Photo: US Embassy South Africa / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Younger audiences may know John Kani as King T'Chaka or the voice of Rafiki, but I find his real weight elsewhere. Winning a Tony in 1975, building a stage career through apartheid-era South Africa, and earning an OBE in 2023, he carries a lifetime of resistance and discipline into every role. That history is why even a few lines from him land with gravity that flashier actors can't fake. To me he's less a Marvel name than a living testament to theatre as moral work, and I respect the whole arc of the man, not just the cameos.
Overview
Bonisile John Kani (born 30 August 1942) is a South African actor. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in The Lion King (2019) and Mufasa: The Lion King as well as Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix films Murder Mystery (2019) and Murder Mystery 2 (2023).
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- John Kani
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョン・カニ
- Reading
- じょん・かに
- Born
- August 30, 1942 (age 83)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Horse
- Origin
- New Brighton, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- stage actor / film actor / writer / actor / film director
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 1975 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play
- 2016 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver
- 2023 Officer of the Order of the British Empire
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | The Lion King | — |
6. Links
Stage actor — see all → · Film actor — see all → · More people from South Africa →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.