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The “Candyman” and “The Crow” actor with hundreds of credits was 69 years old
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The “Candyman” and “The Crow” actor with hundreds of credits was 69 years old

Tony Toddan actor who played the role of the criminal in Candyman and its 2021 sequel and appeared in Final destination franchise and Pluto of more than 240 film and TV credits spanning 40 years, died Nov. 6 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 69 years old.

His representatives confirmed the news to Deadline, but did not provide a cause of death.

Tony Todd is dead

Tony Todd in “Platoon”

Tony Todd via Facebook

Born December 4, 1954 in Washington, DC, Todd studied acting at the Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theater Institute and Trinity Rep Conservatory, where he honed his skills and developed his commanding style. Among his first screen roles was playing the heroin-addicted Sergeant Warren in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Vietnam War classic. Pluto.

Todd went on to guest star on popular 1980s and 90s series such as 21 Jump Street, Night Court, MacGyver, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Law & Order, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Beverly Hills 90210, Xena: Warrior Princesss and Murder, she wrote and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. He also returned as television news reporter Matt Rhodes Homicide: Life on the Street and as Gus Rogan in more than a dozen episodes since 2013 The young and the restless.

Tony Todd is dead

Tony Todd, left, and Michael Dorn in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

1993-99. ph: Robbie RobinsParamount Television/Everett Collection

All the while, Todd continued to act for the big screen. Appeared in 1980s dramas Lean on Me, Colors and the Charlie Parker biopic Bird, with Forest Whitaker. But his best-known film roles came in the following decade.

The 6-foot-1 Todd starred in the 1990 remake Night of the Living Dead as Ben, the role played by Duane Jones in George A. Romero’s iconic 1968 original. His next big role is probably his most famous – playing the mythical title with a hook for a hand Candyman (1992) – a character he reprized in the 2021 sequel of the same name.

Tony Todd is dead

Tony Todd, left, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in 2021’s “Candyman.”

Universal Pictures/Everett Collection

The Candyman in the 1992 film was the ghost of Daniel Robitaille, whose parents were enslaved in the 1800s and became an accomplished painter. But eventually he fell in love with a white woman whose angry father sent a lynch mob to kill him. Robitaille was burned on a site where a public housing project is later built and where a series of unexplained murders take place.

The Candyman legend lived on in the 2021 sequel directed by Nia DaCosta. It was among a number of horror roles for Todd that would continue throughout his 40-year career, including the role of undertaker owner William Bludworth in Final destination and several sequels. He also played Grange, the right-hand man of Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) in 1994. The raven starring Brandon Lee.

“You have to have the audience sympathize with the character one way or another,” Todd told Deadline in a 2022 interview. “There has to be something attractive about the character that makes people want to root for him, but at the same time feel repulsed by the idea. And for me personally, for every film I make, I create a backstory for all my tortured people and my heroes alike.”

Todd continued to work steadily in film, TV, and video games throughout the 21st century, including a recurring gig as CIA director at NBC. ChuckFreeform’s Dead of Summer and MTV/VH1 Scream. His screen roles were mainly in B-movies.

He was also a sought-after voice actor, lending his rich, resonant pipes to dozens of roles, from Star Trek and Call of duty games on TV Transformers Prime and Be cool, Scooby-Doo and such films as Transformers: Rise of the Fallen.

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Tony Todd is dead

Tony Todd in 2017

Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Possessed of a warm laugh and generous spirit that belied his hulking appearance, Todd continued to work this year, including Flow and a leading role in bunker — one of more than a dozen future credits, on IMDb. It appeared in last year’s Stream, Shadowland and The werewolf game and premiere at SXSW in 2022 Butt cure.

Todd also made about half a dozen small films during the 2000s and appeared as himself in dozens of documentaries and horror-themed documentaries.

Information on survivors was sketchy.