![]() He received an Emmy nomination for portraying President Idi Amin in Raid on Entebbe. Kotto played roles in dozens of TV shows, including Hawaii Five-O, Fantasy Island, The A-Team, For Love and Honor, Murder She Wrote, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Law & Order. He also appeared in The Running Man, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, and in Midnight Run with Robert De Niro. He portrayed the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1977 TV movie, Raid on Entebbe. ![]() He played other memorable movie roles, including Chief Engineer Parker in Alien. Big), alongside Roger Moore in the 1973 James Bond movie, Live and Let Die. Kotto is best known for playing the burly villain Dr. He trained at Actors Mobile Theater Studio and started his career in theater before transitioning to TV and movie roles. His father was an immigrant from Cameroon and his mom was a US Army nurse of Panamanian and West Indian descent. Yaphet Frederick Kotto was born in Harlem, New York City, in 1939. Resident Evil 8 actress, Jeanette Maus, also passed away in January at 39. Monsters and Critics reported in February that Saved By the Bell actor Dustin Diamond died at 44 after battling cancer. To quote his epic line from Live and Let Die – “Names is for tombstones, baby” and Yaphet Kotto’s name will never be forgotten.James Bond enemy. ![]() Kotto is survived by Sinahon and his 6 children. A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being, very rare to find.” His death was reported by his wife, Sinahon Thessa who wrote, “You played a villain on some of your movies but for me you're a real hero and to a lot of people also. Determined to write it down before the memory faded, he discovered neither he nor the driver had a pen – so they pulled over to ask a London cop! (Who eventually supplied the pen after Kotto explained his dream to the baffled officer.) In 2014 he and FSWL founder Anders Frejdh had a long exchange where the actor retold how the idea for a proposed film project, Horror Plane, came to him as he slept in the back of a London taxi. In recent years, Kotto was quite active on Facebook, even answering fan questions. He had a long-running role as a gritty police lieutenant in Homicide: Life on the Street and also appeared in other popular American series like HBO’s The Wire and Law & Order on NBC. At the time, he told a film journalist “I wanted to get back down on earth.” (The role ultimately went to Billy Dee Williams.)Īlong with his film work, Kotto blazed a huge trail on television, racking up an EMMY nomination for portraying dictator Idi Amin in the 1976 TV movie, Raid on Entebbe. Following that success he was offered the role of Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back for director Irvin Kershner (director of the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again) but turned it down, fearing typecasting. Kotto’s other role forever embedded in pop culture history was as the doomed engineer Parker in the sci-fi smash Alien, directed by Ridley Scott. A commanding 6’3”, Kotto more than held his own against the suave British superspy in the box office hit that also launched Moore’s long Bond tenure. Big) in Live and Let Die opposite the then-new Bond, Roger Moore. and Midnight Run, Bond fans embraced his 1973 performance as corrupt Caribbean despot, Dr. Although he made close to 90 films including Blue Collar, Brubaker, Across 110th St. Kotto made his film debut in 1964’s Nothing But A Man. ![]() He discovered acting at 16 and by age 19 was playing Othello on stage. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.īorn in Harlem, NY, Kotto was descended from Camaroonian royalty. Iconic character actor – and classic Bond villain – Yaphet Kotto passed away unexpectedly at his home in Manilla, Philippines, aged 81.
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