John Amos, Beloved Actor from Good Times and Roots, Passes Away at Age 84
Roots: The Saga of an American Family was a groundbreaking series that portrayed the life of Kunta Kinte, who was abducted from The Gambia and sold into slavery. John Amos played the adult version of Kunta, while Levar Burton portrayed the adolescent version.
Amos received an Emmy nomination for his work on the series and won TV Land Awards for Roots, Good Times, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He also earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for In The House in 1996.
A New Jersey native, Amos also played Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing, appeared on The District, and had roles in movies such as The Beastmaster, 1988’s Coming to America (and its 2021 sequel), Lock Up, and Die Hard 2.
Reflecting on his time on Good Times, Amos once said in a 2013 interview on PBS’s Pioneers of Television series, “It was an intelligent show at times, other times, of course, we didn’t go for a heavy message and it was just sheer entertainment. But even under the umbrella of entertaining people, we got messages across.”
However, it was Roots that held a special place in Amos’ heart as a particularly memorable experience for the actor.