Good Times, Roots Star John Amos Dies

John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom Good Times and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries Roots, has died. He was 84. He died Aug. 21 of natural causes in Los Angeles, the AP reports. Amos' publicist, Belinda Foster, confirmed the news of his death Tuesday. He played James Evans Sr. on Good Times, which featured one of television's first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, it ran from 1974-79 on CBS.

• "That show was the closest depiction in reality to life as an African American family living in those circumstances as it could be," Amos told Time magazine in 2021. Amos' Good Times character, along with wife Florida, played by Esther Rolle, originated on another Lear show, Maude. James Evans often worked two manual labor jobs to support his family that included three children, with Jimmie Walker becoming a breakout star as oldest son JJ.

• After three seasons of critical acclaim and high ratings, Amos was fired. He had become critical of the show's white writing staff creating storylines that he felt were inauthentic to the Black characters. Amos' character was killed in a car accident.
• Amos quickly bounced back, landing the role of an adult Kunta Kinte, the centerpiece of Roots, based on Alex Haley's novel set during and after the era of slavery in the US. The miniseries was a critical and ratings blockbuster, and Amos earned one of its 37 Emmy nominations. I knew that it was a life-changing role for me, as an actor and just from a humanistic standpoint," he told Time magazine. "It was the culmination of all of the misconceptions and stereotypical roles that I had lived and seen being offered to me. It was like a reward for having suffered those indignities."
• "Many fans consider him their TV father," his son Kelly Christopher Amos said in a statement. "He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and film as an actor. My father loved working as an actor throughout his entire life. He was my dad, my best friend, and my hero."

• Among Amos' film credits were Let's Do It Again with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier; Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and its 2021 sequel; Die Hard 2; Madea's Witness Protection; and Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler. He was in Ice Cube and Dr. Dre's 1994 video "Natural Born Killaz."
• Born John Allen Amos Jr. on Dec. 27, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, he was the son of an auto mechanic. He graduated from Colorado State University with a sociology degree and played on the school's football team. Before pursuing acting, he moved to New York and was a social worker at the Vera Institute of Justice, working with defendants at the Brooklyn House of Detention.
• He had a brief professional football career, playing in various minor leagues. He signed a free-agent contract in 1967 with the Kansas City Chiefs, but coach Hank Stram encouraged Amos to pursue his interest in writing instead. He had jobs as an advertising and comedy writer before moving in front of the camera.

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