Pioneering American rapper DMX dead at 50 Prince Philip had a rich history of being depicted in Hollywood
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American rapper and actor Earl Simmons, known by the stage name DMX or Dark Man X, died on Friday, his record label said, after he suffered a heart attack during what media reports said was a drug overdose. He was 50 years old.
The chart-topping artist’s songs included “Party Up (Up in Here)” and “X Gon’ Give It To Ya.” His career had been marked by legal troubles and prison time.
Music label Def Jam Recordings said in a statement it was saddened by “the loss of our brother Earl ‘DMX’ Simmons.”
“DMX was a brilliant artist and an inspiration to millions around the world,” the statement said. “His message of triumph over struggle, his search for the light out of darkness, his pursuit of truth and grace brought us closer to our own humanity.”
DMX collapsed at home late on April 2. Celebrity publications TMZ and Billboard said he had overdosed on drugs, triggering a heart attack.
On Friday, White Plains Hospital in New York said DMX had died peacefully with family by his side after suffering a “catastrophic cardiac arrest.”
“Earl was a warrior who fought till the very end,” family members said in a statement, adding that his music “inspired countless fans across the world and his iconic legacy will live on forever.”
Growing up in Yonkers, New York, DMX took his moniker from the name of a drum machine used in rap songs. When he was 14, an older rapper who had been a mentor tricked him into smoking crack,
DMX said in a documentary series broadcast on BET.
“He created a monster,” he said. “Cocaine almost took my life on a few occasions.”
His debut album in 1998, It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, was the first of five in a row to top the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. He was the only rap artist with such a streak, according to a 2019 profile in GQ magazine.
He studied the Bible and prayed before and after every show, he told GQ.
“Performing in front of people is beyond a high. It’s beyond a high that any drug could duplicate,” he said.
The rapper’s intense songs told stories of a complex character’s “sins of the streets,” according to a biography on allmusic.com, which described DMX as a “hip-hop Johnny Cash.”
His album ... And Then There Was X was his biggest seller, certified five-time multi-platinum. DMX released eight albums and was nominated for three Grammys.
DMX earned more than 40 film and television credits, including Belly, Romeo Must Die, and action films Cradle 2 the Grave and Exit Wounds, also contributing music to their soundtracks.
He had 15 children, according to media reports.
Before he died, his ex-wife Tashera Simmons, with whom he had four children, attended a vigil outside his hospital, where hundreds of fans danced to DMX songs.
“The love is real,” she posted on Instagram.
In 2017, DMX pleaded guilty in federal court to avoiding paying $1.7 million in taxes from 2000 to 2005 by shifting money among accounts belonging to managers and associates. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
The rap star’s prior arrest record included charges of animal cruelty, reckless driving, drug possession, weapons charges and probation violations. He served prison time in Arizona and New York.
In the 1998 song “Slippin’,” DMX rapped, “To live is to suffer, But to survive, well, that’s to find meaning in the suffering.”
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh – who died Friday at the age of 99 – spent most of his life as a stalwart companion to his bride, who became Queen Elizabeth II unexpectedly in 1956. Through those many years, in addition to several documentaries in which he appeared as himself, the prince was portrayed by a variety of actors in movies and television.
The most recent and high-profile depiction has been on Netflix’s hit series The Crown, where Philip was played at various ages by two different British actors, with a third upcoming in the series’ fifth and sixth seasons. An American was cast as Philip in The Queen, while one of his real-life friends took the reins in a 1982 TV movie for CBS. He was even portrayed in another TV movie by the actor who menaced Middle-Earth as Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
Curious about how Hollywood sees Prince Philip? Here are the actors who’ve taken on the role over the years – and one who will play him in the near future.
THE CROWN
Matt Smith, Tobias Menzies, Jonathan Pryce, Finn Elliot
Despite being fiction, The Crown has done a lot in the past five years to make Americans and others feel like they know a bit about the royal family. Prince Philip was played by Matt Smith in the series’ first two seasons, followed by Tobias Menzies in the third and fourth. Jonathan Pryce will take the reigns as Philip in the coming fifth and sixth seasons. Also, Finn Elliot
– who can be seen in the video at the top of this story – played a young Philip in three episodes of the show, across seasons two and three.
“He’s torn between the duty to his wife and a duty to himself,” Smith told the LA Times about his Philip character. “And I found that conflict very interesting to explore and play because he’s pulled in two different directions constantly. No other man in that period would kneel before his wife or walk two feet behind her. That was very difficult for him.”
THE QUEEN
James Cromwell
James Cromwell, an American, played Philip opposite Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, a performance that won her an Oscar in 2007. The
New York Times said Cromwell played Philip as a “dim bulb,” one of a cast of secondary characters who “prove especially crucial because it’s through their dealings with the queen, their awe and boobishness... that we start to get a handle on her.” Cromwell was nominated for an Oscar in 1995 for Babe; he starred in HBO’s Six Feet Under and the movie LA Confidential, to name only a few of his many credits.
THE QUEEN’S CORGI Tom Courtenay
This is a weird one: In this 2019 animated European film, distinguished for the lousy reviews that resulted in a 0% critics score on website Rotten Tomatoes, British actor Tom Courtenay provided the voice of the Prince Philip character.
In the film, the queen’s favorite corgi, Rex, a gift from Philip, gets sent to the pound and lost after – no lie – he accidentally flies into the crotch of President Trump during dinner with the royals.
“What should have been an easy cash-in – cute pups with a splash of Anglophilia thrown in – has somehow morphed into something deeply unpleasant, and in no way suitable for children,” the Independent wrote. Guessing nobody is mistaking this royal tale for the truth.
CHARLES & DIANA
A Royal Love Story:
Christopher Lee British actor Christopher Lee, who died in 2015, played Prince Philip in this 1982 ABC TV movie. Lee, typecast early in his career as a horror actor, was eventually better known for playing Saruman in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, and Count Dooku in the Star Wars films. He was knighted in real life by Prince Charles in 2009.
THE ROYAL ROMANCE OF CHARLES AND DIANA
Stewart Granger Stewart Granger, a British actor who died in 1993, was actually an old friend of Prince Philip, according to UPI. The news service said Granger enjoyed playing his royal pal in a 1982 TV movie on CBS. Coming out a year after Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married, the movie reflected their relationship as a dream pairing; it even ended with a shot of Charles and Di cooing over a newborn Prince William. “All the project lacks is an irresistibly cute dog,” said.
(Los Angeles Times/TNS)