John Amos, who played a stern patriarch on “Good Times,” America’s first sitcom featuring a two-parent Black family, and who had a starring role in “Roots,” the slavery narrative that became America’s most watched show in the late 1970s, has died in Los Angeles. He was 84.
His publicist, Belinda Foster, confirmed the death on Tuesday, saying he had died on Aug. 21. She did not specify the cause or say why the announcement of his death was delayed.
Mr. Amos’s acting career spanned more than five decades, with his breakthrough coming in 1970 on the CBS comedy “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” playing Gordy, the weatherman on a local television news program working alongside Ms. Moore’s Mary Richards, an associate producer. After three seasons, Mr. Amos left for “Good Times,” a Norman Lear production and a spinoff of the producer’s sitcom “Maude.”
Following the success of “Good Times” and “Roots,” Mr. Amos appeared in dozens of other TV shows well into his 80s, including “The West Wing,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “30 Rock,” “Two and a Half Men” and “The Righteous Gemstones.”
In film, he played Cleo McDowell, the father of Eddie Murphy’s character’s love interest in “Coming to America” (1988), and amassed numerous supporting parts, including in “Lock Up” (1989), starring Sylvester Stallone; “Die Hard 2” (1990); and “Dr. Doolittle 3” (2006). He also appeared in a slew of TV movies, such as “Disappearing Acts” (2000), starring Wesley Snipes.
In 2019, Mr. Amos made a cameo appearance, as himself, in the movie “Uncut Gems,” starring Adam Sandler
John Allen Amos Jr. was born on Dec. 27, 1939, in Newark, N.J., to John and Annabelle Amos and grew up in East Orange, N.J. John Sr. was an auto mechanic. As a boy, John Jr. dreamed of becoming a football star.
He is survived by a daughter, Shannon, and a son, Kelly Christopher (who goes by K.C.), both from his first marriage, to Noel J. Mickelson, in 1965. He had no children from his second marriage, in 1978, to the actress Lillian Lehman. Both marriages ended in divorce.
In 2023, a family feud surfaced between Shannon and K.C., who accused each other publicly of neglecting to provide adequate care for their father as his health worsened. Mr. Amos dismissed the claims as “false and unmerited.” The Los Angeles Police Department closed their investigation into the matter in 2024, citing a lack of evidence.
- The New York Times
