John Landis knew exactly what he was doing when he cast John Amos opposite James Earl Jones in 1988’s “Coming to America.” Audiences related to both primarily as fathers. Jones cut an intimidating figure as King Jaffe Joffer, father of Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem.

Amos, like Cleo McDowell, was his opposite: the slightly clumsy but protective father of Shari Headley’s Lisa, the common man Akeem wooed much to his family’s dismay. For anyone who grew up in the era of Norman Lear’s dominant comedy, Amos registered as James Evans Sr., the hard-working father and husband of Esther Rolle’s Florida Evans in “Good Times.”

For that reason, he was seen as one of the first great black TV dads and an instantly recognizable face on TV and in cinema.

On Tuesday, Amos’ son Kelly Christopher Amos confirmed in a statement that the actor died of natural causes on August 21 in Los Angeles. He was 84.

Amos and Jones, who died on September 9, each appeared in the critically acclaimed 1977 miniseries “Roots.” However, Jones played Alex Haley in the show’s story, while Amos portrayed the older version of Kunta Kinte in the 19th century, for which he received an Emmy nomination.

Jones’ confident expressiveness and muscular presence are instantly recognizable in films and TV series, including a recurring role on “The West Wing” as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace and the homicide squad supervisor, and title character’s boss, in the first season of NBC’s “Hunter.”

In addition to his appearances in “Coming to America” and “Coming to America 2” in 2021, Amos played the heavy in 1990s “Die Hard 2.” His big screen debut was in Melvin Van Peebles’ “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” in 1971.

John Alan Amos Jr. was born on December 27, 1939, in Newark, NJ, to John Amos Sr., a mechanic, and Annabelle, who worked as a housekeeper before returning to school to become a nutritionist.

Amos graduated with a degree in sociology from Colorado State University, where he played football. He went on to play for several professional teams, briefly signing as a free agent for the Denver Broncos in 1964 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967, and was cut from each team before pursuing an acting career.

Amos’ first major TV role was as weatherman Gordon “Gordy” Howard on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” between 1970 and 1973. Then came “Good Times,” a spinoff of Norman Lear’s “Maude,” in which character of Amos was initially introduced. .

As James Evans Sr. Amos has said that he was proud to have portrayed the economic reality for many Americans in the economically depressed mid-1970s. James was a loyal patriarch of a working-class family on the South Side of Chicago, struggling to make ends meet and earning what he could by juggling part-time work.

Behind the scenes, Amos clashed with Lear and the show’s writers over what he perceived as their inauthentic portrayals of black life and the elevation of Jimmie Walker’s cartoonish JJ, Florida and James’ eldest son, to the center of the show’s attention. show.

In a 2017 interview with “Sway in the Morning,” Amos recalled that when the show started, there were no Black writers. Amos, who wrote and appeared on “The Leslie Uggams Show” in 1969, took issue with some of the images.

“They were going on about their credits and everything else and I looked at them all and said, ‘How long have you been black? That just doesn’t happen in the community,” Amos said at the time, as reported on Ebony.com. “We don’t think about it that way. We don’t act that way. We’re not going to let our kids do that.’”

Ultimately, Lear fired Amos and revealed James’s off-screen death during the two-part 1976 fourth season premiere.

Lear and Amos mended their relationship to the point that Lear earned him top billing in the short-lived CBS sitcom “704 Hauser,” the final “All in the Family” spinoff in which Amos stars as a liberal father who moves in with Archie Bunker’s former home in Koninginnen. It lasted five episodes. He also made a surprise cameo during ABC’s live, celebrity-studded recreation of a “Good Times” episode in 2019.

But Amos had already reprized his TV father role on other shows, including “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” where he played Will’s stepfather; “All About the Andersons” where he co-starred with Anthony Anderson as his father; and “Martin,” where he appeared as the no-nonsense father of Thomas Mikal Ford’s character Tommy.

According to Amos’ son, the actor’s final TV appearance will be in the upcoming drama “Suits: LA.”