The family of legendary actor John Amos is now caught up in a legal showdown, as his daughter Shannon Amos has filed suit against her brother Kelly Christopher “K.C.” Amos, accusing him of elder abuse, fraud, and wrongful death. The case also names John’s former caretaker Belinda Foster, longtime associate Eugene Brummett, and his production company Step and One Half Productions as defendants, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Court filings claim that K.C. pressured John into signing a series of documents that gave him control of the estate while the actor’s health was in decline. Shannon alleges that beginning in 2019, K.C. not only kept John away from family and friends but even went as far as impersonating him through text and email. One portion of the suit stated, “This calculated and cruel isolation was explicitly designed to render John Amos entirely dependent on K.C. Amos for all of his personal, financial, and critical medical decisions.” Brummett and Foster are accused of playing roles in enabling this alleged manipulation.
Shannon did not mince words when speaking to THR. “What K.C. Amos, Belinda Foster, and Eugene Brummett did in the last years of my father’s life is unfathomable, cruel, and beyond my comprehension,” she said.
The Good Times star passed away in August 2024 at the age of 84, though the news did not reach the public until October. Shannon said she was blindsided when she found out about her father’s death on socials a full 45 days later. Foster has countered that John himself requested the delay in announcing his passing. “At the time of his death, John was concerned that Shannon might turn his death and interment into a circus as she had done with other aspects of his life… It was John who requested the delay in announcing his death to Shannon and the rest of the world,” Foster claimed.
John was cremated shortly after his death, and while the official cause was recorded as congestive heart failure, Shannon has refused to rule out foul play. No autopsy was carried out.
Tensions within the Amos family had been public before. In June 2023, Shannon went on record claiming her father was being exploited financially and suffering elder abuse, though John denied those accusations at the time. Just one month later, K.C. was arrested after allegedly sending his sister threatening messages, which included photos of guns, videos of himself firing them, and even references to gang ties.
What began as one of television’s most beloved father figures has now left behind a legacy clouded by a family feud that appears destined to play out in the courts.