Roots: The Saga of an American Family was likewise a historic series, depicting the life of Kunta Kinte after he is abducted from his home in The Gambia and sold into slavery. Amos played the adult version of Kunta, while Levar Burton played the adolescent version.
His work on the series earned him an Emmy nomination, and earned TV Land Awards for Roots, Good Times and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In 1996 he also earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for In The House.
The New Jersey native also portrayed Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing, worked on The District and appeared in movies such as The Beastmaster, 1988’s Coming to America (plus its 2021 sequel), Lock Up and Die Hard 2.
On Good Times, Amos previously told PBS on its Pioneers of Television series in 2013, “It was a an intelligent show at times, other times, of course, we didn’t go for a heavy message and it was just sheer entertainment. But even under the umbrella of entertaining people we got messages across.”
Yet it was Roots that was a particularly special experience for the actor.
