During his fifteen years on the field, he became the leader in receiving yards four times and in the number of receiving touchdowns twice. He is considered one of the best running backs in the history of American football.
While still a student, Simpson appeared in episodes in television series. In the movie “Clanman” Terence’and Young appeared in a supporting role alongside Lee Marvin and Richard Burton. Being greatly impressed by them, he decided to focus on his acting career. He consciously did not participate in blaxploitation films – popular among the audience, but often cheap, brutal and repeating negative stereotypes.
Instead, he preferred to play second or even third plane in larger productions. This was the case with “The Burning Skyscraper”, in which he starred alongside Steve’and McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden and Fred Astaire’a. Later he was considered for the title role in James Cameron's first “Terminator”.
Although Simpson did not hide the fact that he dreamed of an Oscar or Emmy, interesting offers soon stopped coming, and he focused primarily on television appearances. Until the famous murder trial, viewers knew him primarily from the comedy series “The Naked Gun”, in which he starred alongside Leslie’Nielsen and George's egos’and Kennedy’ego. He played the role of detective Nordberg, honest and full of good intentions, but also clumsy and not very volatile. For “The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” he received the Golden Raspberry Award for worst supporting actor. This appears to have been primarily an outgrowth of the Brown and Goldman murder case.
The crime was committed on the night of June 12, 1994. Simpson was one of the prime suspects from the beginning. The June 17 chase went down in American television history. On that day, police began searching for Simpson after he failed to report to custody. He was spotted in the backseat of a Ford Bronco driven by Al Cowlings, a friend of the former football player. The car chase lasted two hours and was broadcast live on all news channels. Television stations interrupted coverage of the NBA Finals to follow the event. It is estimated that about 95 million Americans sat in front of their televisions that evening.
The trial began in January 1995. Simpson hired a legal dream team that included Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, Robert Shapiro and F. Lee Bailey. The verdict was announced eleven months later, on October 3, 1995. By jury decision, Simpson was acquitted of double murder. The trial was a media event. The announcement of the verdict was watched by approximately 100 million viewers.
Simpson was sent to prison in 2008 in connection with a burglary he committed in Las Vegas the previous year. Although he claimed that he only wanted to take back his property (memorabilia of famous athletes), the court did not believe him and sentenced him to 33 years in prison. However, on October 1, 2017, he was released on parole.
Simpson and the murder trial of Brown and Goldman quickly attracted the interest of film people. Already in 1995, before the verdict was announced, Fox broadcast “The OJ Simpson Story”, focusing mainly on his sports career and marriage. The film ended with the arrest of the athlete after a chase on June 17, 1994. Simpson was played by Bobby Hosea and Bumper Robinson.
In 2000, CBS made the television film “An American Tragedy”, focusing on the defense team of a former athlete accused of double murder. Simpson was a supporting character in it. The main roles were played by Ving Rahmes (Cochran), Ron Silver (Shapiro) and Christopher Plummer (Bailey), who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his work.
In 2016, FX aired the first season of “American Crime Story,” which focused on the Simpson trial. The athlete was played by Cuba Gooding Jr., who received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for this role. As he revealed in one of the interviews, at the creators' instigation, in half of the shots he played Simpson as a person guilty of murder, and in the other half as an innocent accused. The first season of “American Crime Story” was very well received by viewers and critics. He has received numerous accolades, including nine Emmys and two Golden Globes.
In the same year, Ezra Edelman's almost eight-hour documentary “OJ: Made in America” was released, comparing Simpson's career and racial tensions in the United States. The film was very well received by critics. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary as well as two Emmy Awards.
After his release from prison in 2017, Simpson was active on social media, often drawing criticism from late-night talk show hosts. When he set up his Twitter account, Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” introduced him as “a known souvenir thief who has officially committed no other crime.” “OJ is now only followed by eight people, and that's probably a good thing, because I can't imagine anything scarier than a notification on my phone: ‘OJ Simpson is watching you'”Jimmy Kimmel joked.
In the satirical program “Who Is America?”, in which Sacha Baron Cohen dressed up as various characters and met people from art and politics, Simpson appeared in the last episode himself. The creator of “Borat” as Gio Monaldo, an Italian billionaire and playboy, wanted to convince him to confess in front of the cameras to the murder of Brown and Goldman. He then joked that together they should murder the girlfriend of a fictional rich man.