“Candyman” and “The Crow” actor with hundreds of credits was 69

Tony Toddan actor who played the murderer Candyman and its 2021 sequel and appeared in the Final destination franchise and Platoon among more than 240 film and TV credits over a 40-year period, he died on November 6 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 69.

His representatives confirmed the news to Deadline, but did not provide a cause of death.

Born on December 4, 1954 in Washington, DC, Todd continued his acting studies at the Eugene O’Neill National Actors Theater Institute and Trinity Rep Conservatory, where he honed his skills and developed his impressive style. One of his first film roles was playing heroin-addicted Sergeant Warren in Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Vietnam War classic. Platoon.

Todd subsequently guested on popular series from the 80s and 90s 21 Jump Street, Night Court, MacGyver, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Law & Order, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Beverly Hills 90210, Xena: Warrior Princesss And Murder, she wrote And Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine And Traveler. He also returned as annoying TV news reporter Matt Rhodes Homicide: life on the street and as Gus Rogan in more than a dozen 2013 episodes The young and the restless.

All the while, Todd continued to act for the big screen. He appeared in 1980s dramas Lean on me, colors and Charlie Parker biopic Bird, starring Forest Whitaker. But his best-known film roles came in the following decade.

The 6-foot-2 Todd starred in the 1990 remake Night of the Living Dead as Ben, playing Duane Jones in George A. Romero’s iconic 1968 original. His next big role is probably his most famous: playing the mythical titular creep with a hook for a hand Candyman (1992) – a character he reprized in the 2021 sequel of the same name.

Candyman in the 1992 film was the ghost of Daniel Robitaille, whose parents were enslaved in the 19th century and became an accomplished painter. But he eventually fell for a white woman whose enraged father sent a lynch mob to kill him. Robitaille was burned at a site where a public housing project is later built and where a series of unexplained murders occur.

The Candyman legend lived on in the 2021 sequel, directed by Nia DaCosta. It was one of several horror roles for Todd that would continue throughout his 40-year career, including playing mortician William Bludworth in Final destination and several sequels. He also played Grange, Top Dollar’s (Michael Wincott) right-hand man in 1994 The Crow starring Brandon Lee.

“You have to have audience sympathy for the character somehow,” Todd says told Deadline in a 2022 interview. “There has to be something appealing 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 I make, I create a backstory for all my tortured people and my heroes.”

Todd continued to work steadily in film, TV, and video games throughout the 21st century, including a recurring gig as CIA director on NBC’s ChuckFree forms Death of the summer and MTV/VH1s Scream. His silver screen roles were mainly in B movies.

He was also an in-demand voice actor, lending his rich and resonant pipes to dozens of roles ranging from Star Trek And Call of duty games to TVs Transformers Prime And Be cool, Scooby-Doo and such films as Transformers: Rise of the Fallen.

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Possessed of a warm smile and a generous spirit that belied his hulking appearance, Todd continued to work this year, including Current And a leading role The Bunker – one of more than a dozen upcoming credits, according to IMDb. He appeared in last year Stream, rich in shadows And Werewolf game and in the 2022 SXSW premiere Bitch Ass.

Todd also made about a half-dozen small films in the 2000s and appeared as himself in dozens of documentaries and docuseries with mostly horror themes.

Information about survivors was incomplete.