"The story of Orenthal James - "OJ" - Simpson is that of the fall of a hero."
OJ Simpson is once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Convicted of armed robbery and conspiracy to kidnap by a Las Vegas district court, Simpson may be facing life imprisonment 13 years to the day after being cleared of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
That trial started in 1995 and containing the blockbuster ingredients of money, murder and sex, gripped the country for an entire year.
OJ's latest court appearance in a trial that lasted less than three weeks attracted much less interest - until the verdict was announced late on Friday 3 October.
Heaving a heavy sigh as the charges were read, could the once all-American football hero and Hollywood star have been reflecting on the broken shards of his once-charmed life?
Turning point
Before 1994, Simpson was regarded with affection by the public, well known as a professional athlete, actor and million-dollar spokesman for several US companies.
Things appeared to always work out for "the Juice". He had gone from the San Francisco ghetto, where he grew up, to a home in the wealthy boulevards of West Los Angeles via a glittering American football career.
It all changed when he became the main suspect in his ex-wife's murder. Millions of Americans watched as the police chased his white Bronco car for 90 minutes live on TV. He finally gave himself up outside his LA home.
Throughout his career OJ had worked hard to rise above race and become an all-American hero.
In 1969, in an interview with the New York Times, he stated that his biggest accomplishment was that "people looked at me like a man, not a black man".
But years later, in the courtroom, the issue of his colour could not be ignored.
His lawyer Johnnie Cochran was accused of playing the "race card" to a largely black jury after suggesting that police had planted evidence in an attempt to frame Simpson because he was a black superstar.
And the verdict divided US opinion along racial lines. There was widespread outrage among white Americans after Simpson walked free.
The trial led many to ask the question: Who was the real OJ Simpson?
There was no denying that he had been very much loved by the public who viewed him as gentle, generous, hard-working and charismatic. He and Nicole Brown, whom he married in 1985, played the perfect, handsome couple.
But the court case threw up a darker side, with the prosecution's emphasis on Simpson's violent relationship with his ex-wife.
There was the now-infamous incident of New Year's Day 1989 when police were summoned to their home to find Nicole outside, her eye blackened and her lip bloodied. She fell into an officer's arms, sobbing and screaming: "He's going to kill me."
Nicole decided not to press charges, but the city attorney went ahead and prosecuted OJ for spousal battery. He was fined and given two years' probation.
The couple remained together for another three volatile years before they divorced.
All-American hero
Simpson was born in 1947. He was a bow-legged child who had rickets, but was able to escape the San Francisco slums by the fact that he was an extremely good runner. He eventually went on to become one of the top running backs in American football history.
He attended the University of Southern California, where he was named the country's top college football player in 1968. He then moved to Buffalo, New York, where he spent most of his career.
In 1979, he was forced to retire due to injuries. By then, however, he was making his mark as a Hollywood actor.
Between 1973 and 1994, he appeared in more than 20 films including The Towering Inferno and the Naked Gun films. He also won some lucrative television advertising deals.
After the 1995 trial, things were never the same for Simpson. He was later found liable for the deaths in a civil trial brought by the Brown and Goldman family and ordered to pay them $33.5m in damages.
This money has not been paid, and OJ has remained out of work because any money earned would have to be handed over to the Brown and Goldman family. He does, however, receive a pension from his sporting career.
He has pursued a relatively quiet life, playing golf and focusing on his four children - two from his first marriage to a childhood sweetheart in the 1960s and two from his marriage to Nicole.
Last year, he was back in the spotlight, after a deal $3.5m ($1.8m) he reached with Rupert Murdoch's broadcasting and publishing companies sparked public outrage.
The deal included the publication of Simpson's ghost-written, "hypothetical" account of the murders, If I Did It, as well as an interview for Fox TV.
The project was shelved at the time, but this year, a court in Florida awarded the rights of the book to the Goldman family, partly to satisfy the unpaid civil judgement.
It was published by an American company in September.
(Coutesy of BBC News)
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