The unthinkable happened in All American season 5 - Billy Baker, played by Taye Diggs, died during a bus crash, and everyone was left to mourn their favorite coach. The CW series is based on the true story of Spencer Paysinger, a former NFL linebacker, who serves as a consulting producer on the show. All American takes inspiration from Paysinger's life and career, meaning that some characters are also based on real-life people, including Billy.
In All American season 5, episode 11, the South Crenshaw football team traveled to a combine to flaunt their skills to college coaches. On the way back, their bus blew a tire, causing the vehicle to dangerously balance on the edge of a cliff. At first, viewers were made to believe that everyone got out safely, including Billy, but then the coach realized that Jabari Long was still inside the bus. He went back for his player and saved him, but Billy died in the process. Since All American based the character of Billy on a real person, some wondered if the fictional coach's death was inspired by an actual tragedy.
All American takes plenty of creative liberties when it comes to telling Paysinger's story, including Coach Baker's death in season 5. The fictional character's death was not based on something that happened in the NFL player's life. Instead, the series included the devastating development in season 5 because Taye Diggs was ready to say goodbye to All American. While speaking with TVLine, Diggs shared:
"I was having a great time. It was just a feeling that I got [that I was ready to leave], and I just honored that feeling. It was maybe mid-fourth season. I don't even remember, to be honest, because the showrunner [Nkechi Okoro Carroll] and myself are close. We'd been keeping in contact, so she had known, and we'd been talking. And we decided how to go about it, and storylines and whatnot, so it was all above board, and everyone was in the know."
All American season 5 killed Billy because the producers and Diggs came to a mutual decision that it was time for the actor to leave. The tragic turn of events wasn't prompted by a real-life death. As a matter of fact, the person who Billy's character in All American is based on is still very much alive.
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The character of Billy Baker in All American is loosely based on Carter Paysinger, Spencer's uncle and football coach. In real life, Spencer was recruited to play football at Beverly Hills High School, just like Spencer James in the CW series in season 1. Carter was real-life Spencer's coach at the high school, and the two developed a bond that the fictional Spencer and Coach Baker mirrored in All American.
Fortunately, Carter did not die in a catastrophic bus accident as Billy did in the drama series. However, Billy's stint as the principal of South Crenshaw High School might have been inspired by Carter's promotion to principal of Beverly Hills High School. Aside from that story and the relationship between football player and coach, Carter's life has (thankfully) been very different from Billy's in All American.
Source: TVLine