There have been mixed reactions, including some scathing, after the death of disgraced former football legend and movie star OJ Simpson.

Simpson’s family confirmed his death in Las Vegas on Thursday (US time).

The 76-year-old had been battling prostate cancer.

“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace. The Simpson Family,” they wrote.

They signed it off with a request for “privacy and grace”.

Simpson was famously and controversially acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in a 1995 trial that gripped the world.

Brown Simpson and Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Brown Simpson’s Los Angeles home in 1994.

Simpson quickly became the chief suspect. Ordered to surrender to police, he instead them led them on a lengthy car chase along Los Angeles freeways that was televised live to millions across the world.

Goldman’s father was among the first to react to the news Simpson had died, saying it was “no great loss”.

“It’s just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years,” Fred Goldman told NBC News.

“It’s no great loss to the world. It’s a further reminder of Ron’s being gone.”

While Simpson was acquitted of criminal charges over the deaths of his ex-wife and Goldman, he was found liable in a civil suit pursued by the grieving families. He was ordered to pay $US33.5 million ($51 million) in damages.

Simpson was also later jailed for armed robbery and kidnapping in a separate criminal trial. He was eventually granted parole in 2017, telling the Nevada parole board: “I’ve done my time. I’ve done it as well and as respectfully as I think anyone can.”

One of the most cutting reactions to Simpson’s death came from Caitlyn Jenner. She was once married to Kris Jenner, whose former husband, the late Robert Kardashian, defended OJ in court.

“Good riddance,” she wrote on X.

Tweet from @Caitlyn_Jenner

In other reactions, comedian Dan Regan tweeted: “OJ Simpson has died. In unrelated news, the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman has died.”

David Zucker, who directed Simpson in two Naked Gun movies, wrote that “his acting was a lot like his murdering: He got away with it, but no one believed him”.

In an interview with NBC News, Brown Simpson’s ex-boyfriend Keith Zlomsowitch said the death was a “relief”.

“I think finally some sort of justice has been served, that he’s been taken from the earth,” Zlomsowitch, who was a pallbearer for Brown Simpson, said.

“It doesn’t bring Nicole back. But it means he can no longer be who he is in this world.”

Tweet from @TheRealOJ32

Gloria Allred, who represented Brown Simpson’s family in the murder trial, told TMZ his death was a reminder of how the justice system failed women in abusive relationships.

“Simpson’s death reminds us that the legal system even 30 years later is still failing battered women, and that the power of celebrity men to avoid true justice for the harm that they inflict on their wives or significant others is still a major obstacle to the right of women to be free of the gender violence to which they are still subjected,” she said.

Allred also spoke to New York’s ABC/7, saying, “I don’t mourn for OJ Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family and they should be remembered”.

“What was important was that there was some form of justice in the civil justice system that found that he was in fact liable for her wrongful death and the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman,” she said.

Simpson revealed in February that he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. He is survived by four children from two marriages.

-with agencies