Yaphet Kotto Net Worth

Yaphet Frederick Kotto net worth is
$5 Million

Yaphet Frederick Kotto Wiki Biography

Yaphet Frederick Kotto, born on 15th November 1939 in New York City, USA, is an actor, best known to the world for his roles in films “Alien” (1979) as Parker, “Live and Let Die” (1973) as Bond`s enemy Kananga / Mr. Big, and as William Laughlin in the film “The Running Man” (1987), among other roles.

Have you ever wondered how rich Yaphet Kotto is, as of late 2016? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Kotto`s net worth is as high as $5 million, earned through his successful career in the entertainment industry, during which he has appeared in more than 90 film and TV titles.

Yaphet Kotto Net Worth $5 Million

Yaphet is the son of Gladys Marie, who worked as a nurse and was also a U.S. Army officer, while his father was a Cameroon immigrant, Njoki Manga Bell, but who changed his name to Avraham Kotto. Yaphet researched his family roots, and found out that his father was crowned prince of Cameroon, but since it was a Republic that was unacceptable, so he had to flee. His whole family from his father`s side had royal roots and was quite rich.

Yapeth grew up in New York City, and enrolled at Actors Mobile Theater Studio when he was 16, and three years later made his acting debut in a production of “Othello”. He continued as a part of the Actors Studio in New York, and appeared on Broadway in “The Great White Hope” and several other productions. Kotto`s first screen role went uncredited, in the film “4 for Texas” (1963), but he then started building his name with roles in “Nothing But a Man” (1964) with Ivan Dixon and Julius Harris, “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968) starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and “5 Card Stud” (1969) starring Dean Martin. All of these films were quite successful, and certainly increased Yaphet`s net worth.

The `70s were quite fruitful for Yaphet, as he recorded several notable roles, which certainly marked his career; in 1972 he joined te cast of the film “Across 110th Street” with Anthony Quinn and Anthony Franciossa, and in 1973 he starred in Guy Hamilton`s “Live and Let Die” with Roger Moore as secret CIA agent James Bond. Three years later, he featured in Irvin Kershner`s Golden Globe-awarded action drama “Raid on Entebbe”, with Peter Finch and Charles Bronson. He finished the decade with two most recognizable roles, as Smokey in “Blue Collar” (1978), and as Parker in “Alien” (1979), increasing his net worth by a large margin.

Kotto continued successfully in the 1980s, appearing in numerous lead and supporting roles, but a few stand out, such as in Oscar-nominated “Brubaker” (1980) with Robert Redford, “Othello” (1980), “The Running Man” (1987) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Conchita Alonso, and “Midnight Run” (1988, directed by Martin Brest and starring the likes of Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

The `90s didn`t change much, only a number of films and the amount of money on Yaphet`s bank account; he started the decade with a role in Gary Sherman`s Primetime Emmy nominated “After the Shock” (1990), and continued with an appearance in the film “The Corpse Had a Familiar Face” in 1994. A year before he was selected for the role of Al Giardello in the TV series “Homicide: Life on the Street”, which lasted until 1999, increasing further his net worth. He repeated his role in the TV movie “Homicide: The Movie” in 2000, and has made several appearances since the beginning of the new millennium, including in “Stiletto Dance” (2001), “Witless Protection” (2008), while in 2014 he lent his voice to Parker in the video game “Alien: Isolation.

Regarding his personal life, Yaphet has been married to Tessie Sinahon since 1998, who is his third wife. His first marriage was to Rita Ingrid Dittman, from 1962 until 1975, and they have three children. His second wife was Antoinette Pettyjohn, from 1975 until 1996; the couple have two children together.


Full NameYaphet Kotto
Net Worth$5 Million
Date Of BirthNovember 15, 1939
Place Of BirthNew York City, New York, USA
Height1.9 m
ProfessionActor
NationalityAmerican
SpouseTessie Sinahon (m. 1998), Rita Ingrid Dittman (m. 1962–1975)
ChildrenFred Kotto
ParentsAvraham Kotto, Gladys Marie
IMDBhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001433/
NominationsNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance By A Supporting Actor In A Comedy Or Drama Special
MoviesAlien, Live and Let Die, Midnight Run, The Running Man, Across 110th Street, Truck Turner, Friday Foster, Brubaker, Witless Protection, The Thomas Crown Affair, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Blue Collar, The Star Chamber, Raid on Entebbe, The Monkey Hustle, 5 Card Stud, Nothing But a Man, The ...
TV ShowsHomicide: Life on the Street, For Love and Honor
#Trademark
1Often plays police detectives and military officers
#Quote
1[on turning down the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)] I think I made some wrong decisions in my life, man. I should have done that but I walked away. When you're making movies, you'd tend to say no to TV. It's like when you're in college and someone asks you to the high school dance. You say no.
2[on Anthony Quinn and Across 110th Street (1972)] I can't stop laughing about Mr. Quinn. He wouldn't let me have anything. When I told him about how rough I had it as a kid in Harlem, he told me how he was hanged by the neck in Russia and left for dead. I told him I'd love to win an Academy award. "Don't bother, I'll lend you mine". "You don't know how rough it is coming up black in America". "Listen Yaphet, until you have been a Mexican, you don't know what rough means!" When we were shooting 110th in Harlem... I said to him: "Finally, I'm with my people". "Your people? My great-grandmother was a slave in Alabama!"
3If you're a black actor, you really don't have too many choices. If you keep turning things down, you might as well hit the unemployment office. If I didn't sometimes take small parts in small films I wouldn't get to play anything, and I do have to eat.
4(On when he decided to become an actor) I was roaming around Manhattan looking for work; in fact I had just come from an employment center in New York called 'Warren Street' where you can buy a part-time job for about ten bucks. On this particular day I didn't feel like delivering lunches, or pushing a dolly truck through lower Manhattan, so I went up to 42nd Street around Times Square, which at the time looked like a circus: porn theaters on one side of the street and b-movies on the other. I stopped before one particular theater and there were gangster photos all over the marquee. The movie must have cost about seventy-five cents, so I went in and sat down and saw On The Waterfront. I was so blown away after that day - it was Brando's performance that made me leave the streets to become an actor.
5(On Live and Let Die) There were so many problems with that script. I was too afraid of coming off like Mantan Moreland. I had to dig deep in my soul and brain and come up with a level of reality that would offset the sea of stereotype crap that Tom Mankiewicz wrote that had nothing to do with the Black experience or culture. The way Kananga dies was a joke, and well, the entire experience was not as rewarding as I wanted it to be. There were a lot of pitfalls that I had to avoid, and I did.
6(On filming Alien) All of the scenes were challenging, particularly when you know you have to act against sets that were huge. The special effects determined where you could walk. Then you ask yourself how can you survive in acting against a monster. Will you be remembered? Ridley Scott was cool. He gave us a ninety-page outline detailing each of our characters and then he disappeared behind the camera. That's how he directs; he operates his own camera. The Alien script was tight. It was one of the best scripts I have ever read, so there was very little improve.
7(On filming Midnight Run) That was another difficult shoot. DeNiro is very spontaneous and it always helps to work with an artist like that. But Marty Brest! He shot so many takes of the scenes that I lost all joy in doing the film. It became hard and tedious work. Then he stopped eating during the shoot and became thinner and thinner each day, until he looked like a ghost behind the camera. When I met Marty at the Universal Studios with DeNiro, he looked healthy and strong, but as filming went on, he began to turn into someone you'd see in Dachau (Concentration Camp). It was weird. I got sick and for the whole of the film I had a fever and was under the weather for most of it. I was shocked when it came off so funny. It sure wasn't funny making it.
8(On Homicide: Life on the Street) I felt like I was a beggar doing Homicide. Begging to act. Begging for scenes. The writing was not obviously for me. It mainly focused on others. I went from a movie star playing leads to a bit player doing one line here and one line there. The rest of the week I would be hanging around Fells Point waiting to come in and do my one line. When I asked if they could write more for me to do, they'd say "You're doing great. You're the anchor of the show. "Anchor? I'm an actor, let me out!" I finally ended up writing for the show and gave myself something to do. Nine years of not acting.
9I do have a favorite kind of director, which is the kind who allows me to create. Some haven't allowed me to create and I think by doing that they don't need an actor. They need a puppet.
#Fact
1At age 33, he is the youngest actor to play a main Bond villain.
2With the death of Joseph Wiseman on October 19, 2009, he is the earliest surviving actor to have played a main Bond villain. He played Dr. Kananga (Mr. Big) in Live and Let Die (1973).
3He was the first black actor to play a Bond villain.
4Along with Richard Belzer, Kyle Secor, Clark Johnson and Sharon Ziman, he is one of only five actors to appear in both the first and last episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street (1993): Homicide: Life on the Street: Gone for Goode (1993) and Homicide: Life on the Street: Forgive Us Our Trespasses (1999).
5Resides in Baltimore, Maryland [August 2012]
6He made guest appearances on both of the longest running prime time dramas in US television history: Gunsmoke (1955) and Law & Order (1990).
7Spends the majority of his free time living in the Philippines.
8Within a week of the divorce from his first wife Rita, he married Antoinette Pettyjohn.
9Although he didn't enjoy filming Midnight Run, the character of Agent Alonzo Mosley remains his favorite. He later played the same role for the film Witless Protection.
10His parents divorced when he was 3.
11Yaphet means beautiful in Hebrew.
12His father, Njoki Manga Bell, was the great-grandson of King Alexander Bell, who ruled the Douala region of Cameroon in the late 19th century, before the nation fell into the hands of Germany and, later, France and Britain. Fleeing the Germans, Manga Bell emigrated to Harlem in the 1920s and changed his name to Abraham Kotto (the surname is from a relative).
13Along with his wife, Tessie, they operate an artists retreat resort in Southern Leyte, Philippines called "The Running Man Institute," which was founded in 2001 and is focused on working with people in the entertainment industry to build their creativity, as well as to relax and read up about holistic health.
14Turned down the role of Lando Calrissian in 'Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back' (1980). He feared that Lando would be killed in the movie, and that he would be forever typecast.
15Campaigned for Steve Forbes during his bid for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in the 2000 primaries.
16His father was a Cameroonian (African) Jew, and his mother, whose family was from Panama, converted to Judaism. In an interview, he said that being fully Black and Jewish gave other children even more reason to pick on him growing up in New York City. However, he remains a devout, practicing Jew.
17Moved from Littleton, Colorado to Canada, because he felt it would be safer to live there. Two years after moving, he saw the news coverage on Columbine, and recognized some of the kids fleeing the school.
18Has a Bay Area hardcore punk band named after him.
19He is the son of a Cameroonian crown prince.
20Oldest son, Fred, is a very successful San José Police Dept. California (USA) officer.

All pictures

Actor

TitleYearStatusCharacter
The Park Is Mine1985TV MovieEubanks
Hill Street Blues1985TV SeriesCalvin Matthias
Warning Sign1985Major Connolly
Playing with Fire1985TV MovieFire Chief Walker
Women of San Quentin1983TV MovieSgt. Therman Patterson
For Love and Honor1983TV MovieSgt. China Bell
The Star Chamber1983Det. Harry Lowes
The A-Team1983TV SeriesCharles 'East-Side Charlie' F. Struthers
Fantasy Island1983TV SeriesBig Gus Belly
Fighting Back1982/IIvanhoe Washington
A House Divided: Denmark Vessey's Rebellion1982TV MovieDenmark Vessey
Othello1980Othello
Rage!1980TV MovieErnie
Brubaker1980Richard 'Dickie' Coombes
Alien1979Parker
Blue Collar1978Smokey
Roots1977TV Mini-Series
Crunch1976TV MovieCrunch
Raid on Entebbe1976TV MoviePresident Idi Amin Jr.
The Monkey Hu$tle1976Daddy Foxx
Drum1976Blaise
Friday Foster1975Colt Hawkins
Sharks' Treasure1975Ben Flynn
Report to the Commissioner1975Richard 'Crunch' Blackstone
Truck Turner1974Harvard Blue
Live and Let Die1973Kananga Mr. Big
Across 110th Street1972Lt. Pope
The Limit1972Mark Johnson
Bone1972Bone
Night Gallery1971TV SeriesBuckner (segment "The Messiah on Mott Street")
Man and Boy1971Nate
Night Chase1970TV MovieErnie Green
Gunsmoke1970TV SeriesPiney Biggs
The Name of the Game1970TV SeriesWyman Jackson
The Liberation of L.B. Jones1970Sonny Boy Mosby
Daniel Boone1968-1969TV SeriesJonah / Luke
Mannix1969TV SeriesGabe Johnson / Gabriel Dillon
Hawaii Five-O1969TV SeriesLance Corporal John T. Auston
The High Chaparral1968TV SeriesSgt. Major Creason
Bonanza1968TV SeriesChild Barnett
5 Card Stud1968Little George
The Thomas Crown Affair1968Carl
The Big Valley1966-1967TV SeriesDamien / Lobo Brown
Tarzan1967TV SeriesKesho
Cowboy in Africa1967TV SeriesMusa
Death Valley Days1967TV SeriesAbraham
NBC Experiment in Television1967TV Series
Nothing But a Man1964Jocko
4 for Texas1963uncredited
Alien: Isolation2014Video GameParker (voice)
Witless Protection2008Ricardo Bodi
Stiletto Dance2001TV MovieCaptain Rick Sands
The Ride2000TV MovieCarter
Homicide: The Movie2000TV MovieAl 'Gee' Giardello
Homicide: Life on the Street1993-1999TV SeriesAl Giardello
Law & Order1997TV SeriesAl Giardello
The Defenders: Payback1997TV MovieJudge Williams
Almost Blue1996Terry
Two If by Sea1996FBI Agent O'Malley
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century1996TV Mini-SeriesKaphe Kamar
Out-of-Sync1995Quincy
Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan1995TV MovieMarty Talbot
The Puppet Masters1994Ressler
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face1994TV MovieDetective Martin Talbot
Dead Badge1994Captain Hunt
SeaQuest 20321993TV SeriesCaptain Jack Clayton
The American Clock1993TV MovieIsaac
Extreme Justice1993Larson
It's Nothing Personal1993TV MovieLt. Riley
Intent to Kill1992VideoCaptain Jackson
Chrome Soldiers1992TV MoviePerry Beach
The Trials of Rosie O'Neill1991-1992TV SeriesKelly
Civil Wars1992TV SeriesJudge Louis Decker
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare1991Doc
Hangfire1991Police Lieutenant
After the Shock1990TV MovieWilliam McElroy
Father Dowling Mysteries1990TV SeriesLt. Fleming
Tripwire1989Lee Pitt
Ministry of Vengeance1989Mr. Whiteside
Prime Target1989TV MovieGilmore Brown
A Whisper to a Scream1989Jules Tallard
The Jigsaw Murders1989Doctor Fillmore
Midnight Run1988Alonzo Mosely
Murder, She Wrote1987TV SeriesLt. Bradshaw
Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel1987TV MovieGeneral Sorenson
The Running Man1987William Laughlin
Terminal Entry1987Col. Styles
In Self Defense1987TV MovieLt. Tyrell
Desperado1987TV MovieBede
Tomorrow's a Killer1987Harris
Eye of the Tiger1986J.B. Deveraux
Harem1986TV MovieAgha Kislar
Alfred Hitchcock Presents1985TV SeriesConvict
Badge of the Assassin1985TV MovieDetective Cliff Fenton NYPD

Writer

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Homicide: Life on the StreetTV Series written by - 2 episodes, 1997 - 1998 teleplay by - 1 episode, 1999
The Limit1972story

Director

TitleYearStatusCharacter
The Limit1972

Producer

TitleYearStatusCharacter
The Limit1972producer

Soundtrack

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Alfred Hitchcock Presents1985TV Series performer - 1 episode

Thanks

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Making Witless: The Cast on the Cast2008Video short special thanks
Freddy vs. Jason2003special thanks

Self

TitleYearStatusCharacter
King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry CohenDocumentary post-productionHimself
I'm Mosley!: An Interview with Actor Yaphet Kotto2016Video shortHimself
Making Witless: The Cast on the Cast2008Video shortHimself
Inside 'Live and Let Die'1999Video documentary shortHimself
TV Nation: Volume One1997Video documentaryHimself
Biography1996TV Series documentaryHimself
The World of James Bond1995TV Movie documentaryHimself
TV Nation1994TV Series documentaryHimself
Late Night with Conan O'Brien1994TV SeriesHimself
The Making of 'Midnight Run'1987TV ShortHimself
Bond 1973: The Lost Documentary1973Documentary shortHimself
Salute to Oscar Hammerstein II1972TV SpecialHimself
The David Frost Show1970TV SeriesHimself
The Joe Namath Show1969TV SeriesHimself

Archive Footage

Won Awards

YearAwardCeremonyNominationMovie
1969Bronze WranglerWestern Heritage AwardsFictional Television DramaThe High Chaparral (1967)

Nominated Awards

YearAwardCeremonyNominationMovie
1999Image AwardImage AwardsOutstanding Lead Actor in a Drama SeriesHomicide: Life on the Street (1993)
1998Image AwardImage AwardsOutstanding Lead Actor in a Drama SeriesHomicide: Life on the Street (1993)
1997Image AwardImage AwardsOutstanding Lead Actor in a Drama SeriesHomicide: Life on the Street (1993)
1996Image AwardImage AwardsOutstanding Lead Actor in a Drama SeriesHomicide: Life on the Street (1993)
1977Primetime EmmyPrimetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama SpecialRaid on Entebbe (1976)

Known for movies


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