Dawson’s Creek Actor Obi Ndefo Tragically Passes Away at 51 After Losing Both Legs in Hit-and-Run Crash

Tragic Loss for Dawson’s Creek Family 

Daw­son’s Creek star Obi Nde­fo has died at the age of 51, his sis­ter has confirmed. 

The actor, who played Katie Holmes’ char­ac­ter’s broth­er-in-law Bod­ie Wells on the show, passed away five years after los­ing both his legs in a hor­rif­ic hit-and-run crash.

Heartfelt Tributes from Co-Stars

Nde­fo’s sis­ter Nkem Nde­fo shared the trag­ic news on Face­book, say­ing she is “heart­bro­ken at the loss of my younger broth­er and know­ing he’s final­ly at peace.” 

Daw­son’s Creek co-star Mary-Mar­garet Humes also paid trib­ute, describ­ing Nde­fo as “a bright shin­ing light” who faced life’s chal­lenges with “pure unfil­tered love and tenacity.”

Devastating Crash and Aftermath 

Nde­fo was seri­ous­ly injured in an August 2019 hit-and-run crash while load­ing a cool­er in his trunk. Sur­geons were forced to ampu­tate both of his legs — one was left com­plete­ly shat­tered and the oth­er par­tial­ly severed. 

A GoFundMe page was set up to help cov­er his med­ical expens­es and make his home wheel­chair accessible.

Legacy and Achievements

In addi­tion to his role on Daw­son’s Creek, Nde­fo also appeared in episodes of The West Wing, NYPD Blue, Cross­ing Jor­dan, and The Dis­trict. He was also the founder of the Los Ange­les-based non-prof­it Arts Alliance for Human­i­ty, which works to pro­vide arts edu­ca­tion pro­grams in the community.