John Amos (1939-2024), legendary father of television and film | Obituary

In the 1970s, John Amos' face, size and presence established themselves on a mostly white television channel. The actor, who previously played NFL football and was also a comedy screenwriter, died of natural causes on August 21, news his family did not share until Tuesday, more than a month later. He was 84 years old. “Many fans consider him their TV father. He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his exceptional work in television and film as an actor,” a statement from his son, KC Amos, said. He cited it Hollywood Reporter. actually, America's father is the name of an upcoming documentary he and his family are producing about his story.

Amos was born in late 1939 in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a trailer driver and a domestic worker who later became a nutritionist. The actor, equally capable of the most austere serious airs and a warm smile, which made him ideal for playing the father, first caught his attention in the film. Comedy series. It all started with The Mary Tyler Moore Showin 1970, a series co-created by James L. Brooks. I played a meteorologist on TV. He had only had one credit before, as a cast member on the comedy variety show Tim Conway Comedy Hour.

Then, as the protagonist, Good timesa Norman Lear production in which he was the patriarch of a black family, a rarity at the time. At the end of the decade, in the field of drama, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for The Phenomenon rootsa miniseries created by Alex Haley in which he played an older version of the novel's protagonist, the slave Kunta Kinte. In the period between the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century, it appeared in The president's menWritten by Aaron Sorkin and Area. More recently, he registered his own participation in spin off to Custom defense, Suits: Los Angelesa series not yet released.

Good timesIt was created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans spin off to Modwhich actually was spin off to Family on the rightIt was not a peaceful production, despite its success and the fact that it broke taboos and introduced complex themes into television comedies, like many of Lear's serials. He was, after all, the first Sitcom Focus on an African American nuclear family. But many complained about the stereotypes the series propagated: the Black Panthers even went to Lear's offices to protest the way it depicted black poverty. Amos himself complained about stereotypes in the stories and a lack of representation among the all-white team of screenwriters. It ended with his expulsion from the series and his character being killed in a car accident that was announced in the first episode of the fourth season. I arrived on Friday without him.

Amos was also a father Prince in New YorkDirected by John Landis, a cameo in one of the most beloved comedies of the 1980s, in which Eddie Murphy played a prince from a fictional African country who goes to New York to look for a bride, pretending he has no money. He also appeared in the second part of 2021, The prince returns to New YorkWritten by Craig Brewer. Her character Cleo McDowell was Murphy's character's boss at a restaurant. Fast food Very similar to McDonald's – starting with the name: McDowell's. He was also the father of Murphy's character's love interest. More than a decade ago, he appeared in a famous McDonald's ad.

It can still be seen in Stallone – prisonerWritten by John Flynn Airport robberyWritten by Renny Harlin. Throughout his acting career, which continued to the end and included several genres, he worked in films by directors such as Melvin Van Peebles, John Badham, Sidney Poitier, Dario Argento, Russell Mulcahy, Cheryl Duné or Tyler Perry. He also appeared in the premieres of John Turturro and Ice Cube Rough diamondsBy brothers Josh and Benny Safdie. In addition to screen and American football, he studied sociology to become a social worker and also did boxing and Broadway theatre.