Tony Todd, the “Candyman” star who appeared in more than 240 movies and TV shows, died November 6. He was 69.
The actor’s representatives confirmed news of his death to TheWrap; no information about the cause has been made public. The actor was “an amazing man and I will miss him every single day,” Jeffrey Goldberg, Todd’s manager of over 40 years, told TheWrap.
Todd starred as the killer in “Candyman” and the movie’s sequel, but the actor’s prolific career included arcs on “The Young and the Restless” and “24” as well as episodes of “Hawaii Five-0,” “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Young Justice.”
Todd also starred in several “Star Trek” shows, including “The Next Generation,” “Voyager” and “Deep Space Nine.” In the “Star Trek” franchise he’s best known for portraying the Klingon Kurn, brother of Worf (Michael Dorn).
In a 1998 interview with Whoosh! Todd said “Star Trek” was “the first show that gave me access to the fan world, so I’m always grateful to them.” He also admitted that though he “didn’t wake up one day and try to become a part of the sci-fi/fantasy universe,” he wasn’t unhappy with the direction his career had taken.
Todd also enjoyed a healthy career onstage after having trained at the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He told the outlet that he aimed to do one play a year. “It’s honest work. It’s more direct, more interactive,” he explained. “It’s just real. You have a six-week rehearsal period as opposed to television where you basically have to rehearse on your own. In TV you just show up and do it. In theatre you learn to put more time into the material before you show up on the set.”
The actor’s big break came when he was cast in Oliver Stone’s 1986 Vietnam War film “Platoon.” In 2020 he told The Guardian that filming the movie was tough for each of its stars. “I’m not going to name any names,” Todd said, “but I saw grown men cry.” The movie also starred Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker and Willem Dafoe.
Todd again credited his background in theatre with having helped him win the role of Sergeant Warren. He said Stone “wanted real faces. So it helped that I came from the theatre and I came from poverty.” In fact, Stone cast Todd after he saw him perform a one-man show of Dalton Trumbo’s antiwar novel “Johnny Got His Gun at a Hell’s Kitchen.”
He was most well-known for his role as The Candyman in the 1992 movie “Candyman,” a movie he was cast in after the 1990 “Night of the Living Dead” remake. He played the ghost of Daniel Robitaille, a man whose parents were enslaved. Robitaille was killed by a mob after he began dating a white woman; the scene of his death eventually became the site of a public housing project where several unexplained murders took place.
The character is one that stuck with audiences for years after the first film’s release. While promoting the 2021 sequel, Todd explained to Dread Central that he felt his character was “a gothic character.”
“I compare him to Phantom because he’s a misunderstood character searching for love. Bernard [Rose] and Virginia Madsen and I, we reinforced that by doing gothic arts,” he added. “We did horseback riding, we did fencing, we did ballroom dancing. We wanted every time that her and I were in the same frame to see centuries of passion between us, centuries of regret, centuries of loss.”
He also admitted that people were sometimes afraid when they met him in person. “I’ve gotten that a few times, where one partner of the couple will come up to me and they’ll say, ‘Oh, my wife or my husband is terrified of you!’ And the other partner will just be standing there. So I’ll say, ‘Well, it’s a character. Here I am.’ I think I’m one of the most approachable people that I know, speaking as a true sociopath. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Approach me.”
Tony Todd was born on Dec. 4, 1954, in Washington D.C., and was raised in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended the University of Connecticut and studied theater at the Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theatre Institute.
His additional roles included “The Crow,” “The Rock,” the “Final Destination” series, and “Minotaur.” He also starred in several Broadway and off-Broadway productions, including “King Hedley II,” “No Place to be Somebody,” and “Dark Paradise, Aida.”
Todd also played several characters within the “Star Trek” universe. These included Worf’s Brother Kurn in “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” and the adult Jake Sisko in “Deep Space Nine.”
Tony Todd is survived by his children, Alex and Ariana.
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