TLDR: Ja’net DuBois spent eight years playing everyone’s favorite nosy neighbor on Good Times. The whole time, she was also quietly responsible for the theme song of television’s other biggest sitcom about a Black family.
Before Good Times ever existed, DuBois was already a Broadway performer, appearing in productions of Golden Boy and A Raisin in the Sun.
Norman Lear discovered her in a Los Angeles production of The Hot l Baltimore, and it was that performance that led him to develop both Good Times and, later, The Jeffersons around what he’d seen.
She played Willona Woods, the Evans family’s glamorous, gossiping best friend, throughout the show’s entire run. BernNadette Stanis later described her fondly as “a true diva back then, fancy dressing, the wigs, doing the thing,” the kind of larger-than-life presence that made every scene she was in feel bigger.
The role deepened considerably when Willona adopted Penny, the abused child played by Janet Jackson, giving DuBois one of the show’s most emotionally weighty arcs alongside its comic relief.
She Wrote a Different Sitcom’s Theme Song Entirely
DuBois co-wrote and sang “Movin’ on Up,” the joyous theme for The Jeffersons, a fact that surprises plenty of fans who only know her from Good Times.
The song ran as the show’s intro for its entire ten-season run and outlived nearly everything else about it in the cultural memory.
That gave her a genuine tie to two of the era’s biggest sitcoms at once, one as a cast member on the air five nights a week in reruns and the other as a credited songwriter whose voice millions of people heard without ever knowing whose it was.
Her On-Screen Daughter Cast Her as Her Real Mother Years Later
DuBois and Janet Jackson stayed close long after the show ended. In 1986, Jackson cast DuBois to play her mother in the music video for “Control,” a full-circle moment nearly a decade after DuBois’s character had adopted Jackson’s character on screen.
She Kept Working for Decades and Won Two Emmys
DuBois built a long career after Good Times, appearing in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, A Different World, and Beverly Hills, 90210, along with film credits as varied as Basic Instinct, Next Friday, and Tropic Thunder, where “Movin’ on Up” itself made a cameo.
She also co-founded the Pan African Film Festival, giving her a real hand in building an institution rather than just appearing in other people’s projects.
Her most decorated later work came in voice acting, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards for playing Mrs. Avery on the animated series The PJs. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a personal friend for years, later called her “one of Hollywood’s most prominent stars” whose “laugh and smile were infectious.”
She Kept Her Age a Secret Her Whole Life
DuBois died on February 17, 2020, at her home in Glendale, California. According to The Washington Post, Glendale police said the death did not appear suspicious, and no cause of death was released, since her age and health had long been details she kept private from nearly everyone around her.
Former co-star BernNadette Stanis said DuBois had appeared to be in good health just two weeks earlier at a fan signing event, and had been keeping everyone laughing as usual.
DuBois’s true age was something she famously never revealed, even to close friends and longtime co-stars who’d known her for decades.
You can read more about the rest of the Good Times cast in our full guide to the show.
Ja’net DuBois, Frequently Asked Questions
Did Ja’net DuBois really write The Jeffersons theme song?
Yes. She co-wrote and sang “Movin’ on Up,” the theme song for The Jeffersons, while simultaneously appearing as Willona Woods on Good Times.
What is Ja’net DuBois’s connection to Janet Jackson?
DuBois played Willona Woods, who adopted Jackson’s character Penny on Good Times. In 1986, Jackson cast DuBois to play her real mother in the music video for her song Control.
How did Ja’net DuBois die?
She died at her home in Glendale, California, on February 17, 2020. Police said the death did not appear suspicious, though her exact cause of death and age were not released.
What did Ja’net DuBois win Emmy Awards for?
She won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her voice work as Mrs. Avery on the animated series The PJs.
Did Ja’net DuBois do more than acting and singing?
Yes, she co-founded the Pan African Film Festival, a lasting institution beyond her own individual acting and songwriting credits.
