John Amos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| John Amos | |
 John Amos as The West Wing's Percy Fitzwallace |
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| Born | December 27, 1939 (age 67) Newark, New Jersey |
| Notable roles | James Evans, Sr. in Good Times Kunta Kinte (as an adult) in Roots Cleo McDowell in Coming to America Adm. Percy Fitzwallace in The West Wing |
John Amos (born John Amos Jr. on December 27, 1939 in Newark, New Jersey) is a former professional football player and an American movie and television actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the characters of: Gordy Howard, the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, from 1970 until 1973 and James Evans, Sr. on the 1970s sitcom Good Times from 1974 to 1976.
Good Times went on for three more years without Amos. Unhappy with the scripts and tension with the producers, he was fired from the show after the third season.
Howard Stern, while interviewing John Amos on the Howard Stern Radio Show, referred to Amos as the best actor he ever met. Stern gave Amos this accolade due to the fact that Amos was constantly able on the show Good Times to refer to Esther Rolle's character Florida as "beautiful" without cracking up or throwing up. According to Stern, this was acting at it's finest, especially when the script called for Amos to kiss Rolle.
He was part of the Emmy award winning cast on the miniseries Roots playing the adult Kunta Kinte in 1977. He also portrayed Captain Dolan on television show Hunter from 1984 to 1985.
He co-starred in the CBS police drama The District, and has guest-starred on a number of other television programs including The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, In the House,The A-Team, and Martin as Sgt. Hamilton Strawn (Tommy's Dad). He was a frequent guest on The West Wing, portraying Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He has also had roles in several films, such as Coming to America, The Beastmaster and Die Hard 2. He also starred in Let's Do It Again (1975) as Kansas City Mack with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Amos was also featured in the movie The World's Greatest Athlete with Tim Conway and Jan-Michael Vincent.
He was also in Ice Cube's and Dr. Dre's video for Natural Born Killaz and played a police officer in The Players Club.
[edit] External links
- John Amos at TV.com
- John Amos at the Notable Names Database
- John Amos at the Internet Broadway Database
- John Amos at the Internet Movie Database
'Trivia: John Amos was a Golden Gloves boxing champion and was drafted by the Denver Broncos.
