Tony Todd, the actor who swapped a hand for a hook as the titular villain of the Candyman movies, died on November 6 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 69. His representative confirmed the news to Deadline, but did not share a cause of death. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1954, Todd was raised in Connecticut, where his interest in acting began. “Theater for me is the heart and soul. It saved my life,†he recalled to CBR in 2017. “I was going to Hartford High School and when the theater bug hit, it hit hard and it saved my life. It gave me focus, direction and purpose.†He stuck around in the New England area as a young adult, refining his craft at the Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theatre Institute in Connecticut and Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island.
Although theater was his first love, Tood eventually became known for a dizzying list of onscreen roles. Over the course of his decades-long career, he was credited in more than 240 movies and TV shows, including Platoon, the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, The Crow, and the Star Trek and Final Destination franchises. (He is set to appear posthumously in Final Destination: Bloodlines, which is expected to release in 2025.) He also took on multiple voice-acting roles, including as Spider-Man 2’s Venom.
But he was perhaps best known for playing Daniel Robitaille/Candyman in the 1992 film based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,†which was the first in a trilogy of cult classics and led to a 2021 sequel from Nia DaCosta. In 2022, Todd reflected on how it felt “being one of the first African Americans in a horror film that does not enslave us†in an interview with Entertainment Tonight to mark the 30th anniversary of the original Candyman. “When I first read it, I looked for those traps,†he said. “I wanted to make sure that if you’re going to be one of the first significant Black actors in a horror film, you better make sure that it’s complete, that it tells a story from beginning to middle and end, and that’s what I saw in the script.†He added that he is “proud†of the original film and its lasting relevance. “I’m glad to have been a part of it, it’s part of my legacy and I’ve been working nonstop for 30 years,†Todd said. “It’s a good thing.â€