It was revealed, earlier this week, that John Amos passed away in August.
The actor was possibly most famous for his role on the '70s comedy series - Good Times. However, I suppose my first introduction to him may have been when he starred in Coming To America back in the 1980s.
I know I wrote about the movie Lock Up when Donald Sutherland passed away over the summer, but I feel I should do so once again because Amos played a role in that film as well. He was kind of like Sutherland's number two in the prison (but was he!?).
Amos was brilliant as Meissner in that film. To be fair, I'd say EVERYONE in Lock Up was brilliant. It is such an underrated movie, if I say so myself.
One of the best lines in the film was when Meissner was taking Sylvester Stallone's Frank Leone to his cell for the first time and offers him two rules.
'One - I am Meissner. Two: Don't f**k with Meissner.'
From there, Meissner was a stern prison guard which led to the brilliant payoff at the end when Leone is being walked out of the prison. Sly's character asks Meissner something along the lines of 'you know what I'll miss the most about you, Captain?' Meissner asks the former prisoner what he is referring to which leads to Leone saying 'your incredible smile'. We then see Meissner make a brief smile for the first and last time in the film.
Amos was also one of the villains in Die Hard 2 around that time. So, it was those three films I remember him the most for.
It seems quite eerie that we lost Sutherland and Amos' Coming To America co-star James Earl Jones so close together.
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