14:38Classic TV · 1977Good Times Cast Then and Now: Who's Still Alive?
Episode: Good Times (1974): Cast Then & Now 2026 — Who's Still Alive After 52 Years?
From Hollywood Legends Era · 16 min ·
About the Good Times Cast Then and Now
The Good Times cast then and now is the story of a TV family that made millions laugh while facing real hardship on screen. The CBS sitcom premiered on February 8, 1974, and ran for six seasons and 133 episodes, ending on August 1, 1979.
Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by Norman Lear, it was a spin-off of Maude. It followed the Evans family in a Chicago housing project, never named on air but widely understood to be Cabrini–Green.
This episode remembers eleven people from that apartment and its hallways. Seven have passed away and four are still with us. Each detail below was checked against obituaries and reliable references.
What Made Good Times Different?
Good Times is often called the first network sitcom about a Black family with both parents in the home, and that father was there because the leading lady insisted. The show also tackled unemployment, rent troubles and even child abuse, which is a big part of why fans still talk about it.
Where Is the Good Times Cast Now?
Esther Rolle as Florida Evans
Esther Rolle was born on November 8, 1920, in Pompano Beach, Florida, the tenth of 18 children of Bahamian immigrants. She first played Florida as Maude's housekeeper.
When CBS planned a spin-off with Florida as a single mother, Rolle wanted a father in the home to counter the stereotype of absent Black fathers, and John Amos got the part. Unhappy with the show's focus on J.J.'s clowning, she left after season four, then returned for the final season once producers met her demands.
She won a 1979 Emmy for the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier. Esther Rolle died on November 17, 1998, at age 78, of complications from diabetes.
John Amos as James Evans Sr.
John Amos played football at Colorado State and was released by the Denver Broncos in 1964. Trying out later with the Kansas City Chiefs, he heard coach Hank Stram call him "a man who is trying to play football." He also worked as a social worker in New York.
After playing Gordy the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, he became James Evans. He clashed with the writers over how J.J. was portrayed, and Norman Lear let him go after season three. Season four opened with James killed in a car accident in Mississippi.
In 1977 he earned an Emmy nomination as the adult Kunta Kinte in Roots, and he later played Cleo McDowell in Coming to America and Admiral Fitzwallace on The West Wing. He died on August 21, 2024, at age 84, of congestive heart failure.
Moses Gunn as Carl Dixon
Moses Gunn was a respected stage actor and an alumnus of New York's Negro Ensemble Company. He won two Obie Awards, played Othello on Broadway in 1970 and earned a 1976 Tony nomination.
Film fans knew him as Bumpy Jonas in Shaft. In 1977 he played Carl Dixon in six episodes, a shop owner who became engaged to Florida; the couple later married off screen and moved to Arizona. He also earned an Emmy nomination for Roots. He died on December 16, 1993, in Guilford, Connecticut, of complications from asthma, at 64.
Ja'Net DuBois as Willona Woods
Ja'Net DuBois played Willona, the stylish neighbor and family friend, in all six seasons. She also co-wrote and sang "Movin' On Up," the theme song for The Jeffersons, and carried Good Times as its lead in season five.
She later won two Emmys for voice work on The PJs and co-founded the Pan African Film & Arts Festival in 1992. She kept her birth year private, and sources still disagree on it. She died of cardiac arrest at home in Glendale, California, on February 17, 2020. BernNadette Stanis said she had seemed healthy at a signing event two weeks earlier.
Helen Martin as Wanda Williams
Helen Martin was born in St. Louis in 1909 and made her Broadway debut in 1937. On Good Times she played Wanda, known as "Weeping Wanda" for crying at funerals, in seven episodes.
Her biggest TV role came later. From 1985 to 1990, starting in her mid-seventies, she played Pearl Shay on 227 for 116 episodes. She died of a heart attack on March 25, 2000, at age 90.
Johnny Brown as Nathan Bookman
Johnny Brown grew up in Harlem, where he went to school with future author Walter Dean Myers. After winning an amateur night at the Apollo, he understudied Godfrey Cambridge in Broadway's Golden Boy and took over the role before opening.
A regular on Laugh-In, he joined Good Times in its second season as Bookman, the superintendent the Evans kids loved to tease. He died on March 2, 2022, in Los Angeles, at age 84, survived by June, his wife of 61 years, and their two children.
Ben Powers as Keith Anderson
Ben Powers grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and got his start at Trinity Repertory Theater.
He joined the sixth and final season as Keith, the football player who married Thelma, appearing in 24 episodes. In the finale, the Chicago Bears offer Keith a contract. Powers later appeared on Gimme a Break! and Mike Hammer. He died on April 6, 2015, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at 64.
Jimmie Walker as J.J. Evans
Jimmie Walker grew up in the Melrose projects of the Bronx and sold food at Yankee Stadium as a young man. He began doing stand-up in 1969 and was 26 during the first full season, playing a teenager.
"Dy-no-mite!" became a national catchphrase and brought him Golden Globe nominations in 1975 and 1976. Rolle and Amos disliked how silly J.J. became, and Walker felt hurt by their disapproval. He was the only main star who did not attend Rolle's funeral. Now 79, he still tours as a comic.
BernNadette Stanis as Thelma Evans
Born Bernadette Stanislaus in Brooklyn, she was crowned Miss Brooklyn as a teenager and later studied at Juilliard. She played Thelma, the only Evans daughter, for all six seasons.
Off screen, she cared for her mother, Eula, through Alzheimer's disease and wrote about it in her book The Last Night. She also founded the Remembering the Good Times Foundation in her mother's honor. She is 72.
Ralph Carter as Michael Evans
Ralph Carter was on Broadway at nine in The Me Nobody Knows. His role in the musical Raisin earned him a 1974 Tony nomination, and Norman Lear bought out his contract to cast him as Michael, the outspoken youngest son.
He played Michael for all six seasons, then returned to theater. In 2019 he was a vice president of AUDELCO, a New York group that honors Black theater. He is 65.
Janet Jackson as Penny Gordon Woods
Janet Jackson joined in fall 1977, at age 11, as Penny, a girl abused by her mother and later adopted by Willona. The season-five opener, including a burn from a hot iron, was unusually frank for a sitcom, and Stanis has said the scene still gives her goosebumps.
After two seasons, Jackson released her first album in 1982, followed by Control in 1986 and Rhythm Nation 1814 in 1989. She has won five Grammys. In 2017, at age 50, she welcomed her son, Eissa. She is 60.
Why Good Times Still Matters to Viewers
Good Times showed a family short on money but rich in pride and humor. Behind the scenes, cast members fought hard over how their characters were written, and those fights came from caring about the work.
Decades later, the reruns still feel like a visit with neighbors you know well.
Which member of the Evans family, or which neighbor down the hall, do you remember best from watching Good Times?
Sources and Further Reading
Topics in This Story
Your turn...
Which character did you love most — and who did you watch the show with?
Tell us the story — fellow fans would love to hear it.
We check every fact — but if you spot a mistake, we'd love to know.Report a correction →
