He had better luck as an actor: his breakout role was playing weatherman Gordy Howard on the beloved sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a role he played from 1970 to 1973.
Amos was best known for playing patriarch James Evans on the classic sitcom Good Times. Though he was only 34 when he was cast, he convincingly played a hardworking father of three, leading his family in a low-income housing project.
The show was praised for its depiction of serious issues including poverty and racism. But as the series went on, Amos clashed with the show’s writers and producers about how accurately the series depicted Black families, and disagreed with the direction it took towards broader comedy. Amos was dismissed from the show after season 3, and his character was killed off in a car accident.
