John Amos has been in the entertainment industry close to five decades. He got his start in a role back in 1970 on The Bill Cosby show. From then, John Amos starred and appeared in multiple films ranging from The World’s Greatest Athlete, Touched by Love, Sweet Sweetback’s Badassss Song, and The Beastmaster. It was not until 1977 when John Amos got his first big break on the hit series Good Times as he played as James Evans Sr.
John Amos is also a star in Coming 2 America. The film released in 1985, saw John Amos as Cleo McDowell the father of Lisa McDowell and also Prince Akeem’s (Eddie Murphy) employer at McDowell’s. In 2021, Coming to America has a sequel coming soon to Amazon Prime Video and theaters titled Coming 2 America.
The sequel has been long-awaited by fans of the first film for decades. In this exclusive interview, I sit down and speak with John Amos about Coming 2 America. We went over how the character relates to him being a father in real life, what everyone can expect from the sequel, and expanding the Cleo McDowell character decades later. We also talk briefly about the 45th anniversary of the Roots mini-series!