American actor and singer Johnny Brown, who is best known for starring in the smash-hit 1970s sitcom Good Times, passed away on Wednesday. He was 84. The news of Brown's demise was confirmed by his daughter Sharon Catherine Brown on Instagram. No cause of death has been revealed yet. Posting a photo of Brown, Sharon wrote, "Our family is devastated. Devastated. Devastated. Beyond heartbroken. Barely able to breathe. We respectfully ask for privacy at this time because we need a minute to process the unthinkable. To articulate the depths of profound sadness." She further continued about her father saying, "This is my mom’s husband for sixty one years, mine and JJ’s dad, Elijah and Levi’s Pop Pop, older brother to George and brother in law to Pat and extended family to Chris, Hihat, Damian and Derell. It’s too terrible. It will never not be. It’s a shock. He was literally snatched out of our lives. It’s not real for us yet. So there will be more to say but not now. Dad was the absolute best. We love him so very much." He is survived by June, his wife of 61 years, and his son, John Jr., and daughter Sharon Catherine Brown.
Born on June 11, 1937, in St. Petersburg, Florida, and brought up in Harlem, Brown came on board the cast of Good Times in the show's second season in 1975 as the housing project superintendent Nathan Bookman. He played the role until the show's cancellation in 1975 and later joined the TV sketch comedy, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, for three seasons. Some other television roles to Brown's credit include Family Matters, Sister, Sister, The Jeffersons, The Wayans Bros. to name a notable few. Having also ventured into singing in the 1960s, Brown recorded and performed with saxophonist Sam 'The Man' Taylor, including making Broadway appearances twice. The talented performer subsequently made his big-screen debut in the 1996 film, A Man Called Adam, playing the role of a blind pianist, and later landed a role in Martin Sheen’s Man in the Mirror in 2008.
