Age, Biography, and Wiki
O.J. Simpson was born on July 9, 1947. He rose to fame during his football career with the Buffalo Bills and later became a renowned sports commentator and actor. Simpson's life took a dramatic turn with his high-profile murder trial in the 1990s, which significantly impacted his personal and professional life. He passed away on April 10, 2024, at the age of 76.
| Occupation | Football Players |
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| Date of Birth | 9 July 1947 |
| Age | 78 Years |
| Birth Place | N/A |
| Horoscope | Cancer |
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Height, Weight & Measurements
Simpson stood at 6'1" (185 cm) and weighed around 212 lbs (96 kg) during his football career.
| Height | 185 cm |
| Weight | 212 lbs |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Simpson was married twice: first to Marguerite Whitley from 1967 to 1979, and then to Nicole Brown from 1985 until their divorce in 1992. He was acquitted of Nicole's murder in a highly publicized criminal trial but was later found liable in a civil trial.
Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Simpson is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, but his success was overshadowed by his criminal trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
Born in 1947 in San Francisco, California, Simpson was a son of Eunice (Durden), an orderly at a psychiatric ward, and Jimmy Lee Simpson, a custodian for a Federal Reserve Bank and a private club and a cook. His father was also a well-known drag queen in the Bay Area. Later in life, Jimmy Simpson announced that he was gay. He died of AIDS in 1986.
Simpson grew up in San Francisco and lived with his family in the housing projects of the low-income Potrero Hill neighborhood. As a child, Simpson developed rickets and wore braces on his legs until the age of five, giving him his bowlegged stance. He earned money by scalping tickets and collecting seat cushions at Kezar Stadium. After his parents separated in 1952 (when Simpson was 4), he and his siblings were raised by their mother.
In his early teenage years, Simpson joined a street gang called the Persian Warriors and was briefly incarcerated at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center. His future wife Marguerite, whom he dated in high school, described him as "really an awful person then." He was arrested three times. After his third arrest, Simpson happened to meet baseball star Willie Mays, who encouraged the youth to avoid trouble. He said it helped persuade him to reform.
On March 28, 1978, prior to the 1978 season (the last year on his three-year contract that paid him $733,000), the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown San Francisco 49ers for five draft picks (2nd and 3rd round draft pick for 1978, a 1st round and 4th round pick for 1979, and a 2nd round pick for 1980); Simpson had tried to get the Bills to engineer a trade to the Los Angeles Rams prior to 1976 because of him and his wife's preference for the West Coast. The team previously had Delvin Williams and Wilbur Jackson in the backfield. Simpson played in San Francisco for two seasons, rushing for 1,053 yards and four touchdowns. Physical problems with his knees influenced him to retire from football. For his last home game at Candlestick Park, the 49ers held an "O.J. Simpson Day" at the stadium. His final NFL game was on December 16, 1979, a 31–21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. His final play was a 10-yard run on 3rd and 10 for a first down.
Simpson began acting while at USC and appeared on Dragnet in an uncredited role as a potential recruit to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He became a professional actor before playing professional football, appearing in the first episode of Medical Center—as Cicely Tyson's husband despite being 23 years her junior—while negotiating his contract with the Bills.
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Simpson's net worth was estimated at $3 million. His peak net worth was $10.8 million in 1992, which equates to approximately $25 million today when adjusted for inflation. During his divorce proceedings in 1992, Simpson reported a monthly income of $55,000, equivalent to about $125,000 per month today.
The first selection in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft was held by the AFL's Buffalo Bills, after finishing 1–12–1 in 1968. They took Simpson, but he demanded the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years (equivalent to $ in ). This led to a standoff with Bills' owner, Ralph Wilson, as Simpson threatened to become an actor and skip professional football. Eventually, Wilson agreed to pay Simpson.
Career, Business, and Investments
Simpson had a successful NFL career, earning record-breaking salaries. He was the first player to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season. After retiring from football, Simpson became a sports commentator and actor, appearing in films and TV shows. He also earned significant income from endorsements, including a notable contract with Hertz.
In 1972, Simpson rushed for over 1,000 yards for the first time in his career, gaining a league-leading total of 1,251 yards. In 1973, Simpson became the first player to break the highly coveted 2,000-yard rushing mark, with 2,003 total rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. Simpson broke the mark during the last game of the season against the New York Jets with a seven-yard rush. That same game also saw Simpson break Jim Brown's single-season rushing record of 1,863 yards. For his performance, Simpson won that year's NFL MVP Award and Bert Bell Award. While other players have broken the 2,000-yard mark since Simpson, his record was established when the NFL had only 14 games per season, as opposed to the 16-game seasons that began in 1978. In 2013, Simpson was reported still holding the rushing record for 14 games.
Simpson gained over 1,000 rushing yards in the next three seasons. He did not lead the league in rushing in 1974, but did cross the 1,000-yard barrier despite a knee injury. In game 11 of 1974, he passed Ken Willard as the rushing leader among active players, a position he maintained until his retirement more than five seasons later. Simpson also made his first and only playoff appearance during the 1974 season. In a divisional game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Simpson rushed for 49 yards on 15 attempts and caught a touchdown pass, but the Bills lost the game 32–14. Simpson won the rushing title again in 1975, rushing for 1,817 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also had a career-high 426 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns that season.
Simpson again led the league in rushing in 1976, rushing for 1,503 yards and eight touchdowns. He had the best game of his career during that season's Thanksgiving game against the Detroit Lions on November 25. In that game, Simpson rushed for a then-record 273 yards on 29 attempts and scored two touchdowns. Despite Simpson's performance, the Bills lost the game 27–14.
Simpson gained 11,236 rushing yards, placing him 2nd on the NFL's all-time rushing list when he retired; he now stands at 21st. He was named NFL Player of the Year in 1973, and played in six Pro Bowls. He was the only player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a 14-game season, and the only player to rush for over 200 yards in six different games in his career. From 1972 to 1976, Simpson averaged 1,540 rushing yards per (14 game) season, 5.1 yards per carry, and he won the NFL rushing title four times. Simpson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, his first year of eligibility. In 2019, he was named to the National Football League 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. Simpson also occasionally returned kickoffs during his early career, finishing with 33 returns for 990 yards and a touchdown, an average of 30 yards per return.
Simpson acquired the nickname "Juice" as a play on "O.J.", a common abbreviation for orange juice. "Juice" is also a colloquial synonym for electricity or electrical power, and hence a metaphor for any powerful entity; the Bills' offensive line at Simpson's peak was nicknamed "The Electric Company".
Simpson played in only one playoff game during his 11-season Hall of Fame career: a 1974 Divisional Round game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Simpson was held to 49 rushing yards on fifteen carries to go with three receptions for 37 yards and a touchdown as the Bills lost 32–14. Indeed, 1974 would be one of only three winning seasons the Bills would tally in Simpson's nine years with the team.
While in the NFL, Simpson appeared in productions such as the television miniseries Roots (1977), and the dramatic motion pictures The Klansman (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Cassandra Crossing (1977), and Capricorn One (1978). In 1979, he started his own film production company, Orenthal Productions, which dealt mostly in made-for-TV fare such as the family-oriented Goldie and the Boxer films with Melissa Michaelsen (1979 and 1981). Simpson said that he did not seriously consider an acting career until seeing Marvin and Burton, while filming The Klansman in California, ordering chili from Chasen's via a private jet. Simpson appeared in the audience of NBC's Saturday Night Live during its second season and hosted an episode during its third season. He was the second professional athlete to host the show.
Social Network
Simpson's social media presence was not significant, particularly given the nature of his controversies and his passing in 2024.
As Simpson rose in popularity, he avoided controversy, such as not participating in a boycott of the 1968 Olympics, which was supported by people like Martin Luther King Jr. as a protest against racial injustice in the U.S.
Before Simpson's murder trial, sportswriter Ralph Wiley wrote in 2002, white people considered Simpson a "unifying symbol of all races". History professor Lou Moore said that this made Simpson the first Black athlete to be "put on". In 1975, People magazine described Simpson as "the first [Black] athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar". Simpson avoided starring in blaxploitation films, choosing third or fourth lead roles while studying experienced stars like Lee Marvin and Richard Burton. His Hertz commercials from 1975 benefited Simpson's acting career, but he sometimes intentionally chose non-positive roles; "I've got to tear down that picture of O.J. Simpson, the clean-cut athlete, to get believability into whatever part I happen to be playing." He said in 1980 that "The Oscar or the Emmy says you've reached a level of competence in this business, and I would love to have one."
According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Simpson was considered by director James Cameron to play the eponymous character in The Terminator (1984) when Schwarzenegger was cast as the character Kyle Reese, but Cameron ultimately cast Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, while Simpson had no involvement in the film. The film's producers felt Simpson was "too nice" to be seen as a killer like the Terminator.
Simpson starred in the un-televised two-hour-long film pilot for Frogmen, an A-Team-like adventure series that Warner Bros. Television completed in 1994, a few months before the two murders he was accused of. Simpson played the leader of a group of former United States Navy SEALs named John "Bullfrog" Burke who operated out of a surf shop in Malibu. NBC had not yet decided whether to order the series when Simpson's arrest canceled the project. NBC executive Preston Beckman collected each copy of Frogmen to ensure that no copy leaked to the media. While searching his home, the police obtained a videotaped copy of the pilot as well as the script and dailies. Although the prosecution investigated reports that Simpson received "a fair amount of" military training—including use of a knife—for Frogmen, and there is a scene in which he holds a knife to the throat of a woman, this material was not introduced as evidence during the trial.
NBC executive Warren Littlefield said in July 1994 that the network would probably never air the pilot if Simpson were convicted. Most pilots that are two hours long are aired as TV movies whether or not they are ordered as series. Because—as the Los Angeles Times later reported—"the appetite for all things O.J. appeared insatiable" during the trial, Warner Bros. and NBC estimated that a gigantic, Super Bowl–like television audience would have watched the Frogmen film. In 2000, co-star Evan Handler - who would later go on to portray "Dream Team" member Alan Dershowitz in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story - told the Los Angeles Times the studio's decision not to air it or release it on home video, and forego an estimated $14 million in profits, was "just about the only proof you have that there is some dignity in the advertising and television business."
Education
Simpson attended Galileo High School in San Francisco and later enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC), where he played college football and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968.
Simpson played college football for the USC Trojans, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and was selected first overall by the Bills in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft. During his nine seasons with the Bills, he received five consecutive Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selections from 1972 to 1976. He also led the league in rushing yards four times, in rushing touchdowns twice, and in points scored in 1975. Simpson became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, earning him NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and is the only NFL player to do so in a 14-game regular season. He holds the record for the single-season yards-per-game average at 143.1. He acquired the nickname "Juice" as a play on "OJ", a common abbreviation for orange juice. After retiring with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, he acted in film and television, became a sportscaster, and was a spokesman for a wide variety of products and companies, notably Hertz. He was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
Simpson's maternal grandparents were from Louisiana. His aunt gave him the name Orenthal, which she told him was the name of a French or Italian actor she liked. He was called "O.J." from birth and did not know that Orenthal was his given name until a teacher read it in third grade. Simpson had one brother, Melvin Leon "Truman" Simpson, one living sister, Shirley Simpson-Baker, and one deceased sister, Carmelita Simpson-Durio.
Simpson first practiced sports at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center, which welcomed Black people. At Galileo High School (now Galileo Academy of Science and Technology) in San Francisco, Simpson played for the school football team, the Galileo Lions. He played as a tackle and then as a fullback. Meanwhile, he started earning money by organizing dances and charging admission. He graduated in 1965.
Although Simpson was an All-City football player at Galileo, his mediocre high-school grades prevented him from attracting the interest of many college recruiters. After a childhood friend's injury in the Vietnam War influenced Simpson to stay out of the military, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco in 1965. He played football both ways as a running back and defensive back and was named to the Junior College All-American team as a running back. City College won the Prune Bowl against Long Beach City College, and many colleges sought Simpson as a transfer student for football.
In 1967, Simpson enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, which he had admired as a young football fan. He had also considered going to the University of Utah. He played running back with the Trojans for head coach John McKay in 1967 and 1968. Simpson led the nation in rushing both years under McKay: in 1967 with 1,543 yards and 13 touchdowns, and in 1968 with 1,880 yards on 383 carries.
In 1967's Victory Bell rivalry game between the teams, USC was down by six points in the fourth quarter with under 11 minutes remaining. On their own 36, USC backup quarterback Toby Page called an audible on third and seven. Simpson's 64-yard touchdown run tied the score, and the extra point provided a 21–20 lead, which was the final score. This was the biggest play in what is regarded as one of the greatest football games of the 20th century, and pictures of the play were published in many national magazines. Another dramatic touchdown in the same game is the subject of the Arnold Friberg oil painting, O.J. Simpson Breaks for Daylight. Simpson also won the Walter Camp Award in 1967 and was a two-time unanimous All-American. USC would go on to win the national title for that year. Even though Simpson led the nation in college football rushing yards, the Heisman Trophy went to Gary Beban; Simpson was second in voting.
Simpson was an aspiring track athlete. Before playing football at USC, he ran the third leg of a sprint relay quartet that broke the world record in the 4 × 110-yard relay at the NCAA track championships in Provo, Utah on June 17, 1967. They had a time of 38.6 seconds. Also that year, he had a 100-yard dash time of 9.53 seconds. He lost a 100 m race at Stanford University against the then-British record holder Menzies Campbell.
Summary of Key Points:
- Net Worth: $3 million as of 2025.
- Career Highlights: NFL player, sports commentator, actor.
- Personal Life: Married twice, involved in a high-profile murder trial.
- Earnings: Peak net worth of $10.8 million in 1992, significant income from NFL contracts and endorsements.
