John Amos, Iconic Star of ‘Good Times’ and ‘Roots,’ Passes Away at 84
John Amos, the distinguished actor recognized for his portrayal of the family head on the celebrated sitcom “Good Times” and as the mature Kunta Kinte in the acclaimed miniseries “Roots,” has passed away, according to his long-term spokesperson, Belinda Foster. He was 84 years old.
Amos died in Los Angeles due to natural causes on August 21. She also shared a statement through email from Amos’ son, Kelly Christopher Amos.
“It is with profound sorrow that I announce my father’s transition,” the message conveyed. “He was a man with an exceptionally kind spirit and a heart of gold… and he was cherished by people around the world. Many fans considered him their television father figure. He lived a fulfilling life. His legacy will endure through his remarkable contributions to television and cinema as an actor.”
Hailing from East Orange, New Jersey, Amos discovered his initial passion in athletics, falling in love with football and later playing at Colorado State University.
Although he graduated with a degree in social work, he managed to secure tryouts with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Denver Broncos, and the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.
In a video released by the Chiefs, Amos mentioned that he was “a slightly above-average high school football player.”
“All I aspired to do throughout my life was to pursue a career in professional football,” Amos stated in the footage. “I believed that would be my best opportunity to break free from the economic constraints we seemed trapped in.”
Amos would later recall Kansas City Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram saying, while releasing him from his brief stint with the team, “You aren’t a football player, you’re a young man who happens to be engaged in playing football.”
After working as a social worker and copywriter in New York, Amos shifted to acting, landing the role of weatherman Gordon “Gordy” Howard on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” marking the beginning of his rise in the entertainment industry.
Supporting roles on other popular 1970s television series, such as “Love American Style,” “Sanford and Son,” and “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” followed.
However, it was his portrayal of James Evans Sr., the strict yet loving father on “Good Times,” that turned Amos into a household name.
In a 2020 interview, Amos discussed departing from the hit show after two years due to “disputes” with the show’s white writers over the depiction of the Black family at its center.
“I felt that I understood more about what a Black family should represent and how a Black father would behave than our writers, none of whom were Black,” Amos commented at the time. “Their perspective of a Black family and father was entirely different from mine, which was rooted in reality.”
Amos noted that the series’ creator, Norman Lear, eventually acknowledged his viewpoint years later. The duo reportedly reconciled and shared a public embrace during the 2019 “Good Times” live TV reunion special.
Race came to the forefront once more when Amos played Toby, the adult version of the enslaved character Kunta Kinte, in the critically acclaimed 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which earned Amos an Emmy nomination.
“I realized it was a transformative role for me, both as an actor and as a human being,” he told Time magazine in 2021. “It was the culmination of all the misconceptions and stereotypical roles that I had encountered. It felt like a reward for enduring those injustices.”
The “Roots” role reunited him with actress Leslie Uggams, for whom he had previously written on her short-lived CBS variety show in the late 1960s.
Over the years, Amos appeared in other beloved characters, including as the owner of a fast-food establishment, Cleo McDowell, in the hit 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy “Coming To America” and its 2021 sequel.
Last year, Amos became embroiled in personal family disputes after accusations of elder abuse and rumors of his deteriorating health were raised by family members.
“To all my supporters, I want you to know that I am in good health,” Amos clarified at the time. “I was never in ICU nor was I ever in a life-threatening condition.”
john amos movies and tv shows
In 1977, Amos starred in the ABC-TV Miniseries Roots, as the adult Kunta Kinte, based on the book by author Alex Haley.[citation needed]
In 1980, he starred in the television film Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story. Amos played an Archie Bunker-style character in the 1994 sitcom 704 Hauser, a modern spin-off of All in the Family, but it was canceled after only five episodes (in the series he played a different character than he did in the All in the Family spin-off Maude). He also portrayed Captain Dolan on the TV show Hunter from 1984 to 1985. He co-starred in the CBS police drama The District. Amos was a frequent guest on The West Wing, portraying Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, who serves as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for most of the show. He played Buzz Washington in the ABC series Men in Trees. Amos co-starred with Anthony Anderson in the short-lived TV series All About the Andersons in 2003.[citation needed]
In 2010, Amos also appeared as recurring character Ed on Two and a Half Men, and in 2016 as another recurring character, also (coincidentally) named Ed, on the Netflix sitcom The Ranch. He has guest-starred in a number of other television shows, including Police Story, The A-Team, The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, In the House, Martin as Sgt. Hamilton Strawn (Tommy’s father), Touched by an Angel, Psych, Sanford and Son, My Name Is Earl, Lie to Me, and Murder, She Wrote. He has also appeared as a spokesman for the Cochran Firm (a national personal injury law firm).[11]
Amos wrote and produced Halley’s Comet, a critically acclaimed[12] one-man play that he has performed around the world. Amos performed in August Wilson‘s Gem of the Ocean on Broadway and later at the McCarther Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.[citation needed]
Amos was featured in Disney’s The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973) with Tim Conway and Jan-Michael Vincent in his first starring film role, and also starred as Kansas City Mack in Let’s Do It Again (1975) with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. His other film appearances include Vanishing Point (1971), The President’s Plane Is Missing (1973), Touched by Love (1980), The Beastmaster (1982), Dance of the Dwarfs (1983), American Flyers (1985), Coming to America (1988), Lock Up (1989), Two Evil Eyes (1989), Die Hard 2 (1990), and Ricochet (1991).[citation needed]
He appeared in the 1995 film For Better or Worse and played a police officer in The Players Club (1998). He played Uncle Virgil in My Baby’s Daddy (2004), and starred as Jud in Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006). In 2012, Amos had a role in the movie Madea’s Witness Protection, as Jake’s father. He appeared in Ice Cube and Dr. Dre‘s 1994 video for “Natural Born Killaz.”[citation needed]
In 2009, he released We Were Hippies, an album of original country songs by Gene and Eric Cash.[13]
In 2021, Amos starred in Because of Charley, as the patriarch of an estranged step-family riding out the hurricane that tore through Florida in 2004.[14]
john amos family
Amos was married twice. His first marriage, from 1965 to 1975, was to artist and equestrian Noel Mickelson, with whom he had two children: Shannon Amos, a writer/producer and founder of Afterglow Multimedia, LLC, and Grammy-nominated director K.C. Amos. The acrimonious relationship between Shannon and K.C. over the care given to their parents has been documented by The Hollywood Reporter.
His second marriage, in 1978-79, was to actress Lillian Lehman.
Amos lived for many years in Tewksbury Township, New Jersey.[18] In 2018, he moved to Colorado.[17] In 2023, he resided in Westcliffe, Colorado, where the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was looking into accusations of elder abuse.[19]
Amos died of natural causes in Los Angeles on August 21, 2024, at the age of 84. His death was not announced until October 1, 2024.[20][21]