Jimmie Walker

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia James Carter Walker Jr born June 25 1947 known professionally as Jimmie Walker is an American actor and comedian Walker is best known for portraying James Evans Jr J J the oldest son of Florida and James Evans Sr on the CBS television series Good Times which originally ran from 19741979 Walker was nominated for Golden Globe awards Best Supporting Actor In A Television Series in 1975 and 1976 for his role While on the show Walkers character was known for the catchphrase Dynomite which he also used in his mid1970s TV commercial for a Panasonic line of cassette and 8track tape players He also starred in Lets Do It Again with John Amos and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened with James Earl Jones Walker continues to tour the country with his standup comedy routine In 1967 Walker began working fulltime with WRVR the radio station of the Riverside Church In 1969 Walker began performing as a standup comedian and was eventually discovered by the casting director for Good Times after making appearances on Rowan Martins Laugh In and on the Jack Paar Show He eventually released one standup comedy album during the height of his Good Times popularity Dynomite on Buddah Records 5635 During Good Times 197475 season Walker was 26 years old though his character was much younger John Amos the actor who portrayed Walkers father on Good Times was actually just eight years older than Walker Walker credits producerdirector John Rich for inventing Dynomite which Rich insisted Walker say on every episode Both Walker and executive producer Norman Lear were skeptical of the idea but the phrase and Walkers character caught on with the audience Also off and oncamera Walker did not get along with series lead Esther Rolle who played Florida Evans in the series because she and Amos disapproved of Walkers increasingly buffoonish character and his popularity and Walker felt hurt by their disdain Dissatisfaction led Amos before Rolle to leave the show making Walker the star of the show Walker was the only Good Times star to not attend Rolles funeral