Reggae icon and "The Harder They Come" star, Jimmy Cliff, has passed away at the age of 81.

A message posted Monday on his social media accounts by his family stated that he passed away from a “seizure followed by pneumonia.” Further details weren't immediately provided.

“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career,” the announcement reads in part. “He really appreciated each and every fan for their love.”

A native Jamaican, Cliff possessed a vibrant tenor voice and a talent for memorable phrases and timely lyrics. He entered Kingston's burgeoning music scene as a teenager, playing a key role in a 1960s movement that featured future luminaries like Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert, and Peter Tosh. By the early 1970s, he had accepted director Perry Henzell's proposal to headline a film about a hopeful reggae artist, Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin, who resorts to illegal activities when his professional progress halts. Henzell chose the film's title “The Harder They Come” after Cliff proposed it as a potential song.

“Ivanhoe was a real-life character for Jamaicans,” Cliff told Variety in 2022, upon the film’s 50th anniversary. “When I was a little boy, I used to hear about him as being a bad man. A real bad man. No one in Jamaica, at that time, had guns. But he had guns and shot a policeman, so he was someone to be feared. However, being a hero was the manner in which Perry wanted to make his name — an anti-hero in the way that Hollywood turns its bad guys into heroes.”

“The Harder They Come,” delayed for some two years because of sporadic funding, was the first major commercial release to come out of Jamaica. It sold few tickets in its initial run, despite praise from Roger Ebert and other critics. But it now stands as a cultural touchstone, with a soundtrack widely cited as among the greatest ever and as a turning point in reggae’s worldwide rise.

For a short period, Cliff stood alongside Marley as the genre's leading figure. On an album featuring Toots and the Maytals, the Slickers, and Desmond Dekker, Cliff was highlighted on four of the 11 tracks, all of which are now considered essential reggae recordings.

“Sitting in Limbo” presented a contemplative yet optimistic view of a life in constant flux. “You Can Get it If You Really Want” and the track bearing the album's name served as appeals for engagement and declarations of ultimate resolutions: “The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all.” Cliff otherwise expresses a tired lament on “Many Rivers to Cross,”, a spiritual declaration penned after his encounters with racial prejudice in England during the 1960s.

“It was a very frustrating time. I came to England with very big hopes, and I saw my hopes fading,” he told Rolling Stone in 2012.

The music lives on

Cliff's career reached its zenith with “The Harder They Come,” but, following a hiatus in the late 1970s, he maintained consistent work for many years, encompassing session performances with The Rolling Stones and joint projects with artists like Wyclef Jean, Sting, and Annie Lennox. Concurrently, his earlier compositions continued to resonate. The Sandinistas in Nicaragua adopted “You Can Get it If You Really Want” as a theme for their campaign, and Bruce Springsteen contributed to broadening Cliff's American fanbase by performing a live rendition of the reggae artist's “Trapped,”, which was included on the 1985 charity album “We Are the World.” That sold over a million copies. Other notable artists who performed his songs included John Lennon, Cher, and UB40.

Cliff earned seven Grammy nominations, securing two wins for best reggae album: one in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and another in 2012 for the aptly titled “Rebirth,”, which many consider his finest album in a long time. Among his other works were the Grammy-nominated “The Power and the Glory,”, “Humanitarian”, and the 2022 album “Refugees.”. He also lent his voice to Steve Van Zandt’s protest song, “Sun City,”, and appeared in the Robin Williams comedy “Club Paradise,”, contributing several songs to its soundtrack and performing the track “Seven Day Weekend.” Alongside Elvis Costello.

In 2010, Cliff was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Born James Chambers in suburban Saint James, he, much like Ivan Martin in “The Harder They Come,”, relocated to Kingston during his formative years with aspirations of a musical career. The early 1960s marked Jamaica's transition to independence from Britain, coinciding with the emergence of reggae's precursors, ska and rocksteady. Adopting the moniker Jimmy Cliff, he achieved several local successes, such as “King of Kings” and “Miss Jamaica,”. After navigating obstacles similar to those that hindered Martin, he was invited to represent his nation at the 1964 World’s Fair held in New York City.

“(Reggae) is a pure music. It was born of the poorer class of people,” he told Spin in 2022. “It came from the need for recognition, identity and respect.”

Approaching stardom

His fame expanded during the latter half of the 1960s, leading to a contract with Island Records, the premier reggae label globally. Despite Island's founder, Chris Blackwell's, unsuccessful attempts to promote him to rock fans, Cliff successfully connected with new audiences. He achieved success with a rendition of Cat Stevens' “Wild World,” and entered the UK's top 10 with the spirited “Wonderful World, Beautiful People.”. Cliff's widely recognized protest song, “Vietnam,”, drew inspiration partly from a comrade who had fought in the war and returned severely disfigured.

Henzell's pursuit of a meeting with the artist, driven by his success as a recording and concert performer, aimed to persuade him to take the role: “You know, I think you’re a better actor than singer,” Cliff recalled him stating. Recognizing that “The Harder They Come” presented a significant opportunity for Jamaican film, the artist openly desired fame, though Cliff was taken aback by the extent of his celebrity.

“Back in those days there were few of us African descendants who came through the cracks to get any kind of recognition,′ he told The Guardian in 2021. “It was easier in music than movies. But when you start to see your face and name on the side of the buses in London that was like: ‘Wow, what’s going on?’”