How did Dee from ‘What’s Happening!!’ die? Inside Danielle Spencer’s health battles and accidents

Danielle Spencer, best known for her role as the wisecracking little sister Dee Thomas on the hit 1970s sitcom What’s Happening!!, has died at the age of 60. A family spokesperson confirmed to CBS 6 that she passed away earlier this week after a long battle with cancer.

Fans and colleagues have paid tribute, including her, What’s Happening!! co-star Haywood Nelson, who remembered her as a “daughter, sister, family member, veterinarian, animal rights proponent and healer, and cancer heroine.”

Throughout her career, she overcame personal tragedy, serious injuries, and health problems to live a life dedicated to helping animals and inspiring her fans with her strength and determination.

How did Danielle Spencer die?

Spencer, who went on to become a veterinarian in Virginia, had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and underwent a preventative double mastectomy at VCU Massey Cancer Center.

She endured four months of chemotherapy and was later declared cancer-free, but her family says the disease ultimately returned.

Her life story is one of resilience through repeated hardship. At just 12 years old, in 1977, Spencer was critically injured in a car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway that killed her stepfather and manager, Tim Pelt, who was driving.

He had taken her to see Star Wars at the drive-in the previous evening. She spent three weeks in a coma and suffered multiple fractures in her leg, arm, and pelvis.

“I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to my stepfather, Daddy Tim, whom I loved and who taught me show business as a young child in New York,” Spencer wrote in her 2010 memoir, Through the Fire … Journal of a Child Star.

In 2004, she was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and underwent surgery that left her paralyzed from the waist down for eight months.

Who was Danielle Spencer?

Danielle Luise Spencer was born on June 24, 1965, and raised in New York City by her mother, Cheryl, a French teacher, and her stepfather, actor Tim Pelt. She began acting at the age of 7 in a repertory company co-founded by Pelt.

As per an article by the Hollywood Reporter, she had uncredited bit parts in films such as Serpico (1973) and Harry and Tonto (1974) before landing the role in What’s Happening!! When she was 11, she brought her family to California.

“I had never seen any young black girl in that type of spotlight, so I didn’t have a reference point in the media as to how to deal with this opportunity,” she told Jet magazine in 2014.

According to Varrity, after What’s Happening!! was canceled, Spencer and her family moved to the Ivory Coast. She then attended UC Davis and UCLA and veterinary school at Tuskegee University, earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1993.

Alongside her veterinary work, she remained connected to the entertainment world, appearing in shows and films including Days of Our Lives, As Good As It Gets, and Soul Train.