Another part of my childhood left this plain of existence today. John Amos was 84 years old. He died in August but his death was announced today. I don’t know why but there had been some family squabbles.
I think I first saw John Amos when he was Gordy the weatherman at WJM-TV on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But the impact for me was when he played James Evans on Good Times. He was so masculine, so handsome like no one I had seen before. He stirred something inside me that I did not know I had, and I really didn’t know I had it until about 3 years later.
He was a strong, powerful head of the family. Took no shit from anyone but was there to tell his family he loved them. After his ignoble departure from Good Times, I saw him next on Roots. He played the adult version of Kunta Kinte, of which the younger version was played by LeVar Burton.
A tragic character but inspiring and opened my white eyes to the evil of the slave trade back then. We weren’t taught that in school but I’m sure we talked about it in class after each night’s episode. Nowadays they go out of their way to discuss the evils of the slave trade it seems.
After Roots, I would see John Amos pop up from time to time in various TV shows and movies. He was the father of the woman Eddie Murphy was in love with in Coming to America. He was in the sequel years later but I haven’t gotten around to seeing it.
He was a bad guy in Die Hard 2 and I think one of his best roles of the late 20th century was as Admiral Fitzwallace in the West Wing. Man he looked great in a uniform. He had a gravitas in that and the other characters showed him great respect. Sad to see him go.
It was an OK day besides all that. Bill spoiled me yesterday, seeing him for a few minutes at lunch. I hoped we could repeat it today but those things if they happen are never what happened previously. He was in midtown and I was in Tribeca. I did go to that spot and sat by the Freedom Tower at One World Trade Center puffing on a cigar.
That’s when I got a text from my sister telling me about John Amos.
I spent a lot of time looking for work, more time than I had actually worked. The supervisor complained about how I would spread my work throughout the day and I did do that a few times, for moments like today.
And even with all that nothing, I was able to accrue some overtime since there was an event going on and I was asked to stick around to 6 PM just in case some of the event attendees needed to be attended to.
One of the attendees had a walker and I was escorting him to the event. He said he did not need the help but I told him that I didn’t mind, as I was getting paid by the hour. That got a hearty laugh.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0025309/?ref_=tt_cl_t_6