Casting Yaphet Kotto made things better. That's how it worked. Look through Kotto's credits and try to find a bad performance. There are none. Kotto, who died in the Philippines yesterday at 81, always delivered beyond the expectations of viewers, whatever they were. He surprised the filmmakers who cast him as well. Even if the project was forgettable, Kotto was likely to be brilliant in it, bringing star power to supporting roles, and often knocking lead actors off the screen with a superior display of craft and imagination.
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He was a pioneering actor in so-called "blaxploitation" films in the '70s, playing criminals, cops, and tough guys. He had panache and commanded any room he entered. In 1970's "Bone," a crime thriller/domestic drama from writer/director Larry Cohen, Kotto played a criminal who takes a white couple hostage intending to empty their bank accounts but ends up getting drawn into a "Double Indemnity"-like conspiracy. In "Across 110th Street," Kotto partnered up Anthony Quinn (also the film's executive producer, stepping in after three other lead actors dropped out) to investigate the massacre of Mafioso and Black gangsters in a robbery. In 1972's "The Limit," Kotto's only film as writer/director, he plays a straitlaced motorcycle cop patrolling crime-ridden territory with his white partner (Jeff McMillan). The difference between the three roles is drastic. Kotto would continue to surprise and confound viewers as he moved into mainstream Hollywood films and network TV projects.