Actor James Avery, best known for his role in NBC’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has died due to complications from open heart surgery. He was 65.
Avery was born in 1945 and raised in Atlantic City. He served a stint in the US Navy during Vietnam and had a prolific career in the entertainment industry, writing poetry and scripts, providing voice-overs and acting in film and television.
His work spanned three decades,including Family Matters, Grey’s Anatomy, Star Trek: Enterprise, L.A. Law and The Closer. Avery also provided the voice for Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 1987 to 1993.
But of course it was his role as Banks family patriarch, Uncle Phil, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that he was arguably best known and loved for. The series, which ran from 1990 to 1996, was a staple of ’90s television and famously launched Will Smith’s acting career.
Avery had just completed filming for WISH I WAS HERE, a comedy drama directed by Scrubs actor Zach Braff. It will premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014.
Tributes are flooding in, including condolences from Fresh Prince co-star Alfonso Ribeiro’s Twitter account and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook page.
Steven Brandon
Jan 2, 2014 at 8:35 pm
I see that he was born 11/27/1948 and died 12/31/2013…..That would make him 65 not 68 and due to this discrepancy her and on other new sites between both ages then I have to ask is this a hoax?
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