Jimmie Walker is an American actor and comedian, who holds a net worth of $800 thousand. Walker is renowned for playing James Evans Jr., famously known as “J.J.” on the CBS sitcom “Good Times” (1974–1979), with his unique catchphrase “Dyn-O-Mite!”Jimmie Walker Net Worth.
Having began stand-up comedy in the late ’60s, he has gained more than 50 acting credits including films like “Let’s Do It Again” (1975) and “Airplane!” (1980), the TV movie “The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened” (1977), and the television shows “At Ease” (1983) and “Bustin’ Loose” (1987–1988). In 2012, Walker also released his memoir “Dynomite!: Good Times, Bad Times, Our Times–A Memoir.”
Net Worth: $800 Thousand
Date of Birth: Jun 25, 1947 (75 years old)
Place of Birth: The Bronx
Gender: Male
Height: 6 ft (1.85 m)
Profession: Actor, Comedian
Nationality: United States of America
Early Life
On June 25, 1947, Jimmie Walker was born in Brooklyn, New York, as James Carter Walker Jr. His parents were James Sr., a Pullman porter, and Lorena, the head of the nursing department at a hospital, and he had a sister named Beverly.
During his time at Theodore Roosevelt High School, Jimmie was part of the Search for Education, Evaluation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program, sponsored by New York State.
This program provided him with knowledge about radio engineering, which enabled him to acquire a job at WRVR radio station in NYC.
Additionally, as a teenager, Jimmie worked as a vendor at the Yankee Stadium for the 1964 World Series. There, he was given a silver dollar from Mickey Mantle.
Career
In 1969, Jimmie Walker embarked on his stand-up comedy career and soon after was featured on the “Jack Paar Show” and “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In”. Subsequently, the casting director of “Good Times” cast Jimmie as James “J.J.” Evans Jr.
and the series went on to run for 6 seasons, totalling 133 episodes, for which Jimmie was nominated for two Golrase “Dy-no-mite!”, credited to the show’s director, John Rich,den Globes. Walker’s role as J.J. Evans also spawned the ph and this phrase was subsequently included in TV Land’s special, “The 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catch Phrases.”
Starring in “Good Times,” Jimmie Walker released the stand-up comedy album “Dyn-o-mite” in 1975. Co-stars John Amos and Esther Rolle were unhappy with the show’s direction as J.J.’s popularity increased. Rolle commented, “He’s 18 and he doesn’t work. He can’t read or write. He doesn’t think.
This wasn’t what the show was supposed to be like…The artist, I’m sure, had a part to play in this; gradually, they made J.J. more and more dimwitted and made his role bigger.”
Amos likewise spoke out, expressing his belief that “the writers would rather make J.J. put on a chicken hat and have him shout ‘DY-NO-MITE,’ as a way to waste time without having to write meaningful dialogue.”
In 1975, Jimmie Walker starred in the Sidney Poitier directed movie “Let’s Do It Again”, followed by “Rabbit Test” in 1978 and “The Concorde … Airport ’79” in 1979. He joined James Earl Jones and Debbie Allen in the 1977 television movie “The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened”.
That same year, he made his first appearance on the show “The Love Boat”, returning for five more episodes in the future. His next major role was the parody film “Airplane!” in 1980, which made a whopping $171 million at the box office, as well as a TV movie “Murder Can Hurt You”.
Subsequent to that, Walker was a guest star on “Fantasy Island” in 1982 and “Cagney & Lacey” in 1983. In 1983, he was Sgt. Val Valentine on the ABC sitcom “At Ease”, and went on to play Sonny Barnes on the syndicated show “Bustin’ Loose” from 1987 to 1988. His 1987 film “Going Bananas” featured Dom DeLuise, and he was in the 1991 sci-fi movie “The Guyver”.
His other notable TV appearances included “The Larry Sanders Show” (1994), “In the House” (1995), “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” (1996), “Scrubs” (2001; 2002) and “Everybody Hates Chris” (2006; 2008). Additionally, Walker hosted radio shows on WOAI, WHIO, KKAR and WLS in the 1990s.
Jimmie Walker made a brief appearance in 2010’s “Big Money Rustlas,” and then went on to appear in the Syfy movie “Super Shark” (2011) and the comedy “What Goes Around Comes Around” (2012).
His next onscreen credit was in 2015’s “Sweet Lorraine,” and the following year he co-starred with Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Harvey Keitel, Edie Falco, and Danny DeVito in “The Comedian.” His recent venture on television includes a performance of himself in 2019’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience:
Good Times,” alongside Andre Braugher, Viola Davis, and Tiffany Haddish; this earned the special a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live). Walker’s latest project was a movie released in 2020, titled “A Wrestling Christmas Miracle.”
His television repertoire further encompasses various shows, such as “The $10,000 Pyramid,” “American Bandstand,” “The Midnight Special,” “Match Game,” “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” and “Late Show with David Letterman” in addition to multiple “Dean Martin Celebrity Roast” specials.
Personal Life
In 2012, Jimmie Walker revealed that he had several girlfriends but never got married or had children on The Wendy Williams Show. Rumours began to circulate in 2017 that he was seeing Ann Coulter, though she quickly quelled these stories by stating that they were just “best of friends”.
Politically, Jimmie identified as a “realist independent” and opposed affirmative action. He told CNN that while he disagreed with it, he thought same-sex marriage should be legalized because it “was not worth the battle”.
In 2017, Walker spoke on Fox News, voicing his support for President Donald Trump by declaring that he was in favour of “90 percent of the things he does”.
Awards and Nominations
In 2006, Jimmie Walker and his colleagues from the show “Good Times”, John Amos, Ralph Carter, Ja’net DuBois and BernNadette Stanis, were honoured with the TV Land Awards’ Impact Award. Additionally, Walker was awarded two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor in Television in 1975 and 1976.