How devastating! Cuba Gooding Sr. — soul singer and father of Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. — has passed to the great beyond after suffering a possible overdose. TMZ reports that he was found slumped over in his silver Jaguar on Apr. 20, which was parked along busy Ventura Blvd. in the Woodland Hills area of the San Fernando Valley. The fire department was called out to the scene just before 1pm PST and attempted CPR on the 72-year-old but were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Police suspect that he overdosed, but didn’t elaborate on what substance was involved.
Cuba Sr. became famous as the lead singer of ’70s soul group The Main Ingredient, which hit it big with 1972’s worldwide smash “Everybody Plays the Fool.” EVERYONE knows that song, as it is such an R&B classic! They followed it up with another smash in 1974 with “Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely.” He went on to have a solo career in the late ’70s through early ’80s, with his best known hit “Happiness Is Just Around the Bend” in 1983 with British keyboardist Brian Auger.
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Cuba got his unusual name after his father Dudley MacDonald Gooding, a Barbados native, fled to Cuba in 1936 and married a woman there. She was later murdered and on her death bed made him promise that he would name his first after her homeland. Dudley later moved to New York where he married Addie Alston and sure enough, his dad stuck to his promise and named his son Cuba when he was born on April 27, 1944.
The singer married Shirley Sullivan and had four children, including his American Crime Story star son Cuba Jr., 49. Three other siblings that followed are Omar, April and Tommy. Cuba Sr. and Shirley split at the height of his fame in 1974, only to remarry 21 years later in 1995.
Our condolences go out to Cuba Gooding Jr. and the rest of his family.