Teddy Pendergrass, the R&B star died yesterday at the age of 59. Teddy passed away in a Philadelphia hospital, his son Teddy Pendergrass II told the Associated Press.

He had surgery for colon cancer last year and was never able to fully recovery.

In the 1970s, Teddy became a sex symbol whose velvet voice drove songs such as “Close the Door” in 1978 and “Love T.K.O.” in 1980. Both singles reached No. 1 on the U.S. R&B charts.

Pendergrass had five straight platinum albums. Then, in 1982, the brakes failed on his two-year-old Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit on a winding Philadelphia road and the car rammed a tree.

While his passenger, a gay man dressed as a woman, suffered minor injuries, Pendergrass damaged his spinal cord and spent six months in a hospital.

Pendergrass returned to recording later, performing in a wheelchair.

according to mediatak