Jimmy Cliff, the reggae icon whose role in the 1972 film The Harder They Come helped introduce the genre to international audiences, has died at the age of 81. Cliff’s wife, Latifa Chambers, revealed in a post that the musician died due to complications from a seizure followed by pneumonia. “Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace,” Chambers wrote. “To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.” Her message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.
Born James Chambers in Saint James, Jamaica in 1944, Cliff’s career began in the early 1960s after he moved to the island’s capital Kingston at the age of 14. Taking the surname as an expression of the heights he intended to reach, Cliff recorded two singles before being introduced to producer Leslie Kong, who produced several of his ska hits between 1962 and 1967. He was chosen as a Jamaican representative at the World’s Fair expo in New York in 1964 and appeared in the This Is Ska! documentary that same year. But his career really picked up when he signed to Island Records and moved to the UK.
Cliff’s debut album, Hard Road to Travel, came out in 1967. Though initially marketed to a rock audience, which led to him covering songs like Procul Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, but his 1969 singles ‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’ and ‘Vietnam’ – the latter of which was once hailed by Bob Dylan as the best protest song he had ever heard – fared much better. He also scored a UK Top 10 in 1970 with a rendition of Cat Stevens’s ‘Wild World’.
In 1972, Cliff played the lead in The Harder They Come, portraying a struggling singer who turns to a life of crime, though he was initially hired just to compose the film’s soundtrack. Cliff’s songs on the soundtrack – including the title track, ‘You Can Get If You Really Want’, ‘Many Rivers To Cross’, and ‘Sitting In Limbo’ – are some of the most beloved reggae tunes of all time. Its success led to a tour of America and a musical guest slot on the first season of Saturday Night Live.
In the late 1970s, Cliff took a break from music, traveled to Africa, and converted to Islam. He went on to win a Grammy for his 1985 album Cliff Hanger and collaborated with the Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, and Joe Strummer. He also he regularly appeared on soundtrack albums and acted in the movies Club Paradise and Marked for Death. His cover of Johnny Nash’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ featured in the 1993 film Cool Runnings.
Cliff was awarded Jamaica’s Order of Merit in 2003 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. He earned his second Grammy Award in 2012 for the album Rebirth. His final album, Refugees, came out in 2022.
