Donald Cortez Cornelius
(September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012)
Founder of Soul Train
He was an American television show host and producer widely known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance and music show Soul Train, which he hosted from 1970 until 1993. Cornelius sold the show to MadVision Entertainment in 2008. On May 3, 2023, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
At around 4 a.m. PST on February 1, 2012, police were called to Cornelius’s home in Los Angeles after reports of a shooting. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at the age of 75.
An autopsy found that Cornelius had been suffering from seizures during the last 15 years of his life, a complication of a 21-hour brain operation he underwent in 1982 to correct a congenital deformity in his cerebral arteries. He admitted that he was never quite the same after that surgery, and it was a factor in his decision to retire from hosting Soul Train in 1993