John Amos died on August 21 in Los Angeles of pure causes, his consultant confirmed on Tuesday. He was 84.
“With a profession spanning over 5 many years, Amos leaves behind a legacy of groundbreaking work in each tv and movie, together with a dedication to optimistic African American illustration in media,” the assertion learn.
The late actor is greatest recognized for his function as James Evans Sr. on Good Occasions, the place he portrayed a hardworking father striving to supply for his household in a difficult atmosphere. Nonetheless, his character was written out in Season 4 and killed off in an car accident.
Right here’s the whole lot it is advisable find out about how that call got here to be.
Was John Amos Fired from Good Occasions?
Good Occasions accrued excessive scores and was lauded for making tv historical past as one of many first sitcoms with an all-Black forged, previous Norman Lear’s The Jeffersons (1975-85). Nonetheless, each Amos and Esther Rolle, who performed his spouse, Florida Evans, felt that there have been nonetheless inroads to be made by Black members of the manufacturing. They urged Lear to permit them to change the scripts, which had largely been drafted by white writers.
Chronicling the trials and tribulations of a Black working-class household dwelling within the Chicago initiatives, Good Occasions (1974-79), which aired on CBS, by no means shied away from the gritty realities of life in public housing. The present tackled matters like racial bigotry, drug abuse, and poverty, all whereas sustaining a humorousness.
Regardless of its essential success, Amos felt that the present was leaning too closely into comedy. At one level, reminiscing with a childhood buddy about his roots, his character James remembers being so poor that whereas different kids had patches on their garments, he had “patches on my patches!”
“I had a approach of voicing my variations with the script that weren’t acceptable to the artistic employees,” Amos defined.
Amos’s outspokenness, which was initially welcomed, finally led to his dismissal in 1976 for being deemed a “disruptive ingredient,” as he talked about in an interview with the SiriusXM program Sway within the Morning. He was written out of Season 4 and his character was killed off in an car accident.
“I wasn’t probably the most diplomatic man in these days, and [the show’s producers] acquired uninterested in having their lives threatened over jokes,” he continued. “So that they stated, ‘Let you know what, why don’t we kill him off? We will get on with our lives!’ That taught me a lesson — I wasn’t as vital as I assumed I used to be to the present or to Norman Lear’s plans.”
