Danielle Spencer, whose deadpan delivery as Dee Thomas enlivened the 1970s ABC sitcom “What’s Happening!!,” died on 11 Aug. at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, a family spokesperson, Sandra Jones, confirmed to ABC News. She was 60. Jones said Spencer succumbed to gastric cancer and cardiac arrest after a years-long fight with the disease. Former co-star Haywood Nelson also announced her death in a social-media tribute, calling her “Dr. Dee… our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior.” Spencer joined “What’s Happening!!” in 1976 at age 11 and appeared in 65 episodes over the show’s three-season run, becoming known for the catchphrase “Ooh, I’m gonna tell Mama.” She reprised the role in the mid-1980s sequel “What’s Happening Now!!” and later made a cameo as a veterinarian in the 1997 film “As Good as It Gets.” The series, set in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood, was one of the first network comedies to focus on the lives of Black teenagers and helped make Spencer one of television’s most recognizable child actors. After leaving Hollywood, Spencer earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in 1993 and practiced in the Richmond area while advocating for animal welfare. Her life was marked by health challenges, including a 1977 car crash that killed her stepfather Tim Pelt and left her in a coma for three weeks, a 2014 breast-cancer diagnosis, and emergency brain surgery in 2018. Spencer is survived by her mother, Cheryl Pelt, and her brother, jazz trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.