Tony Todd, the actor best known for his title role in the Candyman horror films, has died aged 69.
The father-of-two died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
He featured in the Final Destination and Transformers films, as well as playing the Starship Enterprise’s Commander Kurn on several Star Trek shows in his four decade-career.
He also appeared in films such as The Crow, Night of the Living Dead, and The Rock. Todd enjoyed a successful career on stage too, including a run in the Broadway production of the musical Aida.
Born in Washington DC in 1954, one of his early breaks into the industry was in the 1986 Oliver Stone war drama Platoon alongside Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe and Johnny Depp.
But it was his role as the ghost of a 19th-century American slave in Candyman in 1992 that catapulted him to fame. He also starred in two sequels – 1995’s Candyman: Farewell To The Flesh and Candyman 3: Day Of The Dead in 1999.
Todd returned to the role in 2021 for a movie co-written by Jordan Peele.
Virginia Madsen, his co-star in the horror series, paid tribute to Todd in a video posted on Instagram, saying: “I don’t know what to say right now.”
In her caption, she wrote: “My beloved. May you rest in power sweet to the sweet in heaven. The great actor Tony Todd has left us and now is an angel. As he was in life. More later but I can’t right now. I love you.”
In a later post, she called Todd a “truly poetic man” who had “a gentle soul with a deep knowledge of the arts”.
Referencing the Candyman film, she said: “I will miss him so much and hope he haunts me once in a while. But I will not summon him in the mirror!”
Todd’s manager Jeff Goldberg also paid tribute, saying: “What an amazing man and I will miss him every single day.”