and cashed in with advertisements for Royal Crown Cola, Chic, Foster Grant, Tree Sweet Orange Juice and Wilson Sporting Goods.

However, he became famous for the popular Hertz rental car commercials in which “The Juice” — his football nickname — strolled through a crowded airport in a three-piece suit.

The prime suspect

In 1977, he met an 18-year-old waitress, Nicole Brown, at a disco on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

Simpson was married to his first wife Marguerite at the time. The couple divorced and he married Nicole in 1985.

Simpson and Nicole had two children and divorced in 1992 after a rocky marriage that included allegations of domestic violence.

On June 13, 1994, Simpson’s ex-wife and Goldman were murdered outside her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood.

Brown Simpson was so brutally stabbed in the neck that he was nearly beheaded.

Simpson immediately became the prime suspect.

Five days after the murder, he led police on a wild car chase on Los Angeles freeways that was broadcast live and watched by millions.

He eventually surrendered and went on trial in January 1995.

His nine-month trial — which has been the subject of several television shows, books and documentaries — shocked the nation and much of the world.

It showed Simpson at one point struggling to try on a pair of gloves found at the crime scene that didn’t seem to fit.

The trial ended with a not guilty verdict that largely divided the country along ethnic lines.

But the law then caught up with Simpson.

He was arrested in Las Vegas in 2007 and charged with armed robbery, assault and kidnapping after a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers.

Simpson claimed he was just trying to get back memorabilia from his sports career that the dealers allegedly took from him.

This time, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to 9 to 33 years behind bars.

He left prison in October 2017 and has been mostly out of sight, though he has been engaging with fans on social media.

His story was adapted into “The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story,” which won multiple Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited Series.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)