John Amos, famous for his television role in the show Good Times, died. The late actor was 84 years old. John’s son Kelly Christopher Amos confirmed on Tuesday, October 1, that his father died months ago on August 21.
“It is with heartfelt sadness that I share with you that my father has transitioned,” Kelly said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
Kelly added in his statement that John “lived a good life” and his “legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and film as an actor.”
The late Primetime Emmy Award nominee had been a part of show business for five decades. However, he initially pursued a professional football career. After playing on the football team at Colorado State University, the New Jersey native was signed as a free agent for the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs. He eventually left the sport and caught the acting bug.
By the early 1970s, John earned recognition for his role as weatherman Gordy Howard on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In 1973, he was cast in the role of James Evans Sr. on the show Good Times. John’s on-set experience, however, was fraught with disagreements. He typically clashed with the series’ writers over the show’s portrayal of African Americans. By season 3, John was fired from Good Times.
During a 2017 interview, John recalled his arguments with the writers.
“The truth of it was when the show first started, we had no African-American writers on the show, and some of the attitudes they had written, as per my character and, frankly, for some of the other characters as well, caused me to say, ‘Uh uh, we can’t do this, we can’t do that.’ And they’d say, ‘What do you mean we can’t do this?’” John said, per Ebony, “They’d go on about their credits and the rest of that, and I’d look at each and every one of them and say, ‘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.”
After Good Times, John landed multiple roles on TV and in films. His most famous television credits include The West Wing, All About the Andersons and Men in Trees.
