Tony Todd, the acclaimed actor best known for his role in the Candyman horror films, has passed away at age 69.
According to reports, the American actor died Wednesday night at his home in Los Angeles.
Todd famously portrayed the iconic, ghostly figure of Candyman, a vengeful spirit with a hook for a hand, summoned by repeating his name five times in front of a mirror. He first took on the role in the original 1992 film and continued in sequels in 1995 and 1999, eventually reprising his role in 2021 for a fourth installment that served as a direct sequel to the original.
Over his 40-year career, Tony Todd appeared in numerous films, stage productions, and television dramas, with notable roles in franchises like Transformers and Final Destination.
In Candyman, Todd portrayed the titular ghost, Daniel Robitaille, a 19th-century Black artist who was lynched. In the 1992 film, Candyman is inadvertently summoned by a graduate student in Chicago who becomes fascinated by the urban legend, triggering a series of deadly events.
Reflecting on the film in a 2019 interview with The Guardian, Todd spoke about the iconic bee scene, where he was swarmed and stung 23 times, earning a $1,000 bonus for each sting. "Everything that’s worth making has to involve some sort of pain," he remarked.
Reflecting on his role as Candyman, Todd shared in the same interview, “I’ve done 200 movies, but this is the one that stays with people. It resonates across all races. I’ve even used it in gang-intervention work, asking: what scares you? What traumatic experiences have you faced?”
She remembered Todd as “a truly poetic man” with “a profound knowledge of the arts,” adding, “I will miss him dearly and hope he haunts me now and then—but I won’t be summoning him in the mirror!”
The sequel to the original film, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, set three years later, brings Todd’s iconic character to New Orleans, where he encounters a descendant of his daughter.
The third installment, Candyman: Day of the Dead, was released in 1999 but set in 2020 Los Angeles.
In 2021, Todd, along with others from the 1992 cast, returned to reprise their roles in a new film serving as a direct sequel to the original.
Todd embracing Virginia Madsen in a scene from the 1992 film Candyman
In 2020, Todd described the latest Candyman film as “brilliant,” commending director Nia DaCosta as “a true fan of body horror.”
In her tribute, Madsen expressed gratitude for the “gift” co-writer Jordan Peele had given her and Todd, allowing their characters to "live again as lovers."
Before his Candyman fame, Todd had one of his earliest film roles in 1986, portraying Sgt. Warren in the war drama Platoon.
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