Obi Ndefo, who starred as Bodie Wells on Dawson’s Creek, has died at the age of 51.
His death was announced on Facebook by his sister, Nkem Ndefo, on Saturday, August 31.
“Heartbroken at the loss of my younger brother and knowing he’s finally at peace ,” Nkem captioned a photo of herself smiling with Obi. She did not give any details of his death.
Us Weekly has reached out to Nkem for further information.
The actor and yoga teacher was best known for his work on Dawson’s Creek, playing the recurring role of Bodie from 1998 to 2002. Mary-Margaret Humes, who played Dawson’s mother Gale Leery on the series, posted a tribute to her former costar on Instagram Saturday upon hearing of his death.
“These words don’t come easy 💔It’s hard for me to conceive that you have left us, my dear friend. You always were and always will be a bright shining light,” she captioned a series of throwback moments from the show together. “What an example of pure unfiltered love and tenacity you set as you faced life’s challenges of recent. I will cherish all of our messages of love and support to each other over the past few years. Rest in peace sweet warrior.”
Humes also tagged fellow Dawson’s Creek alum in her post, including Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and James Van Der Beek.
Obi’s death comes several years after a tragic hit-and-run accident took both of his legs in 2019. The actor had been loading groceries into his car in Los Angeles when a speeding drunk driver slammed into him from behind, severing his right leg and damaging his left severely enough to require amputation to save his life.
Still, despite the horror of what happened, Obi chose to keep a positive attitude, continuing to teach yoga classes. “This is just so horrendous what happened to me, why would I compound this by feeling bad about it?” he told the Los Angeles Times in December 2019. “I didn’t even have to choose positivity.”
“How do you know how you would handle this? How do you know what your own reserves are?” he added. “And anyway, what’s the alternative?”
A GoFundMe started for his expenses following the accident raised more than $287,000.
A graduate of Yale University’s drama school, Obi also made appearances on such shows as Angel, The West Wing, The Jamie Foxx Show, Stargate SG-1, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Crossing Jordan, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
