Yaphet Kotto, Actor in "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Live and Let Die," and "Alien," Dies at 81

Kotto is definitely one for the "Obscure Actors Only You Remember" threads.

Sez you, r1. Many people remember him very strongly from both "Live and Let Die" and "Alien."

When I was a kid they used to show "Across 100th Street" on the late movie show, and I'll always remember Kotto from that. He later said of his co-star Anthony Quinn:

I can't stop laughing about Mr. Quinn. He wouldn't let me have anything. When I told him about how rough I had it as a kid in Harlem, he told me how he was hanged by the neck in Russia and left for dead. I told him I'd love to win an Academy Award. "Don't bother, I'll lend you mine". "You don't know how rough it is coming up black in America". "Listen Yaphet, until you have been a Mexican, you don't know what rough means!" When we were shooting 110th in Harlem... I said to him: "Finally, I'm with my people". "Your people? My great-grandmother was a slave in Alabama!"

He also said he became an actor because he saw Brando in "On the Waterfront" and was blown away by the performance.

RIP

I watched this for the first time last weekend.

"Get outta the way, Lambert!"

"I caaannn't!"

HILARIOUS (and a badass) in Midnight Run.

I always remember him fondly from this bit:

I wish Homicide were available on some streaming platform. Maybe this is what it will take.

Across 110th St.

I only know him from Live and Let Die and Alien, but I've always liked him just from those appearances alone. RIP.

If you like fucked-up 70s movies, check out Shark's Treasure. Yaphet Kotto gives his usual very fine performance, but over-the-hill director/star Cornel Wilde adds megalomania to the mix.

[quote]Let's start with a round of applause for Cornel Wilde; - that's the least of recognition he deserves for all the work and effort he put into his one-man-show "Shark's Treasure". Wilde wrote, produced and directed the film, and he also plays the lead role of boat captain/treasure hunter Jim Carnahan. And he did all this just to prove that he still looks fit and mighty hunky in his naked torso at the age of 65! Seriously, at several moments throughout the movie, I had the impression that "Shark's Treasure" secretively was a film for gay men that hadn't outed themselves yet. There's one woman in the cast and she appears only briefly, while most of the film's padding footage exists of the four lead stars parading around the deck bare-chested and in their tight Speedos. Ideally for married men still in the closet. "What are you watching, honey? Oh, just a macho flick about treasure hunting at sea, dear".

LSA says he was a Trumper and a Covid denier.

R.I.P.

ALIEN is still the scariest movie ever made to me.

A very long time ago, a magazine program like 60 Minutes did a segment on racial profiling by taxi drivers who wouldn’t pick up black people in NYC. They showed a shabbily dressed white man hailing a cab and one stopped right away. Yaphet Kotto dressed in a suit, carrying a briefcase ... none would stop. Even back then he was recognizable from guest starring on tv.

R12, there is a Facebook page purported to be by Yaphet Kotto (under the name "ykottoaliendiary") that was pro Trump and COVID denier, but it's not a verified page and a lot of what was written sounds like gibberish.

His wife posted on that Facebook account, and what she wrote sounded like gibberish as well, so it's possible it's always been her posting and not him.

I mean, this post sounds like she wrote it herself:

[quote]Yaphet Kotto’s International Fan Club was started by my wife Tess, we didn’t concentrate on it as we should have because Tess’s book JUDAS, the brother of Jesus Christ consumed both of us, was being created at our resort, the new revelations about Jesus and his brother Judas is mind blowing, mind blowing facts that have been hidden is now revealed in Tess’s book. Judas loved his brother and would have died for him. In the middle of all this Tess’s mother passed away, she spent months taking care of her estate and trying to concentrate on our going to court from individuals who stole from us and continue to deny us our day in court by not showing up to any hearing and then boom we were locked down for months, during this period someone hijacked our fan club….so we decided to close it, but continue to support us as you have been doing. upon us at Yaphet F. Kotto and Yaphet Kotto Facebook pages…we’re going to build a better membership meet up and Tess will be talking about her new, great book, the material on Jesus is mind blowing…there was never anyone ever like him…ever since we started on this path we can feel his presence all around us….it’s as if he’s standing right there when we’re talking…..its kind of weird…..but you get use to it over time…

He's always been a bit of a right winger. Great actor, though. I first noticed him in small parts ages ago. He was fantastic on "Homicide".

R14 here, it was a segment from TV Nation and not as long ago as I thought, 1997. Well after he became famous and recognizable.

He was quite a memorable character actor. His looks made him unique; even if you couldn't remember Yaphet Kotto's name you would always remember his face and voice. I find it hard to believe he was a "Trumper" and "covid-denier." Anyway, he was a good actor and may he RIP.

R16

He was on a news segment years ago after a mass shooting (it might have been Columbine), and he claimed that mass shootings happen because people have given up on God. He very much was a conservative Christian, but at least he wasn't totally obnoxious about it.

It's ridiculous that "Homicide" is not available to stream. I would pony up for a Peacock subscription if they were to put it on there. Best cop show in TV history.

R5 I always felt bad for Parker. I felt that if he weren’t paired up with Lambert, he my have made it. Or at least he would’ve blasted the Alien with the flame thrower or whatever he had and maybe injured it.

But Lambert acted pretty realistically- too scared to act. Not everyone can be a Ripley.

I liked Yaphet in The Running Man and Freddy’s Revenge. RIP

I once read that he claimed to be a descendant of Queen Victoria.

From David Simon:

[quote]I will tell one Yaphet Kotto story today, though it really belongs to Tom Fontana, the mastermind of "Homicide: Life on The Street." Anyway, the character of Al Giardello was based on Gary D'Addario, the real-life Italian-American shift commander in my source book for the drama..

[quote]...But when Yaphet signed on to take the role, there was a natural inclination to change the character to reflect ethnicity. But Tom and Barry Levinson, in a decision as inexplicable as it was brilliant, said fuck it, he's Al Giardello and whether he's the child of a...

[quote]...mixed marriage or an adopted kid or whatever, he identifies as Sicilian. We're going to go with it. And Yaphet just went with it, relishing the occasional Italian phrase and talking with his hands at points. The only complication as far as Tom was concerned...

[quote]...was Yaphet's choice to at points deliver some of his lines in a Brando-like mumble worthy of Don Corleone. At some moment on set, Tom took Yaphet aside and said he needed to enunciate more, especially on lines involving exposition...

[quote]"Tom," Yaphet explained, "I'm playing the Sicilian."

[quote] "Yaphet, can you understand me right now?" Tom countered.

[quote]Yaphet allowed that he could.

[quote]"Yaphet, I am Sicilian."

[quote]Which left everyone including Yaphet laughing.

I loved Yaphet.

Was he a generous lover?

I condole his family.

[quote]He very much was a conservative Christian, but at least he wasn't totally obnoxious about it.

No, he was Jewish and talked about the prejudice he faced growing up in Harlem as a Black Jew.

Who ever heard of a black Jew?

Sigourney Weaver Recalls Working With Her Late ‘Alien’ Co-Star Yaphet Kotto: “A Nonstop Master Class”

story at link

He was so obnoxious in "Alien."

Racism if you don't admit this is the biggest loss EVER. That means YOU Sigourney!

Yaphet died in Manila. He is survived by his Filipina wife, Tessie Sinahon.