Yaphet Kotto, best known for roles in “Alien” and the James Bond film “Live and Let Die”, died at the age of 81.
The actor’s wife, Tessie Sinahon, released a statement on Facebook Monday night, announcing the news of his death. She commented on the cause of death.
“I am sad and still shocked by the death of my husband Yaphet, 24 years old. He died last night at around 10:30 pm Philippine time,” she wrote. “This is very painful [sic] time for me to inform all my husband’s fans, friends and family. “
She continued to observe the many things that Kotto apparently still wanted to accomplish before his death.
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“We still have a lot of plans, dear, that we discussed, you have a lot of interviews waiting and offers from films like GI Joe and the Tom Cruise film and others. You still have plans to launch your book and build a religious organization based on the teachings of Yogananda, “she wrote.
Yaphet Kotto, who appeared in ‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’, died at the age of 81.
(Chris Haston / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank)
Thessa concluded: “You played a villain in some of your films, but for me you are a true hero and for many people too. A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being, very rare to find. One of the best actors in Hollywood, a legend. Rest in peace, dear, I will 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 played two roles in the 1973 Bond film, “Live and Let Die”, portraying drug kingpin Mr. Big, who turned out to be the alter ego of Caribbean dictator Dr. Kananga, alongside Roger Moore. He was the first black man to play a Bond villain and confessed to The Independent in a 2015 interview that the studio forbade him to promote the film for fear of a negative public reception for his race.
“They didn’t play my character,” he told the outlet at the time. “It hurt me a lot, man. I went through a very emotional hell because they feared people would be angry because a black man was not being Sidney Poitier. I was the opposite of everything he created.”
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He also played the famous technician Dennis Parker in the 1979 sci-fi horror “Alien” and co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 action movie “The Running Man”. In addition to his film roles, Kotto enjoyed wide television acclaim on the NBC series “Homicide: Life on the Street” from 1993 to 1999. He received an Emmy nomination in 1977 for his role as President Idi Amin Jr. in the film for TV “Raid on Entebbe”.
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According to Variety, Kotto was born in New York City in 1939 and started his acting career at the age of 16 at Actors Mobile Theater Studio. He made his professional debut on “Othello” at the age of 19 and continued on Broadway before getting some cinematographic projects in the 1960s, like “Nothing But a Man” and “The Thomas Crown Affair”.
He leaves his wife and six children.