Cuba Gooding Sr. Dead: Police Suspect An Overdose
April 21 2017, Published 12:27 a.m. ET
The father of actor Cuba Gooding Jr., Cuba Gooding Sr., was found dead in his car on Thursday, April 20, 2017. Click through the gallery to see the photos from the crime scene where the renowned singer’s body was surrounded by police.
The 72-year-old singer, father of Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr., was found on Thursday afternoon, slumped over the steering wheel of his silver Jaguar in Woodland Hills, Calif.
Gooding Sr. was unconscious in the car when paramedics responded at 12:58pm PT.
The EMTs were unable to revive him.
Empty alcohol bottles were found in the car and the police reportedly suspect Gooding Sr. died of an overdose.
Police responded to the area and set up a crime scene perimeter around the car where Gooding Sr.’s body was found.
He was the lead singer in the band The Main Ingredient, known for their hit "Everybody Plays the Fool."
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Gooding Sr. was married to Shirley Gooding twice. They split in 1974, but remarried in 1995. They had four children, Cuba, Omar, April and Tommy.
Cuba Jr. spoke about his father on Inside the Actors Studio recently, recalling one of his earliest memories of his dad. “He would perform at Disneyland, and after his performances, they would close it off to the general public and all the performers’ kids would go on the rides as many times as they’d want," he said. "He would pull me up on stage with him and make me finish the song because I’d seen him perform all the time. It was a lot of feeling like, ’I come from royalty.’”
