Actor Tony Todd, known for his role in the Candyman horror movies, died at the age of 69.

According to reports, the American actor died at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

He starred as the lead character in the horror series, portraying the Candy Man character, a hook-handed ghost who is summoned by saying his name five times in front of a mirror.

Todd continued his role as Candyman from the first film in 1992 through its sequels in 1995 and 1999, and reprized the role for a fourth film in 2021, which is a direct sequel to the original.

Todd has appeared in hundreds of films, stage productions, and television series throughout his 40-year career, including roles in Transformers and Final Destination.

In Candyman, Todd’s main character is the ghost of artist Daniel Robitaille, a black man who was lynched in the 19th century.

The 1992 film tells the story of Todd’s character being accidentally summoned to the real world by a graduate student in Chicago who was fascinated by the urban legend of the Candy Man, setting off a chain of bloody events.

To talk In The Guardian in 2019, Todd recalled the film’s famous scene in which Candyman is swarmed with bees, gets stung 23 times, and apparently pays $1,000.129,700) bonus every time.

“Anything worth doing must involve some kind of pain,” he said.

In the same interview, he said about the Candyman character:

“I’ve done 200 movies, this is the only one that sticks in people’s minds. It affects people of all races. I’ve used it as an introduction to gang intervention work: What scares you? What scary things have you been through?”

Actor Virginia Madsen, who played student Helen Lyle in Candyman, paid tribute and said Todd was “an angel now. Just the way he was in life.”

She described him as “a truly poetic man” with “a deep knowledge of art”.

“I’ll miss him very much and I hope he’ll stop by once in a while,” he said.

“But I won’t call him to the mirror!”

The sequel to the original film, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, is set three years later, with Todd’s iconic lead reappearing in New Orleans and encountering his daughter’s descendant.

The third film – Candyman: Day of the Dead – was released in 1999, but was set in 2020 Los Angeles.

Todd and others from the 1992 film reprized their roles in the 2021 film.

Todd in 2020 he called this version “great” and described the film’s director, Nia DaCosta, as a “fan of body horror.”

As part of her eulogy, Madsen praised the “gift” the film’s co-writer Jordan Peele gave her and Todd, saying “let us live as lovers again.”

Before Candyman, one of Todd’s first film roles was as Sergeant Warren in the 1986 war drama Platoon.