John Amos’ 2 Marriages: Look Back at the Late Actor’s Relationships With First Wife Noel “Noni” Mickelson and Actress Lillian Lehman

John Amos was married twice — to artist Noel 'Noni' Mickelson and actress Lillian Lehman — before his death on Aug. 21

John Amos played a husband numerous times on-screen throughout his five-decade-long career, and he also exchanged wedding vows in real life.

Amos was married twice: He wed artist Noel "Noni" Mickelson in 1965, and they welcomed two children, daughter Shannon and son Kelly Christopher "K.C."

After their divorce in 1975, Amos briefly married actress Lillian Lehman, though details about their relationship are private.

Amos died of natural causes at 84 on Aug. 21, his son K.C. confirmed to PEOPLE on Oct. 1. “It is with heartfelt sadness that I share with you that my father has transitioned,” he wrote. “He was a man with the kindest heart and a heart of gold... and he was loved the world over."

Related: John Amos’ 2 Children: All About Shannon and K.C. Amos

K.C. continued, "Many fans consider him their TV father. He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and film as an actor.”

Amos was recognized for portraying Kunta Kinte in the original Roots mini-series and the patriarch of the first sitcom about a nuclear Black family, Good Times.

He also had roles on shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The West Wing; and movies like Coming to America, Madea’s Witness Protection and Uncut Gems.

Here’s everything to know about John Amos’s dating history.

Noel "Noni" Mickelson

Amos and Mickelson met while attending college at Colorado State University and married in 1965, per The Hollywood Reporter.

At the time of their marriage, Shannon wrote in the caption of an Instagram photo of her parents on their wedding day, it was still illegal in over a dozen states for interracial couples to marry. She later shared that Mickelson was of "Danish & Ashkenazi Jewish" descent.

“For them, it was love at first sight,” she posted in June 2020. “However, it was a tumultuous time in the world around them. ... In the midst of it all, their love would produce a child (me). I was born a year before my parents would be recognized as a legal couple in 16 states.”

Shannon added, “As a child I didn’t know my parents were different colors. I only saw them as my parents — the two people who loved me. All I knew was their love.”

After Amos and Mickelson wed, they moved to New Jersey, where the actor was originally from, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though they landed jobs as social workers, Mickelson supported Amos' dream to play professional football. "Being an artist herself, she understood my reluctance to accept the 9-to-5 world,” Amos told the outlet in November 2023.

When he eventually set his eyes on the entertainment industry, Amos moved to Los Angeles with his wife and daughter as he began earning roles on TV, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Good Times. The couple raised Shannon and her brother, K.C., in the L.A. suburb of Sylmar, where Mickelson skillfully rode horses.

After Amos and Mickelson divorced in 1975, little was known about her private life besides what her kids shared on social media. In August 2014, K.C. posted a photo of himself, Shannon, Amos and an ailing Mickelson. “Chillin w fam on mom’s b-day,” he wrote.

Other photos show her confined to a wheelchair. Shannon told The Hollywood Reporter that Mickelson got remarried to a Disney special-effects engineer and was living on a California ranch when she experienced medical complications during a hysterectomy, which resulted in her becoming blind and a quadriplegic. After the 1996 incident, Mickelson's second husband cared for her until his death about nine years later.

In January 2017, K.C. shared a throwback picture of his mother with a horse and recalled her winning numerous riding awards. “Basically the best endurance rider you ever see this side of the Mississippi,” he wrote.

In June 2017, K.C. revealed on Instagram that Mickelson had died. Shannon later told The Hollywood Reporter that she had passed in 2016.

Since then, her children have continued to remember her. More recently, Shannon reflected on how Mickelson helped her acknowledge and experience grief.

My mother used to call it grief-letting, telling me, ‘Sweetheart, let your river of tears flow.’ 😰," she wrote on Instagram in February 2024. "She was my rock, offering a safe space to be with my emotions. I miss the warmth of her embrace so much. ✨💗.”

Lillian Lehman

Amos and Lehman were briefly married in the late 1970s, per California State University, Northridge.

Best known for playing professional roles like doctors and judges, Lehman has starred on shows like L.A. Law, Macgyver, General Hospital and The Closer. She has also appeared in notable movies, including Steve Carell's Evan Almighty and Madonna’s Body of Evidence.

“I’ve been told I express an authoritative presence, but also a sense of compassion,” Lehman told the Montgomery Advertiser in 1992. “I’ve tried out for parts like nurses and clerks, and been told ‘Sorry, Lillian, but you're just not the nurse type. You’re the doctor type.’ Still, when you are an actor, you have to consider yourself blessed if you are thought of as anything that allows you to work consistently.”

In addition to her acting career, Lehman was a longtime drama professor at California State University Northridge. In scenes in L.A. Law, while she was on the bench rifling through papers, the actress was actually reviewing students' papers between takes.

“Sometimes it’s tough balancing the two professions,” she told the newspaper. “You’ll finally wrap up a shoot late at night, and everyone is going out to celebrate, and you can’t because you have grades due the next Friday.”

Lehman and Amos reunited in 1992’s Night Track, playing a married couple.

“It’s strange that I happen to be playing my ex-husband’s wife, but it really isn’t that hard because neither of us harbored any bad feelings after our marriage and we both respect each other as actors,” she explained, while the movie was filming in Mobile, Ala.

Lehman continued, “Still, it was especially strange because neither of us knew we’d be performing with each other until we got to Mobile to start filming. The person who cast us didn’t even realize that John and I had been married.”

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