Celebrity death thread

[TAC]

John Amos was awesome!

[Orbert]

I think my favorite John Amos role was as Admiral Fitzwallace on The West Wing.  100% badass.

[Cool Chris]

Single season records are going to fall much more easily than career-spanning ones. Lightning can strike easier over the course of a season. Sustaining statistical greatness for 20+ years is just too hard to achieve.

I recall reading SOMETHING - I have no idea what it was and couldn't begin to cite it - in which someone on the inside of the commissioner's office said that it was always Giamatti's intention to reinstate Rose at some point in time.  Unfortunately, Giamatti died a mere 8 days later, so we'll never know.

I have never read that. It seemed Giamatti was pretty adamant about his gambling, and the ensuing punishment. Memory is hazy and I don't have time for research, but I believe their deal was supposed to be something like: Rose accepts ban with opportunity for future appeal due to possible evidence, without proclaiming innocence or guilt, and MLB was not supposed to issue a public statement of his guilt or innocence. And then Giamatti came out and said basically "Based on the evidence I've seen, I believe he bet on Baseball" which broke the spirit of the agreement.

Ichiro Suzuki got 3089 hits. If my quick math is right, he got 2930 of those between ages of 27-39 he got 2930 hits, an average of 225 per year. If we extrapolate that to a career that started in MLB at age 22 and retired at 40, he would have had 4280. (He had 1,278 hits in Japan). That's the closest we might get, even if theoretically, in my lifetime.

[bl5150]

Man, John was so much part of my youth. R.I.P.

Same........maybe a bit unusual out here in Oz but reruns of Good Times were a big hit with me for quite some time as a young kid.

[hefdaddy42]

John Amos is a big one.  A fantastic actor.

One film that I loved him in is one that never gets talked about (possibly with good reason lol): Beastmaster.  I'm not saying it's good, I'm just saying that I like it a lot.

[Stadler]

John Amos is a big one.  A fantastic actor.

One film that I loved him in is one that never gets talked about (possibly with good reason lol): Beastmaster.  I'm not saying it's good, I'm just saying that I like it a lot.

A personal favorite of mine as well.   It should tell you everything you need to know, though, that I didn't remember John Amos being in that.

[hefdaddy42]

A personal favorite of mine as well.  It should tell you everything you need to know, though, that I didn't remember John Amos being in that.

lol Stads

I just like that film SO MUCH

[Glasser]

Are we just getting old or is is 70 the new 90? I feel like I'm in the 4th quarter of life being 54. 

[pg1067]

Looking at Amos's credits...

Probably the first thing I remember him from is the Mary Tyler Moore Show.  He was only on for 13 episodes, but he held his own with one of the best ensemble casts ever.  Then came Good Times, but his most prominent post-GT role was probably as the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in The West Wing.  The scene where the president wanted to hire a black kid to be his personal aide and consulted with Adm. Fitzwallace about how that might look was one of the best things ever on TV.

As for movies, I remember him best as Mr. McDowell in Coming to America and Major Grant in the second Die Hard movie.  He could convey such a wide range while still maintaining his underlying John Amosness.

[Adami]

I'm not as deeply familiar with Amos as some of you seem to be. I know him from a few things though.

Will say, I didn't think Coming 2 America (or whatever the sequel is called) was very good, but I do remember really thinking his scene (or few) elevated the movie a lot, and solely because of him.

[TAC]

As for movies, I remember him best as Mr. McDowell in Coming to America and Major Grant in the second Die Hard movie.  He could convey such a wide range while still maintaining his underlying John Amosness.

YES!!

[Orbert]

I haven't seen Coming 2 America, and probably won't ever bother, but if John Amos was in it, then I have no doubt that he elevated it.  He's a "real" actor, not a comic-turned-actor.  No winking at the camera, nothing to indicate subtly or otherwise that anything he's doing is a callback to anything else.  He's gonna play it straight, and be awesome.

[SoundscapeMN]

John Amos died on August 21st. But it was not reported until 2 days ago. Hids Daughter did not find out until the media report came out the other day.

It sounds like 1 of those Elder Care (abuse?) and a power struggles between family/next-of-kin (not identical, but think Casey Kasem, or even the unbelievable circumstances at the end of Michael Nesmith's life).

But the odd thing about that vs those other 2 examples, despite the extensive career in Hollywood, John Amos was not worth that much $ (between $300,000 and $3 million). I guess it may have been due to bad investments? Real Estate. Per you'd think with Coming To America and the residual income he would have got from that and the TV work that still is in syndication, you'd think his estate would have been worth more.

https://www.vulture.com/article/john-amoss-daughter-shannon-didnt-know-he-died.html

There has been a documented conflict between Shannon and K.C. over their father's care. In 2023, K.C. went to jail over threatening and "terroristic" text messages sent to Shannon, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Throughout 2023, John took a cross-country road trip with K.C., who documented the trip on TikTok. Shannon contended that the trip and its social-media documentation were exploitative. Summarizing the situation to THR in 2023, she said: "Seventies sitcom star in trouble when his bipolar, drug-addicted son exploits him on TikTok and his ayahuasca shaman daughter comes to the rescue." John and K.C. took a different side. "I have reason to believe that I've been taken advantage of financially, emotionally and every way that you can imagine as an elder, and I attribute most of this maltreatment to my daughter, Shannon Amos, who is estranged from me," John said on a call to his lawyers in 2023, per THR. Shannon claimed John was being "brainwashed" by K.C., while John's goddaughter claimed that John didn't remember speaking that strongly against Shannon.