Obi Ndefo, 'Dawson's Creek' and 'Star Trek' Actor, Dead at 51
Actor Obi Ndefo, best known for his role as Bodie Wells in Dawson's Creek, is dead at 51.
On Saturday, Aug. 31, Ndefo's sister, Nkem Ndefo, announced the actor and yoga instructor's death via Facebook.
"Heartbroken at the loss of my younger brother and knowing he’s finally at peace," she wrote alongside a photo of herself and her sibling smiling.
No further information about when Ndefo died or his cause of death was shared publicly, as of writing.
After graduating from Yale University's drama school, he appeared in several TV shows. They included The West Wing, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, NYPD Blue, Stargate SG-1, NCIS: Los Angeles and more.
From 1998 to 2002, Ndefo appeared in Dawson's Creek, which starred James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams and Chad Michael Murray, among others.
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In the wake of his death, Mary-Margaret Humes, who portrayed Ndefo's on-screen mother, Gale Leery, shared a montage of old photos and video clips via Instagram.
"These words don’t come easy ??It’s hard for me to conceive that you have left us, my dear friend," she captioned her update. "You always were and always will be a bright shining light. What an example of pure unfiltered love and tenacity you set as you faced life’s challenges of recent."
Humes added, "I will cherish all of our messages of love and support to each other over the past few years. Rest in peace sweet warrior. ?????????."
Ndefo previously opened up to the Los Angeles Times about losing his legs in a hit-and-run accident.
"I so clearly could have died," he said in a video published via YouTube. "Something in me, I had to instantaneously accept the reality of loss."
On Aug. 17, 2019, he was loading groceries into the trunk of his parked car when a driver slammed their SUV into him; one leg was sheared off and the other needed amputated.
"What is the best way to look at what happened, do you know what I mean? Is it a loss? Is it a tragedy?" Ndefo continued. "I started to realize day by day a bit that, who says that this isn't an opportunity? You know, what constitutes something good or something bad is a little bit in our mind."
