BBC
Actor Tony Todd, best known for starring in the Candyman horror films, has died aged 69.
The American actor died at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, according to reports.
He starred as the title character in the horror series, depicting the ghostly Candyman character with a hook for a hand, summoned by saying his name five times in front of a mirror.
Todd continued as Candyman from the first film in 1992 through follow-ups in 1995 and 1999, and reprised the role in 2021 for a fourth film serving as a direct sequel to the original.
Throughout his 40-year career, Todd also featured in hundreds of films, stage productions and television dramas, including roles in the Transformers and Final Destination films.
In Candyman, Todd’s titular character is the ghost of artist Daniel Robitaille, a black man who was lynched in the 19th Century.
The 1992 film sees Todd’s character accidentally summoned to the real world by a graduate student in Chicago intrigued by the urban legend of the Candyman, setting off a chain of murderous events.
Speaking to the Guardian in 2019, Todd recalled the film’s famous scene that sees Candyman swarmed with bees during which he was stung 23 times and apparently paid a $1,000 bonus each time.
“Everything that’s worth making has to involve some sort of pain,” he remarked.
On his Candyman character, he told the same interview: “I’ve done 200 movies, this is the one that stays in people’s minds. It affects people of all races. I’ve used it as an introductory tool in gang-intervention work: what frightens you? What horrible things have you experienced?”
Paying tribute, actor Virginia Madsen, who starred as student Helen Lyle in Candyman, said Todd “now is an angel. As he was in life”.
She called him a “truly poetic man” with “a deep knowledge of the arts”.
“I will miss him so much and hope he haunts me once in a while,” she added. “But I will not summon him in the mirror!”
