Oh, no.
A formative figure of one’s youth. Have ended up looking a bit like him, not least during lockdowns the inflated version at the end of Live and Let Die.
Rest in Peace.
He was a fantastic actor RIP
Also lost one my hero’s over the weekend Marvelous Marvin Hagler. I’d hoped he would turn up in a Bond Movie in the 90s after he started acting in Italy , alas not to be. But still have the fight between him and Hearns ingrained in my memory.
There goes another hero…
R.I.P.
Oh man. I was a personal friend of his on Facebook and had interacted with him in the past. He elevated anything he was in. He will be missed.
Oh dear.
As solid a chap and actor as one could ever wish to have in their productions. He provided the gravitas to much and especially for me, the fun film that was Midnight Run.
RIP sir.
I always though Kotto was too young and good-looking to play Mr. Big, but I quickly came to ‘like’ him, if that’s the right word. (Six years later - in Alien - he looked perfect),
This leaves Julian Glover as the oldest surviving Bond villain.
Agent Alonso Mosely “Is this gonna upset me?”
Today, this news did. Bond-Alien-Midnight Run all personal favorites. But watching Homicide week in week out, watching Kotto do more with a look and a stare than many another actor chewing furniture.
Sad news. RIP.
I thought he was an excellent Bond villain with a great deal of charisma, and I also enjoyed his role in Alien.
A likable man, and a great Bond villain.
RIP, Yaphet.
Just another thing to pile onto the awful year that has been March 2020-March 2021. Yaphet was one of those actor that you couldn’t help, but like. He was an absolute joy in every single scene in LALD (the inflatable death, notwithstanding). I always love it too when my favorite actors appear in video games as Yaphet did reprising his Alien role of Dennis Parker in his last acting appearance in the 2014 game Alien: Isolation. He will be missed. But, then again, I suppose it was in the cards all along…
“You knew that!!!”
You mean the one Kananga moment that wasn’t literally him?
“I gave you a fifty fifty chance, and you weren’t even close!” That line would stupid said by anyone else, Kotto made it scary.
Yeah, I actually thought about that after I posted it, but didn’t change it.
Kotto oozed charisma and his delivery of that line (really that entire scene) demonstrated his acting abilities, perfectly., “Teehee, on the first wrong answer from Miss Solitaire, you will snip the little finger on Mr. Bond’s right hand. Starting with the second wrong answer, you will proceed to the more…Vital areas.”
“Hey! Welcome to my secret underground lair! I know, you just blew up my poppy harvest but that’s k, I’ll just grow some more.”
Saves his rage for the women who cross him.
Kinda looks like Louis Armstrong there.
Yes, another sad day in the Bond world. Yaphet Kotto’s Ross Kananga aka Mr. Big was one of my favorite Bond villains. I liked him in everything I saw him in.
R.I.P. Mr. Kotto.
My favorite line in LALD. As a impressionable 13 yr. old I jumped out of the theatre’s chair. Personally and historically LALD was 1st 007 movie that I was allowed to see in theatre without adult supervision.
The next night original Thomas Crown Affair was on local late show. I recognized him immediately.
R.I.P.
It feels wrong to me that the line “Names is for tombstones, baby!” came to mind when I first heard of Yaphet Kotto’s death. But then it dawned on me the brilliance of that line as it refers to his “Mr. Big” persona, a twist Fleming readers didn’t see coming as that was the real villain of the book. His character was quite menacing to women, but downright chummy to men, even his enemies. Signs of a bully that are so obvious now. “Did you mess with that?” pinpointing objectification too. Yaphet Kotto was quite brilliant in delivering his lines, quips or otherwise.
Lucille Bluth/Malory Archer having a drink in heaven. One of my favorite actresses. She was so great in everything. RIP
Filmmaker, critic, scholar, and all-around champion of cinema in its wondrous variety.