Orenthal James Simpson was an American football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Simpson is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, but his professional success was overshadowed by his trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

Born in 1947 in San Francisco, California, Simpson was a son of Eunice (née Durden), an orderly at a psychiatric ward, and Jimmy Lee Simpson, a custodian for a Federal Reserve Bank and a private club and a cook. His father was also a well-known drag queen in the Bay Area. Later in life, Jimmy Simpson announced that he was gay. He died of AIDS in 1986.