OJ Simpson: Death of NFL star cleared of murder 'no great loss to world', Ron Goldman's father says

But he went on to become one of the most celebrated football players of all time.

After a successful stint in college football, he enjoyed a record-setting career in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He retired from football in 1979.

He was also an actor and an advertisement star, appearing in years of TV commercials for Hertz rental cars, as well as films including The Naked Gun police spoof series.

But this all changed when Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman were found fatally slashed in a bloody scene outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994. Simpson quickly emerged as a suspect.

He was ordered to surrender to police but five days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate - carrying his passport and a disguise.

A slow-speed chase through the LA area ended at Simpson's mansion and he was later charged in the murders.

What ensued was one of the most notorious trials in 20th century America and a media circus.

Simpson, who at the outset of the case declared himself "absolutely 100 percent not guilty", waved at the jurors and mouthed the words "thank you" after the predominantly Black jury acquitted him on October 3, 1995.

Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fibre tests linking Simpson to the murders. The defence countered that the celebrity defendant was framed for killing his white wife, by racist white police.

The trial transfixed America. In the White House, President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office and watched the verdict on his secretary's TV.

Many Black Americans celebrated Simpson’s acquittal, seeing him as the victim of bigoted police.

Prosecutors committed a now-famous blunder when they asked Simpson to try on a pair of blood-stained gloves found at the murder scene, confident they would fit perfectly and show he was the killer.

But in a highly theatrical demonstration, Simpson struggled to put on the gloves and indicated to the jury they did not fit.

After his acquittal, Simpson said: "I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slayed Nicole and Mr Goldman... They are out there somewhere... I would not, could not and did not kill anyone."

The Goldman and Brown families subsequently pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court. In 1997, a predominately white jury in Santa Monica, California, found Simpson liable for the two deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5million in damages.

"We finally have justice for Ron and Nicole," Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, said after the verdict.

Famously, Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian's father Robert Kardashian was a member of Simpson's defence team.

Simpson's "dream team" of top lawyers did not represent him in the civil trial, where the burden of proof was lower than in a criminal trial. New evidence also hurt Simpson, including photographs of him wearing the type of shoes that had left bloody footprints at the murder scene.

After the civil case, some of Simpson's belongings, including memorabilia from his football days, were taken and auctioned off to help pay the damages he owed.

On October 3, 2008, 13 years to the day after his acquittal in the murder trial, he was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery.

These stemmed from a 2007 incident at a casino hotel in which Simpson and five men - at least two carrying guns - stole sports memorabilia worth thousands of dollars from two dealers.

Simpson said he was just trying to recover his own property, but was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison.

"I didn't want to hurt anybody," Simpson, donning a blue prison jumpsuit with shackles on his legs and wrists, said at his sentencing. "I didn't know I was doing anything wrong."

Simpson served nine years in a Nevada prison. He was released on parole in 2017 and moved into a gated community in Las Vegas.

He was granted early release from parole at the age of 74 in 2021, due to good behaviour.

Simpson married his first wife, Marguerite, in 1967 and they had three children, including one who drowned in the family's swimming pool at age 2 in 1979 - the year the couple divorced.

Simpson met future wife Nicole Brown when she was a 17-year-old waitress and he was still married to Marguerite.

Simpson and Brown married in 1985 and had two children. She later called police after incidents in which he struck her. Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse charges in 1989.

The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story - which aired in 2016 - won a number of Emmys for its portrayal of the murder trial of the former NFL star.

It starred Sarah Paulson and Cuba Gooding Jr as Marcia Clark and OJ Simpson respectively in the 10-part dramatisation of the Simpson’s murder trial.

The series also starred Sterling K Brown, John Travolta, Friends star David Schwimmer and Kenneth Choi.