John Amos, 1939 – 2024

TV star John Amos, 84, died on August 21 in Los Angeles, after years of ill health. Amos famously played the cheery Gordy the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and the angry, menacing patriarch on Good Times (he left that show after three seasons because of script disagreements). Amos was also the older Kunta Kinte in Roots, and appeared in such vehicles as The Tim Conway Comedy Hour, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Maude, Future Cop, Hunter, Die Hard 2, The Cosby Show, My Name is Earl, The West Wing, and Block Party, among many others. He got his start as a comic and writer, and also had success onstage, and in later years played in The Emperor Jones and Master Harold...and The Boys; for years he toured in his one-man show, Halley’s Comet. Despite the bitter parting from Good Times, Amos recalled that “It showed a black family that had the same trials and tribulations as the rest of America, especially those who were financially challenged. Good Times was a form of Roots, except it told the story of who we are on a comedic basis. And I’ve always contended, as some of my mentors taught me, the best way to get a message across to people is through humor.”