{"id":128658,"date":"2025-08-13T10:16:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=128658"},"modified":"2025-08-13T10:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:20:23","slug":"danielle-spencer-star-of-whats-happening-dies-at-60-entertainment-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=128658","title":{"rendered":"Danielle Spencer, Star of \u2018What\u2019s Happening!!,\u2019 Dies at 60 \u2013 Entertainment News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=128658\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=128658\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-128659 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/download-63.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Karen Beishuizen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Danielle Spencer, who played Dee Thomas on the 1970s sitcom What\u2019s Happening!!, died on Monday, 11 August, in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. She was 60.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s Happening!!\u201d was based on the 1975 film \u201cCooley High\u201d (Eric Monte wrote the movie screenplay and created the Watts-based sitcom). After a successful four-week run that started in August 1976, the comedy returned in November of that year and then for another two seasons.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Spencer played Dee, the younger sister of Roger \u201cRaj\u201d Thomas (Ernest Thomas) and daughter of Mabel (Mabel King), and she became known for her catch phrase, \u201cOoooh, I\u2019m gonna tell Mama!\u201d<br \/>\nShe reprised the role for the sequel \u201cWhat\u2019s Happening Now!\u201d which aired for another three seasons starting in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>Spencer went on to became a veterinarian in 1993, and James L. Brooks hired her to play one in his 1997 film, \u201cAs Good as It Gets\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Danielle Spencer was born on June 24, 1965, in The Bronx, New York City.<\/p>\n<p>She is survived by her mother and her brother Jeremy.<\/p>\n<p>Ringside Report sends their condolences to The Spencer Family in their time of grief.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F128658\" data-token=\"aad802805d30a6a75ea2917a9f1bb412\" data-token-time=\"1778517405\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >Message Comment or<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; 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She was 60. \u201cWhat\u2019s Happening!!\u201d was based on the 1975 film \u201cCooley High\u201d (Eric Monte wrote the movie screenplay and created the Watts-based sitcom). After a successful four-week run [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28132,17984],"tags":[33224,33222,33223],"class_list":["post-128658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns-by-karen-beishuizen","category-entertainment-news","tag-dies-at-60-entertainment-news","tag-danielle-spencer","tag-star-of-whats-happening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128658"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}