"It is with deep sadness that I announce the death of my husband, Jim Brown. He passed away peacefully (Thursday) night in our home in Los Angeles," she wrote on her Instagram account.
"To the whole world, he was an activist, an actor and a football star. To our family, he was a loving and wonderful husband, father and grandfather. Our hearts are broken," she added.
Jim Brown is considered one of the best running backs of all time, to have shone in the NFL but also in the college championship in Syracuse.
Selected in the first round of the 1957 NBA Draft, he played nine seasons for the Cleveland Browns (1957–65), completing a total of 12,312 yards, with a Super Bowl won in 1964 and three MVP awards.
In 1966, he stopped his career at the age of 30, despite being at the top, to devote himself to cinema. That year, he was one of Robert Aldrich's "Dirty Dozen".
He has been an actor in fifty films and series, appearing in particular with Spike Lee ("He Got Game") and Tim Burton ("Mars Attacks!"), confronting Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Running Man" and playing the leading roles in several blaxploitation feature films.
In terms of activism, Brown organized the 1967 Cleveland Summit, which brought together twelve prominent men from the African-American community, in response to Muhammad Ali's decision not to participate in the Vietnam War.
The participants had supported the boxer, symbolizing the unity of blacks during the civil rights movement in America.
In 1988, he created the "Amer-I-Can" program, which intervened in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in an attempt to get young gang members back on track.
© 2023 AFP