Charles F. Porter, the actor and producer best known for playing pioneering NASCAR driver Wendell Scott in ESPN's "Wendell Scott: A Race Story," died Monday at his home in Calabasas, California, after a 17-and-a-half-year battle with Hodgkin lymphoma. He was 47.
His family confirmed his death to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. His wife, Candice Tab-Porter, announced the news in a social media post, writing that she had been honored to be by his side. His sister-in-law and former Duke teammate William L. Hill were with him when he died.
Born Charles Frederick Porter II on March 13, 1979, in Oxford, England, Porter moved to the United States at age 3. He attended Duke University, where he earned a degree in cultural anthropology and became a four-year football letterman, recognized as one of the ACC's top defensive tackles.
After a back injury ended his football ambitions, Porter turned to acting. He appeared in early-2000s television series including "The Parkers," "House," "Without a Trace," and "Bones," before landing his signature role in 2011 as Wendell Scott, the first Black driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race, in 1963.
Porter later founded Black Bench Productions to make faith-based independent films led by Black actors. His most recent credit was producing the 2025 Lifetime movie "Finding Faith," starring Paula Patton, Loretta Devine, and Keith David.
He was first diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010 and went into remission after a stem cell transplant in 2011. During four years in remission he wrote the book "Choose Your Path," published in 2015 — two weeks after learning the cancer had returned. He is survived by his wife, daughters Layla Rose, 9, and Juliette Jasmine, 6, his mother Dorothy Fourmeax, and his brother Sydney Sparks-Fourmeax.
