Yaphet Kotto

Biography

Yaphet Frederick Kotto was born on November 15, 1939, in New York City. His mother, Gladys Marie, was an American nurse and U.S. Army officer of Panamanian and Antiguan descent. His father, Avraham Kotto, was a businessman from Cameroon who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Kotto's father was raised Jewish and his mother converted to Judaism. The couple separated when Kotto was a child, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents. By the age of 16, Kotto was studying acting at the Actors Mobile Theater Studio. At age 19, Yaphet Kotto made his professional acting debut in Othello. He was a member of the Actors Studio in New York. Kotto got his start in acting on Broadway, where he appeared in The Great White Hope, among other productions. His film debut was in 1963, aged 23, in an uncredited role in 4 for Texas. In 1967, he released a single, "Have You Ever Seen the Blues" / "Have You Dug His Scene" (Chisa Records, CH006). In 1973, he landed the role of the James Bond villain Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, as well as roles in Across 110th Street and Truck Turner. He played a police officer, Richard "Crunch" Blackstone, in the 1975 film Report to the Commissioner. Kotto portrayed Idi Amin in the 1977 television film Raid on Entebbe. He starred as an auto worker in the 1978 film Blue Collar. The following year he played Parker in the sci-fi–horror film Alien. He followed with a supporting role in the 1980 prison drama Brubaker. In 1983, he guest-starred as mobster Charlie "East Side Charlie" Struthers in The A-Team episode "The Out-of-Towners". In 1987, he appeared in the futuristic sci-fi movie The Running Man, and in 1988, in the action-comedy Midnight Run, in which he portrayed Alonzo Moseley, an FBI agent. Kotto retired from film acting in the mid-1990s, though he had one final film role in Witless Protection (2008). He continued to take on television roles. Kotto portrayed Lieutenant Al Giardello in the long-running television series Homicide: Life on the Street. As a black Sicilian proud of his Italian ancestry, the character was a breakout for television. Kotto's first marriage, in 1959, was to a German immigrant, Rita Ingrid Dittman. They had three children and divorced in 1976. Later, Kotto married Toni Pettyjohn, and they also had three children together before divorcing in 1989. Kotto married his third wife, Tessie Sinahon, who was from the Philippines, in 1998. Yaphet Kotto died at the age of 81 on March 15, 2021, near Manila, Philippines.