John Amos, who was greatest identified for his roles Good Occasions, The Roots, and Coming to America, has died. He was 84.
The Emmy nominated actor’s son Kelly Christopher “Okay.C.” Amos confirmed in a press release to PEOPLE that he died of pure causes in Los Angeles on Aug. 21.
“It’s with heartfelt disappointment that I share with you that my father has transitioned,” Kelly wrote. “He was a person with the kindest coronary heart and a coronary heart of gold… and he was cherished the world over.”
He continued: “Many followers take into account him their TV father. He lived an excellent life. His legacy will dwell on in his excellent works in tv and movie as an actor.”
“My father cherished working as an actor all through his complete life,” he added. “Most not too long ago in Fits LA taking part in himself and our documentary about his life journey as an actor, America’s Dad. He was my dad, my greatest good friend, and my hero. Thanks in your prayers and help right now.”
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The information comes one 12 months and three months after Amos entered the hospital resulting from fluid filling his decrease physique and inflicting points along with his coronary heart. On the time, a rep for Amos stated the medical doctors drained the entire fluid and Amos had been on the mend.
Nevertheless, his daughter Shannon, claimed to TMZ that, one month earlier, she acquired a name from her dad claiming he’d been in insufferable ache and “fallen sufferer to elder abuse and monetary exploitation.” She additionally arrange a GoFundMe web page aiming to help her father’s restoration. The Good Occasions star disputed Shannon’s claims and stated he was not a sufferer of any abuse.
Amos first entered the highlight as in 1964 as a participant on the Denver Broncos. He additionally performed for the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs earlier than leaving the NFL for the Continental League, not prepared to surrender on his dream even after then-Chiefs coach Hank Stram reportedly told him, “You aren’t a soccer participant you’re a younger man who occurs to be taking part in soccer.”
By 1970, the New Jersey native made his TV debut, showing on The Billy Cosby Present, recurring on The Tim Conway Comedy Hour and touchdown his breakout position as Gordy Howard on The Mary Tyler Moore Present.
After his stint on The Mary Tyler Moore Present led to 1973, he went on star as James Evans Sr. in Good Occasions, the primary tv present to spotlight a Black household. Amos fought for genuine portrayals of Black lives to be proven on display screen, which finally led to his exit from the collection in 1976.
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Amos instructed VladTV that the producers’ “notion or their thought of what a Black household could be and what a Black father could be was completely completely different from mine, and mine was steeped in actuality.”
That resulted in Amos being instructed “my providers had been not wanted as a result of I had turn into a ‘disruptive factor.’”
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“I had a manner of voicing my variations towards the script that weren’t acceptable to the artistic employees,” he stated. “I imply, the writers acquired bored with having their lives threatened over jokes.”
The departure didn’t stall Amos’s profession. In 1977, he starred within the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots, which earned him his solely Emmy nomination. “You don’t anticipate that type of success as a result of that’s dreaming and that’s one factor actors can’t afford to do,” Amos instructed The Wrap in 2022. “We’ve acquired to deal in actuality.”
Amos’s TV profession continued steadily all through the ‘80s and ‘90s, throughout which period he held roles on Hunter, 704 Hauser and The Contemporary Prince of Bel-Air. In 1988, he memorably starred in Coming to America as Cleo McDowell, the daddy of Prince Akeem’s (Eddie Murphy) love curiosity and eventual life, and reprised the half within the 2021 sequel.
Amos had recurring roles on The District, The Andersons, The West Wing and Males in Bushes within the 2000s and saved working proper up till his demise. He made a shock look within the 2019 Stay in Entrance of a Studio Viewers particular by which stars like Viola Davis and Tiffany Haddish recreated a 1975 of Good Occasions as Alderman Fred Davis, a person operating for native workplace.
Eric McCandless/ABC
In 2022, Amos most appeared within the motion pictures Block Occasion and Me Time, in addition to an episode of The Righteous Gems.
“The reality of it’s, after I began appearing, I by no means thought I might dwell this lengthy, a lot much less be an actor,” Amos instructed TVLine in 2022. “I’ve had a blessed profession, and I attribute that to my religion in God and the truth that I used to be raised proper. I had the prospect to painting a father on a situational comedy that so many Black fathers and males of all races may establish with and admire.”
