John Amos, Actor of 'Good Times' and 'Roots', Dies at 84

Published: 01 October 2024 at 21:28

Entertainment

John Amos, renowned for his roles in the sitcom Good Times as the family patriarch and as Kunta Kinte in Roots, passed away at age 84 of natural causes in Los Angeles. His son, Kelly Christopher Amos, shared that his father was beloved and had a kind heart. A former football player, Amos started his career in Hollywood with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, ultimately leaving a legacy through his impactful work in television and film.

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John Amos (Wikipedia)

John Allen Amos Jr. (December 27, 1939 – August 21, 2024) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as the adult Kunta Kinte in the landmark miniseries Roots and for portraying James Evans Sr. on the CBS television series Good Times. Amos' other television work includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a recurring role as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing, and the role of Washington, DC Mayor Ethan Baker in the series The District. Amos has appeared on Broadway and in numerous films in his five-decade career.Amos was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and an NAACP Image Award. On film, he played numerous supporting roles in movies such as The Beastmaster (1982), Coming to America (1988), Lock Up (1989), Die Hard 2 (1990) and Coming 2 America (2021). Prior to his acting career, Amos played college football at Colorado State University. He also had a brief professional football career, which included spending a portion of the 1967 offseason for the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs.

Kunta Kinte (Wikipedia)

Kunta Kinte ( KOON-tah KIN-tay; c. 1750 – c. 1822) is a fictional character in the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley. Kunta Kinte was based on one of Haley's ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1750, enslaved, and taken to America where he died around 1822. Haley said that his account of Kunta's life in Roots is a mixture of fact and fiction.Kunta Kinte's life story figured in two US television series based on the book: the original 1977 TV miniseries Roots, and a 2016 remake of the same name. In the original miniseries, the character was portrayed as a teenager by LeVar Burton and as an adult by John Amos. In the 2016 miniseries, he is portrayed by Malachi Kirby. Burton reprised his role in the 1988 TV movie Roots: The Gift.

Wally Amos (Wikipedia)

Wallace Amos Jr. (July 1, 1936 – August 13, 2024) was an American television personality, businessman, and author. He was the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie, the Cookie Kahuna, and Aunt Della's Cookies gourmet cookie brands, and was the host of the adult reading program Learn to Read.

Kris Kristofferson, Country Music Legend and Actor, Passes Away at 88

Kris Kristofferson, the acclaimed country music singer-songwriter and actor, died peacefully at age 88 at his home in Maui, Hawaii. Known for writing classics like "For the Good Times" and "Me And Bobby McGee," he also co-founded the country supergroup The Highwaymen. He earned a Grammy Award and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004. Kristofferson gained further fame as an actor, winning a Golden Globe for his role in A Star Is Born alongside Barbra Streisand.

Martin John Amos (Wikipedia)

Martin John Amos (born December 8, 1941) is an American Catholic prelate who served as an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Cleveland from 2001 to 2006. He was previously Bishop of Davenport from 2006 to 2017.

Amos 'n' Andy (Wikipedia)

Amos 'n' Andy was an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago then later in the Harlem section of New York City. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio show was created, written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who played Amos Jones (Gosden) and Andrew Hogg Brown (Correll), as well as incidental characters. On television, 1951–1953, black actors took over the majority of the roles; white characters were infrequent.Amos 'n' Andy began as one of the first radio comedy series and originated from station WMAQ in Chicago. After the first broadcast in 1928, the show became a hugely popular series, first on NBC Radio and later on CBS Radio and Television. Later episodes were broadcast from the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, California.: 168–71 The show ran as a nightly radio serial (1928–43), as a weekly situation comedy (1943–55) and as a nightly disc-jockey program (1954–60). A television adaptation ran on CBS (1951–53) and continued in syndicated reruns (1954–66). It was not shown to a nationwide audience again until 2012.

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