Dr. Danielle Spencer, Dee From ‘What’s Happening!!,’ Dies at 60

Dr. Danielle Spencer was perhaps best known for her role as the young Dee Thomas on What’s Happening!! but she went on to have a very successful and full life. Thomas recently died on August 11, 2025, after a long battle with cancer, according to a post on social media by her former costar Haywood Nelson (Dwayne Nelson on What’s Happening!!). She was 60.
He wrote, “Brilliance! It comes in a great many forms. We all have them, and we all have this family’s — Dr. Danielle Spencer (June 24, 1965 – August 11, 2025). Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior, without fail, has finally found her release from the clutches of this world and a body. We celebrate Danielle Spencer and her contributions as we regret to inform her departure and transition from a long battle with cancer.”
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Nelson continued, “We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, What’s Happening!! cast member, veterinarian, animal rights proponent and healer, and cancer heroine. Our Shero. Danielle is loved. She will be missed in this form and forever embraced.”
Born June 24, 1965 in the Bronx to writer Cheryl Pelt, Spencer started acting at the age of eight. After appearing on the ’70s sitcom and its 1980 sequel What’s Happening Now!!, Spencer left Hollywood and became a veterinarian. In later years, Danielle Spencer balanced her veterinary career with occasional acting roles, appearing in As Good as It Gets (1997) and Peter Rabbit and the Crucifix (2001), as well as small film and TV parts.

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She reunited with her What’s Happening!! cast for the 2006 TV Land Awards, where she shared the “Character Most in Need of a Time-Out” honor with Alison Arngrim. Her memoir, Through the Fire: Journal of a Child Star, sparked renewed public interest and led to TV appearances. Spencer was married twice, to Garry Fields from 1999 to 2013 and to David L. David in 2014.

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