Arsenio Hall Writes Moving Tribute to His Late Coming to America Costars James Earl Jones and John Amos

Tipping his cap to two significant actors is Arsenio Hall.

Hall, 68, penned a heartfelt essay in a News One piece that aired on Friday, October 4, honoring his late Coming to America co-stars John Amos, 84, who passed away in August, and James Earl Jones, 93, who passed away in September.

“In all the years I’ve called Hollywood home, I have never once heard anyone say, ‘James Earl Jones is an a——,'” Hall started his homage. “That is a rarity in a town where friends and enemies too often wear the same faces.”

Hall described how Jones wasn’t interested in going and shot his sequences from New York while the rest of the group was in Atlanta for the 2021 Coming to America sequel, aptly dubbed Coming 2 America.

However, during the filming of the 1988 version, Hall consistently sought guidance from Jones. “Before a scene or during hair and makeup, I might turn to him and ask, ‘How do I approach this one?'” writes the actor.

“As a young performer — a young Black performer — being able to ask [Jones] for acting advice was a gift I have never taken for granted,” Hall said. “His wisdom fueled me; his generational talent both intimidated and inspired me.”

Hall remembered being astonished by a scene in August Wilson’s Fences where Jones gets so worked up that “snot comes out of his nose and he wipes it away with the back of his hand.” The Lion King star quipped after the performance that it was “method snotting.”

The former talk show host expressed his sadness over not being able to spend more time with Jones during Coming 2 America, but he was content to have Amos as his companion. Hall wrote, “But, oh, what a time it was.”
He referred to Amos in his homage as a “human ray of sunshine.” The actor “could not wait to have a scene” with Amos while filming Coming 2 America, “just to see his face.”

“He was a unique individual, captivating others with his effortless ability to draw them near to him. He went on, saying that Amos “hummed with intelligence, integrity, and brilliance” that was difficult to find. “If he was in the room, I instinctively knew I needed to be there, too,” he said.

Hall also wrote on Amos’ part in the 1970s TV series Good Times as James Evans. “James Evans gave us an intimate look into the world of a working-class Black man just trying to make it,” he stated.

“We watched him struggle in a racist society that did not know what to do with a free Black man other than try to kill him or beat him down — even if in spirit only,” he wrote about the way Amos performed.

Amos’s health started to decline when he was filming Coming 2 America, according to Hall, but he was still able to spend time with him in between shots or at premieres. “Those quiet moments I spent just walking with him and helping him to the set I will cherish for the rest of my life,” he said.

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“They helped me understand that when you’re kind to the people around you, then you’re kind to your own performance,” Hall wrote, citing the late Jones and Amos as his teachers who “taught by example how to be an unselfish performer.”
Hall ended his poignant ode to his former co-stars with the words, “We, those who love them, must water their flowers so that generations to come may know their beauty.” Both John Amos and James Earl Jones were wonderful, courteous, and decent men both on and off the set. And aren’t we