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Bill Nunn, One of the Best Character Actors in the Last 30 Years Dies at 63

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By LIAM STACKSEPT. 24, 2016

Bill Nunn, a versatile actor best known for playing the role of Radio Raheem, the boombox-toting neighborhood philosopher killed by police officers in Spike Lee’s 1989 film “Do the Right Thing,†died on Saturday in Pittsburgh. He was 63.

His death was announced on social media by Mr. Lee. His wife, Donna, told The Associated Press that Mr. Nunn had cancer.

The first major acting role for Mr. Nunn, the son of a well-known professional football scout, was in the 1988 film “School Daze,†also written and directed by Mr. Lee. The next year brought the critically acclaimed “Do the Right Thing,†in which he played the iconic Radio Raheem, who carries a boombox blaring Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power†through the streets of the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn on the hottest day of summer.

Mr. Nunn became a popular character actor after “Do the Right Thing†and appeared in a variety of films, including “New Jack City,†“Sister Act†and the “Spider-Man†trilogy by the director Sam Raimi. In 2004 he appeared in a Broadway revival of “Raisin in the Sun†as Bobo, alongside Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs.

William Goldwyn Nunn III was born in 1953 in Pittsburgh. His father was Bill Nunn, a scout for the Pittsburgh Steelers who helped build a football powerhouse in the 1970s by recruiting from the often-overlooked football programs at historically black colleges and universities. He died in 2014.

Much like the character that brought him to fame, Mr. Nunn focused on the need for love.

“You know you’re watching a guy lose his life,†Mr. Nunn said in the interview. “For me, I’m just getting a little tired of watching these mothers on television, these poor mothers grieving their sons and children. It makes me wonder sometimes about where the compassion is.â€

A version of this article appears in print on September 25, 2016, on page A30 of the New York edition with the headline: Bill Nunn, 63, Actor in ‘Do the Right Thing’.

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