‘Candyman’ & ‘The Crow’ actor with hundreds of credits was 69

Tony Todd, an actor who played the killer in Candyman and its 2021 sequel and appeared in Plato and that Final destination franchise among more than 240 film and television credits spanning 40 years, died Nov. 6 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 69.

His reps confirmed the news to Deadline, but did not provide a cause of death.

Born December 4, 1954 in Washington, DC, Todd continued acting at the Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theater Institute and Trinity Rep Conservatory, where he honed his skills and developed his commanding style. Among his first screen roles was playing the heroin-addicted Sergeant Warren in Oliver Stone’s Best Picture Oscar-winning Vietnam War classic Plato.

Todd went on to guest star in such popular 1980s and 90s series as 21 Jump Street, Night Court, MacGyver, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Law & Order, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Beverly Hills 90210, Xena: Warrior Princess and Murder, she wrote and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. He also reprized as annoying TV news reporter Matt Rhodes on Homicide: Life on the Street and as Gus Rogan in more than a dozen 2013 episodes of The young and the restless.

All the while, Todd continued to play for the big screen. He appeared in 1980s dramas Trust me, colors and the Charlie Parker biopic Bird, starring Forest Whitaker. But his best-known film roles came during the following decade.

The 6-foot-5 Todd starred in the 1990 remake Night of the Living Dead as Ben, the role played by Duane Jones in George A. Romero’s iconic 1968 original. His next big role is probably his most famous – playing the mythical titular creep with a hook for a hand in Candyman (1992) – a character he reprized in the 2021 sequel of the same name.

Candyman in the 1992 film was the ghost of Daniel Robitaille, whose parents were enslaved in the 1800s and became an accomplished painter. But eventually he fell for a white woman whose enraged father sent a lynch mob to kill him. Robitaille was burned in a place where a public housing project is later built and where a series of inexplicable murders take place.

The Candyman legend lived on in the 2021 sequel directed by Nia DaCosta. It was among a number of horror roles for Todd that would continue throughout his 40-year career, including playing funeral home owner William Bludworth in Final destination and several sequels.

“You have to have audience sympathy for the character in some way,” Todd told Deadline in a 2022 interview. “There has to be something attractive about the character that makes people want to root for them, but also feel repelled by the idea. And for me personally, for every film I make, I create a backstory for all my tortured people and my heroes.

Todd continued to work steadily in film, television, and video games throughout the 21st century, including a recurring gig as CIA director on NBC’s ChuckFreeform’s Dead of Summer and MTV/VH1’s Scream. His film roles were mainly in B-movies.

He was also an in-demand voice actor, lending his rich and resonant pipes to dozens of roles ranging from Star Trek and Call of Duty games for tv Transformers Prime and Be cool, Scooby-Doo and such films as Transformers: Rise of the Fallen and .

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Possessing a warm laugh and generous spirit that belied his large appearance, Todd continued to work into this year, including: Current and a leading role in The bunker — one of more than a dozen upcoming credits, per IMDb. He appeared in last year’s Stream, Realm of Shadows and Werewolves game and in 2022 the SXSW premiere Bitch Ass.

Todd also made about half a dozen small films during the 2000s and appeared as himself in dozens of mostly horror-themed documentaries and documentaries.

Information on survivors was incomplete.