O.J. Simpson, football star turned celebrity murder defendant, dead at 76

FILE PHOTO: O.J. Simpson testifies during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada May 15, 2013. REUTERS/Jeff Scheid/Pool/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -O.J. Simpson, the American football star and actor who was acquitted in a sensational 1995 trial of murdering his former wife but was found responsible for her death in a civil lawsuit and was later imprisoned for armed robbery and kidnapping, has died at the age of 76.

Simpson, cleared by a Los Angeles jury in what the U.S. media called "the trial of the century," had died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, his family posted on social media on Thursday.