Yaphet Kotto, best known for roles in ‘Alien’ and the James Bond film ‘Live and Let Die’ has died at the age of 81.
The actor’s wife, Tessie Sinahon, issued a statement on Facebook on Monday night announcing news of his passing. She did comment on a cause of death.
“I am sad and still shocked by the death of my 24-year-old husband Yaphet. He passed away last night around 10:30 PM Philippine time,” she wrote. ‘It’s a lot of pain [sic] moment for me to notify all fans, friends and family of my husband. ‘
She went on to note the many things Kotto apparently still wanted to achieve before his death.
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“We still have a lot of plans, we’ve discussed there are a lot of interviews waiting for you, and you have movie offers like GI Joe and the movie of Tom Cruise and others. You’re still planning to release your book and a to build religious organization based on Yogananda’s Teachings, ‘she wrote.
Yaphet Kotto, who appeared on ‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’, has died at the age of 81.
(Chris Haston / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank)
Thessa concluded: “You played a villain in some of your films, but to me you are a true hero and also to many people. A good man, a good father, a good man and a decent man, very rare to find.One of the best actors in Hollywood, a legend.Rest in peace Honey, I’m going to miss you every day, my best friend, my rock.I love you and you will always be in my heart. Until we meet again! ”
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Kotto plays a double role in the 1973 film “Live and Let Die” in the Bond film in which he portrays the drug-addicted king BigR, who portrays the alter-ego of the Caribbean dictator Dr. Kananga versus Roger Moore appears to be. He was the first black man to play a Bond villain and admitted in The Interview in 2015 that the studio banned him from promoting the film for fear of a negative public reception of his race.
“They did not play my character,” he told the outlet at the time. ‘It hurt me a lot, man. I went through a lot of damn emotional hell because they were afraid people would get angry that a black man was not Sidney Poitier. I was the opposite of everything he created. ‘
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He also played the technician Dennis Parker in the science fiction horror “Alien” in 1979 and co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 action film “The Running Man”. In addition to his films, Kotto had a major television reputation on the NBC series “Homicide: Life on the Street” from 1993 to 1999. the TV movie “Raid on Entebbe.”
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According to Variety, Kotto was born in New York in 1939 and started his acting career at the Actors Mobile Theater Studio at the age of 16. He made his professional debut in ‘Othello’ at the age of 19 and continued on Broadway before getting a few film projects in the 1960s, such as ‘Nothing But a Man’ and ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’.
He is survived by his wife and six children.