Former footballer and coast guardsman John Amos was everywhere on television in the 1970s and 1980s.
The adult Kunta Kinte in Roots (1977).
Left: Levar Burton played the young Kunta Kinte.
Gordy the Weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77)
The sword-and-sorcery fighter Seth in Beastmaster (1982)
Plus guest shots on Sanford and Son, Maude, Police Story, Love Boat, The A-Team...you name it, he was in it.
I didn't see much of him during the 80s and 90s -- not on screen, anyway. We went to the same gym in West Hollywood.
John was always gracious to his flirtatious gay fans, leading us to speculate that he was gay in real life -- he's been married to women twice, and has two children, but you never know.
We never became friends, but we developed a nodding acquaintance. And I saw him naked in the locker room once or twice.
The man had a baseball bat down there.
More after the break
John continued to perform through the 2000s and 2010s, with starring roles in The District, Men in Trees, and All About the Andersons, and guest spots on Psych, My Name is Earl, Ballers, and Lie To Me.
On a 2010 episode of Two and a Half Men, John and 80s tough guy Stacy Keach played an elderly gay couple, the parents of Charlie's estranged girlfriend. I'm not familiar with any other gay roles for John Amos, but he has always been an ally.
With a Boy Culture fan at the Hollywood Show in 2012
In Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones, John had a guest spot as the elderly father of shady megachurch minister Lyle Lissons.
His last role was in The Last Rifleman, about a World War II veteran trying to reach France for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
He died in July 2024 at the age of 84.
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