Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican reggae singer who helped popularize the genre around the world with songs like “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “The Harder They Come,” has died. He was 81.

Cliff’s wife, Latifa Chambers, announced his death in a post online early today. She said the cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia.

Cliff won two Grammy Awards over his decades-long career: best reggae recording in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and best reggae album in 2013 for “Rebirth.” But his breakthrough in the United States came when he starred as an actor in “The Harder They Come,” a 1972 movie about a struggling Jamaican musician who turns to crime.

That film became a cult favorite in the United States, running for years in midnight slots at theaters. It won Cliff a wide base of fans, many of

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