NEW YORK (AP) — The world mourns the loss of Jimmy Cliff, the legendary reggae artist known for his infectious energy and inspiring messages of joy, resistance, and perseverance. Famous for timeless hits like “Many Rivers to Cross,” “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” and “Vietnam,” Cliff also captivated audiences as the lead in the iconic film “The Harder They Come.” He has passed away at the age of 81.

His passing was confirmed by his wife, Latifa Chambers, on Monday. In a heartfelt message shared on his social media platforms, Chambers and their three children revealed that Cliff succumbed to complications from a seizure followed by pneumonia. Further details about his passing have not been disclosed.

In their statement, the family expressed deep gratitude to his fans: “To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career. He truly appreciated each and every one of you for your love.”

Born in Jamaica, Jimmy Cliff emerged as a vital force in Kingston’s burgeoning music scene during his teenage years, alongside future reggae legends like Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert, and Peter Tosh. His vibrant tenor and knack for penning catchy, socially aware lyrics made him a key figure in the music movement of the 1960s. By the early 1970s, Cliff embraced an opportunity from director Perry Henzell to portray Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin in a film about a struggling reggae artist who turns to crime. The film, titled “The Harder They Come,” became a landmark in cinema, with Cliff contributing the titular song.

Reflecting on the film’s 50th anniversary in an interview with Variety in 2022, Cliff shared insights about his character Ivanhoe: “Ivanhoe was a real-life character for Jamaicans. When I was a little boy, I used to hear about him 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 brief time, Cliff rivaled Marley as the genre’s most prominent artist. On an album that included Toots and the Maytals, the Slickers and Desmond Dekker, Cliff was the featured artist on four out of 11 songs, all well placed in the reggae canon.

“Sitting in Limbo” was a moody, but hopeful take on a life in restless motion. “You Can Get it If You Really Want” and the title song were calls for action and vows of final payments: “The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all.” Cliff otherwise lets out a weary cry on “Many Rivers to Cross,” a gospel-style testament that he wrote after confronting racism in England in 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 peaked with “The Harder They Come,” but, after a break in the late 1970s, he worked steadily for decades, whether session work with the Rolling Stones or collaborations with Wyclef Jean, Sting and Annie Lennox among others. Meanwhile, his early music lived on. The Sandinistas in Nicaragua used “You Can Get it If You Really Want” as a campaign theme and Bruce Springsteen helped expand Cliff’s U.S. audience with his live cover of the reggae star’s “Trapped,” featured on the million-selling charity album from 1985, “We Are the World.” Others performing his songs included John Lennon, Cher and UB40.

Cliff was nominated for seven Grammys and won twice for best reggae album: in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and in 2012 for the well-named “Rebirth,” widely regarded as his best work in years. His other albums included the Grammy-nominated “The Power and the Glory,” “Humanitarian” and the 2022 release “Refugees.” He also performed on Steve Van Zandt’s protest anthem, “Sun City,” and acted in the Robin Williams comedy “Club Paradise,” for which he contributed a handful of songs to the soundtrack and sang with Elvis Costello on the rocker “Seven Day Weekend.”

His other honors included induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Jamaica’s Order of Merit. In 2019, the Jamaican government renamed Montego Bay’s popular “hip strip” roadway Jimmy Cliff Boulevard. Two years later, Jamaican officials presented Cliff with an official passport in recognition of his status as a Reggae Ambassador.

He was born James Chambers in the parish of Saint James and, like Ivan Martin in “The Harder They Come,” moved to Kingston in his youth to become a musician. In the early 1960s, Jamaica was gaining its independence from Britain and the early sounds of reggae — first called ska and rocksteady — were catching on. Calling himself Jimmy Cliff, he had a handful of local hits, including “King of Kings” and “Miss Jamaica,” and, after overcoming the kinds of barriers that upended Martin, was called on to help represent his country at the 1964 World’s Fair 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 popularity grew over the second half of the 1960s, and he signed with Island Records, the world’s leading reggae label. Island founder Chris Blackwell tried in vain to market him to rock audiences, but Cliff still managed to reach new listeners. He had a hit with a cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” and reached the top 10 in the UK with the uplifting “Wonderful World, Beautiful People.” Cliff’s widely heard protest chant, “Vietnam,” was inspired in part by a friend who had served in the war and returned damaged beyond recognition.

His success as a recording artist and concert performer led Henzell to seek a meeting with him and flatter him into accepting the part: “You know, I think you’re a better actor than singer,” Cliff remembered him saying. Aware that “The Harder They Come” could be a breakthrough for Jamaican cinema, he openly wished for stardom, although Cliff remained surprised by how well known he became.

“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?’”

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Associated Press journalist John Myers Jr. in Kingston, Jamaica, contributed to this report.