Danielle Spencer, the former child actress best known for her role as sassy tween Dee Thomas on the groundbreaking sitcom "What's Happening!!," died Monday after battling cancer for several years. She was 60.

On "What's Happening!!" Spencer turned herself into a household name at just 11 years old, playing the sassy and quick-witted Dee Thomas.

Danielle Spencer, the actress who played the lovably bratty and witty teenager on the 1970s hit sitcom “What’s Happening!!” and its spinoff, “What’s Happening Now!!,” before spending much of her adult life as a veterinarian, died on Monday at Chippenham Hospital in Richmond, Va. She was 60.