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Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican musician and actor who helped popularize reggae around the world and paved the way for future stars of the genre such as Bob Marley, has died. He was 81.<\/p>\n
Cliff’s wife, Latifa Chambers, announced<\/a> the singer’s death in a statement shared Monday on social media, writing that he “crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia.” Additional information was not immediately available.<\/p>\n “To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career,\u201d the post on Instagram read. \u201cHe really appreciated each and every fan for their love.”<\/p>\n Cliff starred in the 1972 Jamaican crime film “The Harder They Come” and is known for the movie’s title track and other songs, including “Many Rivers to Cross” and “You Can Get It if You Really Want.”<\/p>\n Writing on social media, Jamaica\u2019s prime minister, Andrew Holness, called<\/a> Cliff \u201ca true cultural giant whose music carried the heart of our nation to the world.\u201d He added that Cliff\u2019s songs \u201clifted people through hard times, inspired generations and helped to shape the global respect that Jamaican culture enjoys today.\u201d In addition to his wife, Cliff\u2019s survivors include the couple\u2019s two children, Lilty and Aken.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Harder They Come,\u201d in which Cliff played a Robin Hood-like folk hero, connected with audiences at home and in the United States, where it became a mainstay of the midnight-movie scene. The film\u2019s soundtrack, with songs by Cliff and other Jamaican acts such as the Maytals and Desmond Dekker, was an international hit; in 2020 the album was inducted into the Library of Congress\u2019 National Recording Registry.<\/p>\n Born James Chambers in Jamaica\u2019s St. James Parish in 1944, Cliff moved to Kingston as a young man to pursue music and found success with a series of local hits, including \u201cHurricane Hattie.\u201d He ventured to London in the mid-\u201960s and struck a deal with Island Records, which would later sign Marley; Cliff\u2019s 1969 single \u201cWonderful World Beautiful People\u201d entered the top 10 of the British pop chart.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I really wanted to do was to get out this creative yearning that was inside of me,\u201d Cliff told<\/a> The Times in 1999.<\/p>\n Yet he also channeled the era\u2019s antiwar sentiment with \u201cVietnam,\u201d which, according to rock legend, Bob Dylan once described as the best protest song ever written.<\/p>\n Cliff toured the world in the wake of \u201cThe Harder They Come,\u201d which the Clash would go on to name-check on 1979\u2019s \u201cLondon Calling.\u201d In 1976, Cliff performed on the first season of \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d; he also spent time in Africa and converted to Islam.<\/p>\n In the early \u201980s, Bruce Springsteen made Cliff\u2019s song \u201cTrapped\u201d a part of the E Street Band\u2019s concert repertoire; a live recording of the song appeared on the \u201cWe Are the World\u201d album in 1985. Cliff sang on the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cDirty Work\u201d album in 1986, the same year he won his first Grammy Award, for his album \u201cCliff Hanger.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1994, he made the top 20 of Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 with a cover of Johnny Nash\u2019s \u201cI Can See Clearly Now,\u201d which he recorded for the movie \u201cCool Runnings.\u201d Cliff was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010; he won a second Grammy in 2013 for his album \u201cRebirth,\u201d which he made with Tim Armstrong of the punk band Rancid and which he said was inspired in part by the Occupy Wall Street movement.<\/p>\n \u201cI did a song called \u2018Vietnam\u2019 about that era, about that war, about people are marching,\u201d Cliff told<\/a> The Times in 2012. \u201cPeople are still marching now but for a different cause. I feel I need to be singing about those things.\u201d<\/p>\n Times staff writer Janine Schaults contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. <\/a><\/p>\n This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n