Talk:Yaphet Kotto

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Always liked this actor since he was in Forever Knight. Wikipedia is the first place I have ever heard that he is Jewish. Glad to know that, being Jewish myself also.

The above comment was posted by DakotaKahn on 1 September 2005.

Roodog2k 11:06, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] unreferenced, unverifiable

First, is it appropriate to call him "prince"?

Second, the business with his wife seeing the Virgin Mary.

Third, concerning the royal blood, is there a good source other than IMDB that states this? Also, could it be clarified? Would he be a prince with claim to all of Cameroon, or just part of Cameroon? That is, does his royal status extend to before current boundaries? Assuming that its true, of course.

Fourth, moving to Canada.

Roodog2k 11:16, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

I think that he is a bit crazy guy, but crazy in a positive way. Best wishes to him.

Here is the uncited info: "making Yaphet the son of the Crown Prince of the Royal Bell family of the Doualla region of West Africa's Cameroon.

He recently claims to have uncovered proof that he is the great-great-great-grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria. According to Kotto, the queen's son Prince Albert Edward VII had an illicit affair with Princess Nakande, daughter of King Doualla Manga Bell, producing the light-skinned Alexander Bell, Kotto's great-grandfather, but the deputy press secretary to Queen Elizabeth categorically refuted the story saying, " . . . Edward VII never visited Cameroon."

Kotto is married to Shirley Kotto, a Catholic, and recently claims to have seen the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Marmora, Ontario, Canada (known as Our Lady of Marmora).^{[citation needed]} The couple have bought a house near Marmora and applied for landed immigrant status in Canada.^{[citation needed]} It is unclear if Kotto has fully renounced his Jewish faith or not. However, according to IMDB.com "to this day, he remains a devout, practicing Jew"." Mad Jack 20:35, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, I don't quite have time right this second, but anyone working on this page might want to use this - [1] - Yahoo movies - has a lot of background and family info and is usually quite reliable, unlike IMDB Mad Jack 20:37, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

His ancestry is widely accepted public information and is considered reliable. Some sources from a quick google search:

Yahoo Movies Bio
Hollywood.com Bio
- Note the verbatim similarities between the two. That text is his official bio as released by Kotto's agent.
IMDb Bio
Essence Magazine 1999

In case that isn't enough, a lexis nexis search yields dozens more, inclusing but not limited to:

"Kotto is a descendant of a crown prince of Cameroon and was raised in Harlem as a Jew." The Edmonton Journal May 28, 2000
"His father, Avraham, an observant Jew, was the crown prince of Cameroon who immigrated to America and became a businessman." Israel Faxx May 6, 1999
"His father was the grandson of King Alexander Bell, who ruled a region of what is now Cameroon." Emerge March 31, 1998

On the opposite of the coin, I could find no sources, reputable or otherwise that dispute the claim. Reverting to include Cameroon text, citing Official bio at Yahoo and Edmonton Journal. Kershner 07:18, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Are you responding to me? All I did was remove info that had an "uncited" tag on it for a while. Mad Jack 20:30, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

I was responding to your deletion of the uncited information, but I did so without prejudice. I wanted to ensure that there was no further doubt on some of the info I retained. Kershner 20:28, 29 June 2006 (UTC)