'What's Happening!!' child star Danielle Spencer dead at 60

Danielle Spencer, best known to audiences for her role as Dee Thomas on the sitcom “What’s Happening!!” has died at age 60.

Her former co-star, Haywood Nelson, shared the news in a post on Instagram.

“Brilliance! It comes in a great many forms. We all have them and we all have this family’s - Dr. Danielle Spencer (June 24, 1965 - August 11, 2025),” Nelson wrote.

He continued, “Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior, without fail, has finally found her release from the clutches of this world and a body. We celebrate Danielle Spencer and her contributions as we regret to inform her departure and transition from a long battle with cancer.

“We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, “What’s Happening” cast member, veterinarian, animal rights proponent and healer, and cancer heroine. Our Shero. Danielle is loved. She will be missed in this form and forever embraced.”

Spencer was on “What’s Happening!!” for three seasons from 1976 to 1979.

She appeared in a handful of other series, instead focusing on education, earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1993 from Tuskegee University Veterinary School in Alabama, according to People Magazine.

Spencer was the first child star to be inducted into the Smithsonian Museum and is part of the permanent exhibition of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, per ABC News.

"I still can't believe it," she told the outlet in 2014. "That's something people can look at for years to come, long after I'm gone."

She faced several health complications throughout her life, beginning as a child when she and her step-father, Tim Pelt, were in a car accident. Pelt did not survive and Spencer was in a three-week coma following the accident.

In 2014, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had an emergency surgery for a brain bleed in 2018, per People. She was also diagnosed with spinal stenosis in 2004, which led to her being briefly paralyzed.