Yaphet Kotto

Yaphet Kotto is one of those actors who made every room feel smaller just by walking into it, and I mean that as the highest compliment. A 6-foot-4 New Yorker with a stare that could stop traffic, he carved out some of cinema's most unforgettable moments — the menacing Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, the slow-burning tension he brought to Alien as Parker, the wiry comedic energy opposite Robert De Niro in Midnight Run. What I love about his career is the sheer range: villain, everyman, comic foil, and stage-trained serious actor all rolled into one imposing frame. He never got quite the mainstream recognition he deserved, but anyone who's actually watched his work knows exactly how good he was. Gone in March 2021, but his performances are the kind that stick around forever.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Yaphet Kotto

Name (Japanese)

ヤフェット・コットー

Reading

やふぇっと・こっとー

Born

November 15, 1939 – March 15, 2021

Origin

New York City, New York, United States

Height

190 cm

Occupation

television actor / film actor / stage actor / actor / director

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Rabbit

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaphet%20Kotto
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A4%E3%83%95%E3%82%A7%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q266270

Tags

• New York
• television actor
• film actor
• stage actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.