John Amos, who played the stoic father on Good Times and played the older Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley’s landmark miniseries Roots, has died at the age of 84.
His son, Kelly Christopher Amos, announced that Amos died on August 21 of natural causes in Los Angeles.
“It is with deep sadness that I share with you my father’s transition,” he said in a statement. statement. “He was a man with the kindest heart and a heart of gold…and he was loved all over the world.” Many fans consider him their TV dad. He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and film as an actor.
Amos initially pursued a career in football after playing at Colorado State University, trying out for the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. His entertainment career took off once he was cast as WJN-TV meteorologist Gordy Howard on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
After four seasons as a genius presence on the early 1970s comedy, Amos was invited to audition for the role of James Evans Sr., husband of Esther Rolle’s Florida Evans and father of three, for the CBS series Good Times. The show, which ran from 1974 to 1979, was developed by Eric Monte and Mike Evans with All in the Family creator Norman Lear. A spin-off from Maude, herself a descendant of the groundbreaking All in the Family, Good Times was the first sitcom centered on a black American family.
Amos starred for three seasons on the series, which is set in inner-city Chicago. But he became irritated by the stereotypical scheming of the Evanses’ eldest son, JJ, played by comedian Jimmie Walker. Amos was written off the show once he went public with his criticism.
“We had a number of differences,” Amos said of Lear in a 2014 interview for the TV Academy Foundation. “I felt like there was too much emphasis on JJ with his chicken hat, going ‘Dy-no-mite!’ every three pages. I felt as much importance and mileage could have been gleaned from my other two children, one of whom aspired to become a Supreme Court justice, played by Ralph Carter, and the other, Bern Nadette Stanis , who aspired to become a surgeon.
“But I wasn’t the most diplomatic guy back then, and [the show’s producers] were tired of having their lives threatened because of pranks. So they said, “Tell you what, why not kill him?” We can move on with our lives! “That taught me a lesson: I wasn’t as important to the show or to the Norman Lear projects as I thought I was.
Amos’ character was killed in a car accident in a two-part episode that kicked off the show’s fourth season, in September 1976.
In the same 2014 interview, Amos became emotional as he recalled how “young men, in their 30s and 40s, of every ethnicity imaginable, would come up to me and say, ‘You’re the father I never had.’ »
After his stint on Good Times, Lear’s company hired him to play a congressman in the pilot of a show called Onward and Upward, which he ultimately left. Soon after, he was approached to star in Roots, ABC’s acclaimed 1977 miniseries.
“It was exactly what I needed,” he said. “It took away the bad taste of Good Times for me – not that Good Times was entirely bad, but the circumstances in which I left and the acrimony between Norman Lear and myself… I realize that it I am responsible for this myself. . I wasn’t the easiest guy in the world to get along with or lead. I challenged everyone.
Roots was “a vindication, an immense feeling of satisfaction”.
Amos’ additional television credits include recurring roles on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as Will Smith’s stepfather, as well as Hunter, The District, Men in Trees, All About the Andersons and the Netflix drama The Ranch. He has appeared in films including The World’s Greatest Athlete, Die Hard 2 and Coming to America 2.
