OJ Simpson, a former United States football star acquitted of murder in a widely watched trial in the 1990s, has died at age 76.

In a statement shared on social media on Thursday morning, Simpson’s family said he died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer.

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“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace,” the statement said.

US media outlets reported in February that Simpson was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Known by the nickname “The Juice”, Simpson was a star running back at the University of Southern California.

He won the Heisman Trophy — the top honour in American college football — in 1968 before making the jump to the National Football League (NFL) a year later as the Buffalo Bills’ number-one draft pick.

He played 11 seasons of professional American football and racked up numerous accolades.

But Simpson became a controversial figure after he was charged with the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in 1994.

He was ordered to surrender to police, but five days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate and led police in a slow-speed chase through Los Angeles.

Simpson’s months-long trial — dubbed the “trial of the century” — was televised and drew widespread media attention in the US and around the world.

OJ Simpson and defense attorney F Lee Bailey, left, consult with each other during Simpson’s double-murder trial in Los Angeles, June 30, 1995 [File: Reed Saxon/Pool via AP Photo]

His acquittal in 1995 also divided the country: Some Americans viewed it as a miscarriage of justice, while others believed he was unfairly targeted by a racist police force.

“I don’t think most of America believes I did it,” Simpson told The New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury determined he did not kill Brown and Goldman. “I’ve gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me.”

Even years later, the case continued to mesmerise the public, sparking debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, celebrity justice and police misconduct.

While a criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995, a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5m to family members of Brown and Goldman.

“We finally have justice for Ron and Nicole,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, said after the civil verdict.

A decade later, still shadowed by the California wrongful death judgement, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a cramped Las Vegas hotel room.

OJ Simpson, left, smiles next to San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr at a news conference in San Francisco, March 24, 1978 [File: Sal Veder/AP Photo]

Two men with Simpson had guns, and a jury convicted him of armed robbery and other felonies.

Imprisoned at age 61, he served nine years in a remote northern Nevada prison.

“I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” Simpson, donning a blue prison jumpsuit with shackles on his legs and wrists, said at his sentencing. “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”

Public fascination with Simpson never faded, and many debated if he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles.

His life saga was recounted in the Oscar-winning 2016 documentary “O.J.: Made in America” as well as various TV dramatisations.