Danielle Spencer, 1965 – 2025

Child actress Danielle Spencer (What’s Happening!!), 60, died of cancer on Aug. 11. The daughter of actor Tim Pelt, she was a neophyte when cast as Ernest Thomas’s trouble-making kid sister Dee in the 1970s sitcom What’s Happening!! (she also appeared as Dee in the 1980s follow-up What’s Happening Now!). After leaving the show business, Spencer became a veterinarian, also making brief appearances in As Good as it Gets and Days of Our Lives. Spencer recalled having fun with Dee: “I must have channeled something in me that was a tattletale. Okay, I'll admit it. When I saw ‘Oooo, I'm going to tell Mama’ in the script, the way I said it, I don't think they intended it to be read like that . . . but no, I had to take it to a whole other level.”