Tony Todd, 'Star Trek' Veteran & Horror Icon, Has Died At 69
The actor is best known as the Candyman in that film series, and as William Bludworth in the 'Final Destination' series
Tony Todd has met his final destination. The distinctly-voiced actor of over 40 years with more than 240 film and TV credits best known for starring in the Candyman horror film franchise and recurring as coroner William Bludworth in the Final Destination films died Wednesday, November 6 at the age of 69. While his representation did confirm his death, the cause was not.
Todd was born on December 4, 1954, in Washington, D.C. He pursued acting at the Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theatre Institute and Trinity Rep Conservatory. His role as Sergeant Warren in Oliver Stone’s highly-lauded 1986 Vietnam War epic Platoon was among his first. After succeeding the original’s Duane Jones as Ben for the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, his next film role would be Candyman the hook-handed Daniel Robitaille, the murdered black artist of the late 19th century, son of a slave, killed for his relationship with a white woman, now seeking to kill anyone who summons him by uttering his name five times in front of a mirror. He uses ghostly bees. He would reprise the role for three sequels, including the 2021 Nia DaCosta film of the same name.
“You gotta have audience sympathy for the character in some way or another,” Todd said un 2022. “There’s gotta be something attractive about the character that makes people want to root for them but at the same time feel repulsed by the idea. And for me personally, for every film that I do, I create a backstory for all my tortured people and my heroes alike.” Virginia Madsen, who played Chicago graduate student Helen Lyle in the original Candyman, seems to have been the quickest colleague to pay tribute, posting to Instagram a video with the caption “My beloved. May you rest in power sweet to the sweet in heaven. The great actor Tony Todd has left us and now is an angel. As he was in life. More later but I can’t right now. I love you.” It at least showed she had collected some thoughts since posting the video, in which she said “Hey you guys, I just, just, just found out about Tony, and I will — I don’t know what to say right now. But yeah, I know about it. I will say more about my beloved Candyman. Anyway, thanks for your kind wishes.” Within a couple of hours she did find the words, writing “Tony Todd: A truly poetic man. A voice that made it easy to swoon. Thanks to Bernard Rose, we really created a gothic romance. It’s why the film lives on. A gentle soul with a deep knowledge of the arts. He enjoyed the fans and was never shy when it came to fans approaching, wanting photos. A rare actor who allowed himself to be open to the public attention. Wish I had seen him on the stage. I will miss him so much and hope he haunts me once in a while. But I will not summon him in the mirror! What a gift that Jordon Peele let us live again as lovers. He talked about a prequel using technology so that we, ourselves could tell the tale of how their love began. Imagine that. I do. My dear friend Tony, I do.”
His other highest-profile film role was as Death expert William Bludworth in the Final Destination series’s first, second, fifth, and upcoming sixth installment, subtitled Bloodlines, which will now release posthumously. His final film released before his death was Stream, which featured the first performance by Tim Curry in eight years and one of just a few since his stroke. Actor Devon Sawa, who played Alex Browning in the original Final Destination, posted “Tony Todd was a friend even through my darkest times. I’ll never forget that. RIP Brother Todd.” with a picture of them together.
On television, Todd’s recurring roles include news reporter Matt Rhodes on Homicide: Life on the Street, Lord Haikon in season 9 of Stargate SG-1, CIA Director Langston Graham on the first two seasons of Chuck, and as Gus Rogan on The Young and the Restless for a considerable stretch of episodes in 2013. His guest roles include 21 Jump Street, Night Court, MacGyver, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Law & Order, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Psych, Beverly Hills 90210, Xena: Warrior Princesss, The Orville, and Murder, She Wrote. However it’s his roles in the Star Trek franchise that hold special places in many’s hearts. As the Klingon Kurn, he is Worf’s brother who remained on the homeworld raised by a Klingon friend while Worf was raised by his human parents. He first appeared in season 3 of The Next Generation, though this information is suppressed so that he may continue serving as Commander. The Klingon Civil War they try to avert happens anyway, and he shows up on Deep Space Nine in "Sons of Mogh”, the fifteenth episode of the fourth season drunkenly in dishonor while extremely depressed. Efforts to help were in vain, with the solution to wipe his memory and give him a new identity as Rodek. But that was his second role that season, as he played an elderly version of Jake Sisko in “The Visitor”, the season’s second episode. This Jake, being interviewed by an aspiring writer wondering why he stopped writing, had lost his father to Subspace following an accident and became obsessed over the decades with bringing him back.
In superhero media, Todd’s deep and eerie voice led him to voicing villains in live action, like Hunter Zolomon aka Zoom when disguised on The Flash, animation like Darkseid in Lego productions and the DC Animated Movie Universe, and video games, like Venom in Insomniac’s Marvel's Spider-Man 2. He also played Earl Jenkins in the eighth episode of Smallville titled “Jitters”. Teddy Sears, who played Zolomon/Zoom when the mask was off, posted to his own Instagram glowing praise of Todd’s voice “You remember this moment… You remember this line. The way it sounded — that metallic, demonic voice somewhere between a snarl and a growl, deep and gravely and gruff. Eyes roll to black. The line is delivered. “You can’t. Lock up. The darkness… There is no Zoom without that voice, and there is no voice without the iconic Tony Todd. You were one of a kind. Flash fans remain in your debt.” Information on survivors is not available as it was essentially too incomplete to publish.
Sources: Deadline (1, 2), Teddy Sears