TLDR: John Amos got fired for refusing to let Good Times flatten his family into a punchline. Fifty years later, his own family couldn’t manage the same protectiveness for him.
John Allen Amos Jr. was born December 27, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in East Orange by an auto mechanic father and a nutritionist mother.
He was a star running back at East Orange High School and, less predictably, a Golden Gloves boxing champion after graduating from Colorado State University in 1964 with a degree in sociology.
By the time Good Times premiered in 1974, Amos was already an established television actor, having spent three seasons as weatherman Gordy Howard on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He played James Evans Sr., the devoted, hardworking father of the Evans family, and the role mattered enormously to him.
He and co-star Esther Rolle had specifically insisted a strong father figure be written into the show at all. Without that fight, James Evans wouldn’t have existed on Good Times in the first place.
He Was Fired, Not Written Out by Choice
Amos clashed hard with the writing staff and with Norman Lear over the growing focus on son J.J.’s comic “Dyn-o-mite!” persona. He argued the show was sliding into stereotype and away from characters like Michael, who wanted to become a Supreme Court Justice.
By his own later admission, Amos wasn’t especially diplomatic about it. Lear eventually called to say he’d become a “disruptive element,” and his contract simply wasn’t renewed after Season 3.
James Evans was written out at the start of Season 4, killed off in a car accident. It’s a strange thing to be fired for insisting your character stay dignified, then watch him die in the plot instead, in an episode that gave Esther Rolle one of the most devastating scenes of her career.
Roots Gave Him an Even Bigger Role Almost Immediately
Amos didn’t stay off screens for long. In 1977, he landed the role of the adult Kunta Kinte in the landmark miniseries Roots, earning an Emmy nomination and becoming one of the era’s most recognizable Black leading men.
He kept working steadily for decades, playing Cleo McDowell in Coming to America and its 2021 sequel, Major Grant in Die Hard 2, Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing, and a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
In 2020, New Jersey inducted him into its state Hall of Fame, and his very last on-screen appearance came in the NBC legal drama Suits LA, filmed just four months before he died.
His Death Became a Real Family Dispute
John Amos died on August 21, 2024, at 5:18 p.m. at a hospital in Inglewood, California. He was 84, and his official cause of death, per his death certificate, was congestive heart failure with no other significant contributing conditions.
What made the story genuinely painful is what happened next. His death wasn’t announced publicly, or even to his daughter Shannon Amos, until October 1, more than 40 days after he’d actually died.
His son, K.C. Amos, made the announcement and said the delay had been John’s own wish, reportedly so Shannon couldn’t, in the words of one caretaker, “turn his death and interment into a circus.” Shannon has publicly disputed that framing entirely.
Prior to his death, Shannon had already filed elder abuse and financial exploitation complaints against K.C., alleging medical neglect she believes hastened their father’s decline, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
K.C. has denied every allegation, and Los Angeles police opened an investigation that was closed months later without charges against either side.
Amos was cremated on August 30, nine days after he died and without an autopsy. In her own statement, Shannon wrote, “Our family has received the heartbreaking news that my Dad, John Allen Amos, Jr., transitioned on August 21st,” adding that despite everything, “there is some semblance of peace in knowing my father is finally free.”
You can read more about the rest of the Good Times cast in our full guide to the show.
John Amos, Frequently Asked Questions
Why was John Amos fired from Good Times?
He clashed repeatedly with creator Norman Lear and the writing staff over the show’s direction, particularly the growing emphasis on J.J.’s comic stereotype at the expense of the family’s other characters. Lear told him he’d become a disruptive element and did not renew his contract after Season 3.
What did John Amos do after Good Times?
He landed the role of the adult Kunta Kinte in the 1977 miniseries Roots, earning an Emmy nomination, and went on to a long career including Coming to America, Die Hard 2, The West Wing, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
How did John Amos die?
He died on August 21, 2024, at age 84 in Inglewood, California. His official cause of death was congestive heart failure.
What was the dispute over John Amos’s death?
His daughter Shannon Amos had filed elder abuse and financial exploitation complaints against her brother K.C. Amos prior to their father’s death, alleging medical neglect. His death was not announced publicly or to Shannon until more than a month after it occurred, and police later closed an investigation without filing charges.
What was John Amos’s last acting role?
He appeared in the NBC legal drama Suits LA, filming his final scene in April 2024, about four months before his death.
