Posted on 04/19/2015 3:03:10 PM PDT by Impy
Good Times actor Ben Powers has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 64.
While a cause of death has yet to be revealed, an obituary created by his loved ones has surfaced that reveals the actor passed away April 6 in New Bedford, Mass.
Powers was best known for his role as Keith Anderson on the '70s sitcom Good Times. His character was married to Thelma Evans played by BerNadette Stanis.
(Excerpt) Read more at eonline.com ...
Now that I see the actors photo, I do remember the character. The marriage of Thelma occurred after the father on the show passed away and the offspring of Florida and her late husband were growing upZ
I grew up w/”projects” around the corner (literally) from the row house I gre up in. One of the things about “Good Times” that stuck w/me was the “walls” of the apt the family lived in were shown (accurately) as painted cinderblock. That’s always stayed with me.
Jimmie Walker (JJ) is very articulate and conservative. He comes across as a really good man.
Always liked Bookman the Janitor aka “Buffalo Butt.”
The guy that played him, Johnny Brown, appeared in the classic parody about the Old Negro Space Program, as Wallace “Suitcase” Jefferson.
LOL!!!!!
LOL Buffalo Butt I remember him..Michael was always the black militant on the show and Willona was the town gossip. Was always a fan of the show..There were a few episodes that tended to lean left(Like the “Family Gun” episode) but the Evans family refused to be on Govt assistance..they wanted to work and get out of the ghetto
Willona was a hottie.
She also adopted Janet Jackson’s character Penny so her role on the show really blossomed after James died in that car accident in Mississippi. For me the show wasn’t the same when James died I always did like his character
I didn’t know hoop earrings were so funny, LOL.
Ja’net Du’Bois, who played Willona, sang the theme song to “The Jeffersons.”
Condolences to family and friends of Ben Powers.
Your kidding..I didnt know that..she has great voice I wonder if she is still singing..I think most of the cast members grew up in the south side of Chicago so the setting made sense
Too young.
I dont really remember his character but he strikes me as a nice guy. 64 is kinda young, too bad.
10 Facts You May Not Know about the TV Show, “Good Times”
1) Florida Evans (Esther Rolle) was much older than James Evans (John Amos): Florida was born in 1920 and James was born in 1939. So, when show began in 1974, Florida was already 54 years old, married to a 35-year old husband.
2) JJ was an old man too: JJ, played by Jimmie Walker, was born in 1947, only 8 years later than James. He was certainly no teenager on the show, being 27-years old when the show released its debut.
3) Willona (played by Ja’net Dubois) was only 2 years older than JJ. They could have dated each other.
4) Esther Rolle was consistently annoyed that even though the show was created around her, a comedian (Jimmie Walker) was getting all of the attention.
5) The show was created by Michael Evans, who also played Lionel Jefferson on another show you might have heard of. He based the show on his own childhood.
6) The show was a spinoff of another show, called “Maude,” where Florida was a maid. They changed the name of her husband in the spinoff.
7) Jay Leno appeared on the show in an episode about STDs, one of the first in the history of television.
8) In her indignation over JJ’s role, Esther said: “He’s eighteen and he doesn’t work. He can’t read or write. He doesn’t think. The show didn’t start out to be that…Little by little—with the help of the artist, I suppose, because they couldn’t do that to me—they have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role. Negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child.”
9) When John Amos left the show after failed contract negotiations, he said this about JJ’s character: “The writers would prefer to put a chicken hat on J.J. and have him prance around saying “DY-NO-MITE”, and that way they could waste a few minutes and not have to write meaningful dialogue.”
10) Esther Rolle was convinced to come back during the last season under three conditions: They would write out the character that she ran off and married after James’ death (since she didn’t think Florida would move on so quickly), they would give her a raise in salary, and JJ would have more respectable, intelligent roll. Oddly enough, that’s when the show started to tank in the ratings.
http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/03/10-facts-you-may-not-know-about-the-tv-show-good-times/
10 facts...ain’t we lucky we got ‘em.
Esther Rolle’s character was supposed to be close to 15 years younger than herself and John Amos’s was supposed to be about 5 or so years older (so around 40 when the show began). Amos had played a much older man in his 50s or early 60s (gray haired) as a contemporary/friend of Redd Foxx’s on “Sanford & Son” when he was in his early 30s.
Also, I believe Ja’net DuBois has fudged a bit about her age (not exactly unknown in the entertainment biz). I believe her to be closer to a decade older than her claimed birthyear (not 1945, but probably around 1937). The reason why is because she had a daughter, Rani, in the mid ‘50s who appeared on “What’s Happening !!” as a high school student at the same time her mother was on GT (so unlikely she was married and had a child at 11). Ja’net was also modeling in magazines in the late ‘50s, apparently not as a juvenile, so adds to the unlikelihood she was 12-14 years old at the time.
As I was telling Impy, I thought Mr. Powers was headed places after “Good Times.” Attractive, charismatic and very talented (gifted comedically, but could also handle dramatic stuff very deftly, including where he physically abused Thelma at one point), he could’ve been Denzel Washington before DZ came on the scene. Unfortunately, I think he fell into some bad times personally (I can’t confirm drugs or alcohol) and he left the business in the mid ‘80s and returned to be near his family in RI (where he had been in poor health for some time, though still trying to be entertaining and funny to those who paid him a visit).
There are many who demonstrate their virtue by spasmodic mourning at any announced death.
Amos has that kind of ageless look about him.
I’m flashing back to when Mike Evans died.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1757175/posts#36
Guy claiming to be Damon Evans posted here (I don’t know why anyone would pretend so I assume it was really him).
Actually I absent from FR at that time, you must have told me about it later.
I see Lancey Howard and I were having a back and forth about “The Jeffersons” on the thread, and he’s since passed, too. :-(
I actually checked in on Ben Powers IMDb message boards from time to time to see how he was doing or any news on him, since there were some of us who remained fans of his since he was still actively working. Someone mentioned Bern Nadette Stanis had lost touch with him and was wanting to contact him, I don’t know if she was able to.
Commenting a bit more about the late Mike Evans, who was co-creator of “Good Times”, he actually was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Los Angeles. The setting of the show in the Chicago projects had more to do with the other creator of the show, Eric Monte (who lived there himself for a time, and it was a deeply personal project for him). Monte had also done “Cooley High” and “What’s Happening !!”
I read he butted heads with show developer Norman Lear (who had all those shows in the hopper at the same time) and eventually sued him for not giving him the proper credit (Monte claimed he was the one who created George & Louise Jefferson’s characters and also pushed Lear to hire Redd Foxx for “Sanford” when Lear was set to do the American version of a junk dealer with a White cast).
An interesting long bio about Eric Monte (real name: Kenneth Williams) on IMDb. Unfortunately, the lawsuit likely gave him a bad rap and he also fell into substance abuse and poor health (though he’s still alive at 71).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0599088/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.