‘Good Times’ Star Was Once Accused of ‘Nasty’ Homophobia: ‘The Most Disgusting Person That I’ve Ever Worked With’
Good Times actor Jimmie Walker is mostly known for his role on the iconic sitcom. However, he has made some pretty controversial comments over the years that have been scrutinized. Last year, a comedian accused Walker of “nasty homophobia.”
Jimmie Walker as J.J. Evans on ‘Good Times’
Good Times aired from 1974 to 1979 for six seasons. The show starred John Amos, Esther Rolle, Ja’Net Dubois, Bernadette Stanis, Ralph Carter, Jimmie Walker, and Janet Jackson.
Though Walker was the source of most of the show’s comic relief, it may not have been all laughs behind the scenes. Both Amos and Rolle left the show at different times.
Back a few years ago in an interview with the Television Academy (as reported by Urban Hollywood 411), the actor said that he and his cast mates were not friends at the time of filming.
“I don’t remember ever speaking a word to Esther the whole time she was there,” he said. “I think the same basically goes for John. We talk more now, a little bit, but very, very little. We were never friends, we never talked.”
A comedian says that they had a bad encounter with Jimmie Walker
In an appearance last year Fox Soul’s The Tammi Mac Late Show, comedian Sampson McCormick talked about a time in which he had a bad experience with Walker when he was set to open a standup show for Walker. McCormick described Walker as “a nasty motherf****r.”
“He was the most disgusting person that I’ve ever worked with in this business,” explained McCormick, as reported by News One. “He comes in the green room. He sees me. I stand up and I introduce myself. I say, ‘Hey, I’m Sampson I’m opening for you tonight.’ Interesting. He leaves out of the room. About 10 minutes later, his manager comes back in with a white envelope and she says ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but we won’t be needing your services tonight. So I want to make sure that you got paid.’ So she wrote me a check out of her own pocket and she said Mr. Walker doesn’t want you to open the show tonight. And she wouldn’t tell me why.”
After he opened up, McCormick said he stayed for the show and then Walker decided to address him.
“He said, ‘Can you believe they were going to have a f*g open the show for me tonight. And then he made age jokes, he said things about Ellen DeGeneres. So he was just like, ‘I came up with Ellen on the circuit and she needs some d**k so take the d**k out his mouth and put it up her a**. He said some really nasty things and I wouldn’t sit here and make that up. He was so nasty to me.”
These aren’t Jimmie Walker’s first controversial remarks
This isn’t the first time Walker has made offensive remarks about the LGBT community. In 2012, he talked about opposing gay marriage.
“There’s just certain traditions that need to be upheld,” he said to CNN. “In 100 years from now, people are going to go, ‘Who was against gay marriage?’ And I’ll be one of those idiots and say, ‘That’s me.’ I’m just against it on moral grounds, that’s it. I’m as much a heathen as anybody. I just don’t believe on moral grounds it should be done. I don’t like it, I don’t accept it.”
