Yaphet Kotto Biography

American actor Yaphet Kotto was best known for his TV role as Idi Amin in Raid on Entebbe and his movie role as Parker in Alien.

From Harlem, Kotto started on the New York stage. In the mid-1960s he went to Los Angeles and made an impression with several TV roles and a few film roles, including as a cool killer in 1970’s The Liberation of L.B. Jones.

In 1969 Kotto took over for James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope on Broadway. He earned an even wider audience as the only Black James Bond villain in 1973’s Live and Let Die (starring Roger Moore).

Kotto won an Emmy for Raid on Entebbe (1976), then rode that success to the films Blue Collar (1978, starring Richard Pryor), Alien (1979, with Sigourney Weaver) and Brubaker (1980, starring Robert Redford).

Mostly a character actor, Kotto had a large presence, a beaming smile and a withering glare. When he wasn’t a villain, he was a detective, and during the 1990s he was an anchor as Lt. Al Giardello in the TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets (1993-2000).

Kotto’s other film roles include Truck Turner (1974), The Running Man (1987, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Midnight Run (1988, starring Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin).