Yaphet Kotto 1939-2021

[Louis Epstein]

Actor Yaphet Kotto,born in New York to a father from Cameroon
November 15th 1939,died March 15th 2021 (the Wikipedes are using
the Mirror (UK) as source,for an article extensively quoting his
wife's announcement on his Facebook page,though they don't accept
Facebook pages themselves as a source).

He first came to my attention in "Live and Let Die",where he
played the chief antagonist to James Bond,who managed to kill him
by stuffing something into his mouth that I saw no reason he did not then
spit out.

In publicity in years past I recall his saying that he had his
original African family name,which was the envy of many American
blacks,but the Wikipedia bio says he claims his father changed
the name from Bell.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[Lenona]

From The Illustrated Who's Who of the Cinema (1983), by Lloyd, Fuller and Desser, page 245 (the photo they chose is from the 1975 movie Report to the Commisioner):

"A powerfully built actor whose aunt ran a well-known dance school in New York ( Brando and Dean numbered among its students), Kotto - more than many fellow black actors - has been able to break through the racial stereotype. He's played an engineer in Alien, a thief in The Thomas Crown Affair, the deposed leader Idi Amin in Raid on Entebbe, a barkeeper in Five Card Stud and a cool Detroit car worker with brains in Blue Collar. At the age of 19, with hardly any stage experience, he was called upon to take over the title role in Othello, in a semi - professional theatrical production, when the lead fell ill. This led to Broadway, then television and film. Kotto has directed a film – The Limit ( 1972 ) - in which he also acted."


Lenona.

[Lenona]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/world/yaphet-kotto-dead.html

By Mike Ives.

Last paragraphs:

...One of Mr. Kotto’s first parts was a supporting role in the 1964 film “Nothing but a Man,” about a Black couple who face discrimination in the Deep South. He would go on to have more than 90 other acting credits, in film, in television and on Broadway.

Notably, he played Parker, an engineer tasked with repairing a spaceship in “Alien,” the 1979 blockbuster from Ridley Scott.

In the 1988 action-comedy “Midnight Run,” co-starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, he played the F.B.I. agent Alonzo Mosely, whose stolen ID becomes fodder for a running joke. And in “The Running Man,” a dystopian 1987 thriller set in what was then the near future (2019), Mr. Kotto played a resistance fighter alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a fascist version of America.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yaphet-kotto-dies-age-81-alien-bond-villain-live-and-let-die/

Quote from his widow:

"You played a villain on some of your movies but for me you're a real hero and to a lot of people also. A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being, very rare to find," Sinahon said.

[Lenona]

And...he played Othello again, in a 1980 film version.

In the 1990s, he was in 122 episodes of "Homicide."

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001433/