John Amos(I)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
A native of New Jersey and son of a mechanic, African-American John
Amos has relied on his imposing build, eruptive nature and strong,
forceful looks to obtain acting jobs, and a serious desire for better
roles to earn a satisfying place in the annals of film and TV. He has
found it a constant uphill battle to further himself in an industry
that tends to diminish an actor's talents with severe and/or demeaning
stereotypes and easy pigeonholing. A tough, often hot-headed guy with a
somewhat tender side, John would succeed far better on stage than on
film and TV...with one extremely noteworthy exceptions.
Born on December 27, 1939, John was first employed as an advertising
copywriter, a social worker at New York's Vera Institute of Justice,
and an American and Canadian semi-professional football player before
receiving his calling as an actor. A stand-up comic on the Greenwich
Village circuit, the work eventually took him West and, ultimately, led
to his hiring as a staff writer on
Leslie Uggams' musical variety show in
1969. Making his legit stage debut in a 1971 L.A. production of the
comedy "Norman, Is That You?", John went on to earn a Los Angeles Drama
Critics nomination for "Best Actor". As such, he formed his own theater
company and produced "Norman, Is That You?" on tour.
The following year he returned to New York to take his first Broadway
bow in "Tough To Get Help". By this time he had secured secondary work
on the classic
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) as
Gordy the weatherman. His character remained on the periphery, however,
and he left the show after three discouraging seasons. On the bright
side, he won the recurring role of the sporadically-unemployed husband
of maid Florida Evans (played by
Esther Rolle) on
Norman Lear's
Maude (1972) starring
Bea Arthur. The two characters were spun-off
into their own popular series as the parental leads in
Good Times (1974).
Good Times (1974), a family sitcom
that took place in a Chicago ghetto high-rise, initially prided itself
as being the first network series ever to be created by
African-Americans. But subsequent episodes were taken over by others
and John was increasingly disgruntled by the lack of quality of the
scripts and the direction Lear was taking the show. Once focused on the
importance of family values, it was shifting more and more toward the
silly antics of Jimmie 'JJ' Walker, who
was becoming a runaway hit on the show as the aimless, egotistical,
jive-talking teenage son JJ. John began frequently clashing with the
higher-ups and, by 1976, was released from the series, with his
character being killed in an off-camera car accident while finding
employment out of state.
Amos rebounded quickly when he won the Emmy-nominated role of the adult
Kunte Kinte in the ground-breaking epic mini-series
Roots (1977), one of the most powerful
and reverential TV features ever to hit television. It was THE TV role
of his career, but he found other quality roles for other black actors
extremely difficult to come by. He tried his best to avoid the
dim-headed lugs and crime-motivated characters that came his way. Along
with a few parts (the mini-movie
Willa (1979) and the films
The Beastmaster (1982) and
Coming to America (1988)), he
had to endure the mediocre (guest spots on The Love Boat (1977), "The A-Team",
"Murder, She Wrote" "One Life to Live"). John also toiled through a
number of action-themed films that focused more on grit and
testosterone than talent.
He found one answer to this acting dilemma on the proscenium stage. In
1985, the play "Split Second" earned him the NAACP Award as Best Actor.
He also received fine reviews in a Berkshire Theater festival
production of "The Boys Next Door", a tour of O'Neill's towering play
"The Emperor Jones", and in a Detroit production of
Athol Fugard's "Master Harold...and The
Boys". In addition, John directed two well-received productions, "Miss
Reardon Drinks a Little" and "Twelve Angry Men", in the Bahamas. He
took on Shakespeare as Sir Toby Belch in "Twelfth Night" at
Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare and
earned strong notices in the late
August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning
play "Fences" at the Capital Repertory Company in Albany, New York.
Overseas he received plaudits for his appearance in a heralded
production of "The Life and Death of a Buffalo Soldier" at the
Bristol's Old Vic in England. Capping his theatrical career was the
1990 inaugural of his one-man show "Halley's Comet", an amusing and
humanistic American journey into the life of an 87-year-old who
recalls, among other things, World War II, the golden age of radio, the
early civil rights movement, and the sighting of the Comet when he was
11. He wrote and has frequently directed the show, which continues to
play into the 2007-2008 season.
In recent years, John has enjoyed recurring parts on "The West Wing"
and "The District", and is more recently appearing in the offbeat
series Men in Trees (2006)
starring Anne Heche. John Amos has two
children by his former wife Noel Amos and two children. Son
K.C. Amos director, writer, producer, editor
and daughter Shannon Amos a
director, writer and producer. Amos has one grand child,a
grand-daughter, Quiera Williams.
Amos has relied on his imposing build, eruptive nature and strong,
forceful looks to obtain acting jobs, and a serious desire for better
roles to earn a satisfying place in the annals of film and TV. He has
found it a constant uphill battle to further himself in an industry
that tends to diminish an actor's talents with severe and/or demeaning
stereotypes and easy pigeonholing. A tough, often hot-headed guy with a
somewhat tender side, John would succeed far better on stage than on
film and TV...with one extremely noteworthy exceptions.
Born on December 27, 1939, John was first employed as an advertising
copywriter, a social worker at New York's Vera Institute of Justice,
and an American and Canadian semi-professional football player before
receiving his calling as an actor. A stand-up comic on the Greenwich
Village circuit, the work eventually took him West and, ultimately, led
to his hiring as a staff writer on
Leslie Uggams' musical variety show in
1969. Making his legit stage debut in a 1971 L.A. production of the
comedy "Norman, Is That You?", John went on to earn a Los Angeles Drama
Critics nomination for "Best Actor". As such, he formed his own theater
company and produced "Norman, Is That You?" on tour.
The following year he returned to New York to take his first Broadway
bow in "Tough To Get Help". By this time he had secured secondary work
on the classic
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) as
Gordy the weatherman. His character remained on the periphery, however,
and he left the show after three discouraging seasons. On the bright
side, he won the recurring role of the sporadically-unemployed husband
of maid Florida Evans (played by
Esther Rolle) on
Norman Lear's
Maude (1972) starring
Bea Arthur. The two characters were spun-off
into their own popular series as the parental leads in
Good Times (1974).
Good Times (1974), a family sitcom
that took place in a Chicago ghetto high-rise, initially prided itself
as being the first network series ever to be created by
African-Americans. But subsequent episodes were taken over by others
and John was increasingly disgruntled by the lack of quality of the
scripts and the direction Lear was taking the show. Once focused on the
importance of family values, it was shifting more and more toward the
silly antics of Jimmie 'JJ' Walker, who
was becoming a runaway hit on the show as the aimless, egotistical,
jive-talking teenage son JJ. John began frequently clashing with the
higher-ups and, by 1976, was released from the series, with his
character being killed in an off-camera car accident while finding
employment out of state.
Amos rebounded quickly when he won the Emmy-nominated role of the adult
Kunte Kinte in the ground-breaking epic mini-series
Roots (1977), one of the most powerful
and reverential TV features ever to hit television. It was THE TV role
of his career, but he found other quality roles for other black actors
extremely difficult to come by. He tried his best to avoid the
dim-headed lugs and crime-motivated characters that came his way. Along
with a few parts (the mini-movie
Willa (1979) and the films
The Beastmaster (1982) and
Coming to America (1988)), he
had to endure the mediocre (guest spots on The Love Boat (1977), "The A-Team",
"Murder, She Wrote" "One Life to Live"). John also toiled through a
number of action-themed films that focused more on grit and
testosterone than talent.
He found one answer to this acting dilemma on the proscenium stage. In
1985, the play "Split Second" earned him the NAACP Award as Best Actor.
He also received fine reviews in a Berkshire Theater festival
production of "The Boys Next Door", a tour of O'Neill's towering play
"The Emperor Jones", and in a Detroit production of
Athol Fugard's "Master Harold...and The
Boys". In addition, John directed two well-received productions, "Miss
Reardon Drinks a Little" and "Twelve Angry Men", in the Bahamas. He
took on Shakespeare as Sir Toby Belch in "Twelfth Night" at
Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare and
earned strong notices in the late
August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning
play "Fences" at the Capital Repertory Company in Albany, New York.
Overseas he received plaudits for his appearance in a heralded
production of "The Life and Death of a Buffalo Soldier" at the
Bristol's Old Vic in England. Capping his theatrical career was the
1990 inaugural of his one-man show "Halley's Comet", an amusing and
humanistic American journey into the life of an 87-year-old who
recalls, among other things, World War II, the golden age of radio, the
early civil rights movement, and the sighting of the Comet when he was
11. He wrote and has frequently directed the show, which continues to
play into the 2007-2008 season.
In recent years, John has enjoyed recurring parts on "The West Wing"
and "The District", and is more recently appearing in the offbeat
series Men in Trees (2006)
starring Anne Heche. John Amos has two
children by his former wife Noel Amos and two children. Son
K.C. Amos director, writer, producer, editor
and daughter Shannon Amos a
director, writer and producer. Amos has one grand child,a
grand-daughter, Quiera Williams.