John Amos
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, he was let go from the show after the second season.
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 and 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. He also played a police officer in the movie (Players Club).
External links
- John Amos at TV.com
- John Amos at the Notable Names Database
- John Amos at the Internet Broadway Database
Categories
American television actors | American film actors | The A-Team actors | Murder, She Wrote actors | The West Wing actors | African-American actors | New Jersey actors | 1939 births | Living people | Good Times actors