John "James Evans" Amos speaks with Fathers Incorporated on Responsible Men

John Amos was recently awared with the Fatherhood in Media Excellence Award the Annual Fathers Incorporated Annual Dinner. This award is given to an individual that has promoted a groundbreaking image of responsible fatherhood and/or mentoring. John took the time to speak to us about the 2011: Year of Responsible Men Campaign. John is a Honorary Board Member and will be featured in a developing documentary of Historic Televison Black Fathers due to release late 2011.

A native of New Jersey and son of a mechanic, African-American John Amos has relied on his imposing build, eruptive nature and strong, forceful looks to obtain acting jobs, and a serious desire for better roles to earn a satisfying place in the annals of film and TV. He has found it a constant uphill battle to further himself in an industry that tends to diminish an actor's talents with severe and/or demeaning stereotypes and easy pigeonholing. A tough, often hot-headed guy with a somewhat tender side, John would succeed far better on stage than on film and TV.

"Good Times" (1974), a family sitcom that took place in a Chicago ghetto high-rise, initially prided itself as being the first network series ever to be created by African-Americans. But subsequent episodes were taken over by others and John was increasingly disgruntled by the lack of quality of the scripts and the direction Lear was taking the show. By 1976, Amos was released from the series, with his character being killed in an off-camera car accident while finding employment out of state. Amos rebounded quickly when he won the Emmy-nominated role of the adult Kunte Kinte in the ground-breaking epic mini-series "Roots" (1977), one of the most powerful and reverential TV features ever to hit television.

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[maleficentdiva]

I don't get the comment about a "SEX CHANGE" what does that have to do with being responsible? LOL! its how a person feels! I agree with the other things he is saying, but the sex change comment was hilarious! LOL!

[beautifulsarah100]

I always think of this man as James Evans, who was a REAL man. This is a great speech here and all of it's true. And I'm laughing imagining if there had been a Good Times episode where JJ wanted a sex change operation. I could just see James' reaction to THAT!

[liltd87]

This was great!