Charles F. Porter

Porter died on Monday 2 November 2026 at his home in Calabasas, California, aged 47, after a 17 and a half year battle with Hodgkin lymphoma. His wife, his sister-in-law and producing partner Renee Tab, and his best friend and former Duke teammate William L. Hill were with him. His family thanked City of Hope and Dr Stephen J. Forman for their care. The Hollywood Reporter published his obituary on 4 November.

Charles Frederick Porter II was born on 13 March 1979 in Oxford, England, where his father was serving in the Air Force. His mother is British. The family moved to the United States when he was three. He attended Rumsey Hall in Washington Depot, Connecticut, and The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. At Duke University he studied cultural anthropology and, at six foot four, was a four year football letterman and one of the ACC's leading defensive tackles. A back injury ended his ambition to play professionally.

Porter moved to Los Angeles in 2002 and appeared on the ESPN game and reality show Beg, Borrow and Deal. His television credits included The Parkers, House, Without a Trace and Bones, and his films included Holla and Johnny Was (both 2006) and Peppermint (2018). He starred as NASCAR pioneer Wendell Scott in the 2011 ESPN film Wendell Scott: A Race Story.

As founder of Black Bench Productions he developed, packaged, financed and produced independent films. He was the driving force behind Finding Faith (2025), written and directed by LazRael Lison and starring Paula Patton, Loretta Devine and Keith David, which was released through Fathom Entertainment and then shown on Lifetime. For BET+ he produced A Miracle Before Christmas (2022) and Christmas Angel (2023). His other credits as producer included Nailed (2006), Battered (2014) and Grace Point (2023). He was an executive producer and early investor on Last Meals, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Tessa Thompson, and was developing a slate of faith based films at his death.

He also worked as a model, appearing in Italian Vogue, an international Adidas campaign and the Ebony Fashion Fair, and published three poetry collections: Get to Know, Choose Your Path and Enjoying the Journey.

Porter was married for 18 years to Candice Tab Porter, an entertainment marketing executive and former publicist, and they had two daughters, Layla Rose and Juliette Jasmine. He coached youth football, worked as a personal trainer and mentored young people in Malibu, Calabasas and Westlake Village, and founded Brainwashed for Greatness, an initiative devoted to positivity and personal growth. He lived with Hodgkin lymphoma for 17 and a half years and had three bone marrow transplants; at his death he was writing a book called B+, inspired by the change in his blood type after one of them.

Porter is remembered for using his producing career to make room for Black artists and for stories of faith, family and redemption, and for the young people he coached and mentored. His family summed up the philosophy he lived by in two words: never quit.