TV favorite Danielle Spencer, child star on ‘What’s Happening!!,’ dies at 60

Cause revealed as Danielle Spencer, child star on ‘What’s Happening!!,’ dies at 60

Actress-turned-Veterinarian, Danielle Spencer, best known for her role as the sharp-tongued younger sister Dee Thomas on the 1970s sitcom ‘What’s Happening!!’ and its spinoff ‘What’s Happening Now!!’, has died at the age of 60.

Danielle Spencer’s publicist, who disclosed that she died on Monday at Chippenham Hospital in Richmond, Va, revealed the cause as gastric cancer and cardiac arrest.

What’s Happening!!, which aired on ABC from 1976 to 1979, was among the first U.S. TV shows centered on the lives of Black teenagers.

Spencer appeared in 65 episodes as Dee, Raj’s witty little sister, and returned for 16 more episodes in What’s Happening Now!!

“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.
“I was from the Bronx. What I did was use my own family as the reference on how to portray my character.”

Her signature line — “Ooh, I’m telling Mama” — became a lasting fan favorite. “I chuckle because everyone thinks it’s original, so I have to act like it’s new every time,” she said.

After What’s Happening Now!! ended in 1988, Spencer pursued her childhood dream of working with animals.

She earned a degree in marine biology from UCLA, then a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in 1993. Her veterinary career spanned decades, though she made a brief return to the screen as a veterinarian in the 1997 film As Good as It Gets.

According to New York Times, her life was marked by resilience. During the second season of What’s Happening!!, she and her stepfather, Tim Pelt, were in a car accident that killed him and left her in a coma for three weeks with multiple injuries.

Nearly two decades later, lingering effects led to spinal stenosis, leaving her near paralysis. She also faced breast cancer in 2014, undergoing a double mastectomy, and had emergency brain surgery in 2018.

In 2016, she was inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Danielle Spencer is survived by her mother, Cheryl Pelt, and her brother, Jeremy Pelt.

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