NEWS / Legendary US musician Quincy Jones died from pancreatic cancer – death certificate

Legendary United States musician, producer, and bandleader Quincy Jones died of pancreatic cancer, according to his death certificate. Jones passed away November 3, 2024, at the age of 91.

The musician’s death certificate, originally issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, was obtained by TMZ and confirms that pancreatic cancer was Jones’s official cause of death.

The sad news of the star’s passing at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, was confirmed by Jones’s publicists Arnold Robinson, who confirmed the musician was surrounded by his family when he passed.

The star’s daughter Rashida Jones, herself a famous actress best known for her roles in Parks and Recreation and the US version of The Office, posted her own tribute to her dad on her Instagram, calling him a “giant” and “culture shifter”.

Quincy Jones was buried in a private ceremony attended by his 7 children, brother, 2 sisters, and other family members. His family issued a statement suggesting that in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the Jazz Foundation of America.

Starting out as a trumpeter, Quincy Jones became famous as a jazz arranger and conductor in the 1950s. He went on to work with other artists, producing pop hit records for Lesley Gore and serving as an arranger and conductor for several collaborations between legendary singer Frank Sinatra and jazz pianist Count Basie.

Having established himself as a renowned musician, Quincy Jones collaborated with acclaimed US singer Michael Jackson on 3 of his most successful albums—Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987)--each of which featured dozens of renowned musicians brought together and conducted by Jones to implement Jackson’s vision producing hit songs “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”, “Rock with You”, “Off the Wall”, “The Girl Is Mine”, “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Wanna Be Starting Something”, “Human Nature”, “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”, “Thriller”, “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Man in the Mirror”, “Dirty Diana”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Leave Me Along”, and “Liberian Girl”. Jones also produced the charity song “We Are The World” to raise funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia.

The famed producer also composed numerous film scores, including for The Pawnbroker (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), The Italian Job (1969), The Wiz (1978), and The Color Purple (1985) and won multiple awards, including an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy.

Jones was married 3 times—including to Swedish photographer, actress, and singer Ulla Andersson and US model, actress, and singer Peggy Lipton—and had 7 children with 5 different women, including German actress and model Nastassja Kinski. Jones developed a life-threatening brain aneurysm in 1974 but survived. Due to the aneurysm, Jones had a metallic plate implanted in his head. Ignoring doctor advice not to play trumpet, Jones embarked on a tour and played trumpet in Japan, as a result of which the plate got loose and nearly cost him his life. While doctors came to Jones’s rescue, he was forced to stop playing the trumpet. It is not clear when Jones developed pancreatic cancer.

According to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic cancer is the 10th most common type of cancer in the United States, accounting for 66,440 new cases in 2024, which constitutes just 3.3% of all cases, but having the lowest 5-year survival rate of all cancers at just 12.8%. Since it is not particularly common, pancreatic cancer is only the 3rd leading cause of cancer deaths behind lung and colorectal cancer. Cancer in general is the 2nd most common cause of death in the United States after heart disease.