Julius W. Harris

Julius W. Harris (August 17, 1923 – October 17, 2004) was an American actor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose career in film, television, and theater spanned four decades and encompassed more than 70 movies. His father was a musician, and his mother had worked as a dancer at the Cotton Club in New York City. Before pursuing acting, Harris served as a medic in the U.S. Army during World War II, and afterward held jobs as a nurse and a bouncer at jazz clubs in New York City.

Harris came to acting through an unconventional path. After spending time around struggling actors, he accepted a dare to audition and was cast in his first role — the father in Nothing But a Man, a 1964 film about Black life in the South starring Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln. He was a member of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York City, and in 1971 he appeared on Broadway in No Place to Be Somebody, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

His screen work brought him wide recognition, particularly through a series of prominent roles in 1970s cinema. He portrayed the steel-armed villain Tee Hee in the James Bond film Live and Let Die, Scatter in Super Fly, Captain Bollin in Shaft's Big Score, Inspector Daniels in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Bubbletop Woodson in Let's Do It Again, and Joseph in Islands in the Stream. He also appeared in Black Caesar, Hell Up in Harlem, Trouble Man, King Kong, Friday Foster, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, and Shrunken Heads. On television, Harris played Ugandan President Idi Amin in the TV movie Victory at Entebbe and made guest appearances on Sanford and Son, Good Times, and The Love Boat, among other series.

Harris died of heart failure on October 17, 2004, at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital at the age of 81. He was cremated and interred in Philadelphia. He was survived by his daughter Kimberly and his son Gideon.