John Amos: Roots, Good Times and The West Wing actor remembered

Tributes have been paid to actor John Amos, who made his mark on US TV in the hugely popular landmark series Roots, and Good Times.

Amos, who was 84, played stern but loving patriarch James Evans in Good Times, one of the first sitcoms about a black family, from 1974.

But he was fired after three seasons following heated and long-running arguments about how the show’s white writers depicted its characters.

He went on to play the older Kunta Kinte in Roots, a milestone drama about an African man who is shipped to America as a slave.

Amos also had roles in films like Die Hard 2, Coming To America and Uncut Gems.

His other TV credits included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The West Wing, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, 30 Rock and Two and a Half Men.

His final role will be seen in the forthcoming series Suits LA.

Paying tribute, fellow actor Martin Lawrence wrote on social media: “This one hits different. My condolences go out to the family of a true legend, John Amos.”

His Good Times co-star Jimmie Walker told People: “John was a great actor and my condolences go out to his entire family, friends and his many, many fans.”

Announcing Amos’s death, his son Kelly Christopher said: “He was a man with the kindest heart and a heart of gold… and he was loved the world over.

“Many fans consider him their TV father. He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and film as an actor.”

Veteran weather presenter Al Roker posted that Amos always “brought dignity, grace and honesty to his roles”.

He wrote: “I remember him as Gordy The Weatherman at WJM [in The Mary Tyler Moore Show] when we was just starting as a TV weather guy in 1974 and seeing him as a role model.

“And when he quit Good Times, people respected him for his stand. He will be missed.”

Amos started out as an American football player before breaking into acting in comedies The Leslie Uggams Show and Maude.

His character in Maude – along with his on-screen wife, played by Esther Rolle – then got a spin-off in the shape of Good Times, set in a high-rise housing project in Chicago.

“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.

But it was often not close enough for the actor, who clashed with creator Norman Lear and asked to make changes to the writing team’s scripts.

“They’d go on about their credits,” he told SiriusXM radio.

He said he would respond: “Well, how long have you been black? That just doesn’t happen in the community. We don’t think that way. We don’t act that way. We don’t let our children do that.”

He particularly objected to the increasing prominence of the character of his son JJ, played by Walker, who had the catchphrase “dyn-o-mite”.

“I felt too much emphasis was being put on JJ in his chicken hat, saying ‘dy-no-mite!’ every third page,” Amos recalled.

“I felt just as much emphasis and mileage could have been gotten out of my other two children, one of whom aspired to become a Supreme Court justice, played by Ralph Carter, and the other, [played by] BernNadette Stanis, who aspired to become a surgeon.

“But I wasn’t the most diplomatic guy in those days, and [the producers] got tired of having their lives threatened over jokes.

“So they said, ‘Tell you what, why don’t we kill him off? We can get on with our lives!’

“That taught me a lesson – I wasn’t as important as I thought I was to the show or to Norman Lear’s plans.”

Good Times was adapted in the UK in 1976 as The Fosters, the first British sitcom with an all-black cast.

Norman Beaton played the father, with Lenny Henry in one of his early roles as one of his sons.

And earlier this year, Good Times was rebooted as an animated series by Netflix, which described it as a “spiritual sequel” to the original sitcom.

In 1977, Amos moved on to Roots, which the US Library of Congress said was watched at least in part by 85% of all US households.

Based on Alex Haley’s novel, the mini-series “elevated the American consciousness” about the history of slavery and its modern-day impact, Amos told New York channel NY1 in 2022.

“I knew that it was a life-changing role for me, as an actor and just from a humanistic standpoint,” he told Time.

“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.”