John Amos, star of Good Times and Roots, dead at 84 | CBC News

John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom Good Times and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries Roots, has died. He was 84.

Amos’ publicist, Belinda Foster, confirmed the news of his death Tuesday. No other details were immediately available.

He played James Evans Sr. on Good Times, which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, who co-starred on All in the Family and The Jeffersons, it ran from 1974-79 on CBS.

“That show was the closest depiction in reality to life as an African American family living in those circumstances as it could be,” Amos told Time magazine in 2021.

Born John Allen Amos Jr. on Dec. 27, 1939, in Newark, N.J., he was the son of an auto mechanic. He graduated from Colorado State University with a sociology degree and played on the school’s football team.

He had a brief professional football career, playing in various minor leagues. He signed a free-agent contract in 1967 with the Kansas City Chiefs, but coach Hank Stram encouraged Amos to pursue his interest in writing instead.

He had jobs as an advertising and comedy writer before moving in front of the camera.