Yaphet Kotto is Dr Kananga in Live and Let Die (1973)

In Live and Let Die (1973)
Yaphet Kotto is Dr Kananga

Yaphet Kotto is an American actor who is well known for portraying the merciless villain Dr Kananga in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die (1973). He was born in New York City, USA, on November 15th 1944 and is also famous for his role in the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street.

Kotto has appeared in over forty movies with his latest film being the 2008 comedy Witless Protection.

Yaphet Kotto is Dr Kananga in Live and Let Die (1973)

“These growing signs of impertinence begin to disturb me Solitaire … even as they did with your mother before you.”

Popular Yaphet Kotto movies include:

Midnight Run (1988)
Brubaker (1980)
Alien (1979)
Blue Collar (1978)
Truck Turner (1974)
Live and Let Die (1973)
Across 110th Street (1972)
Bone (1972)
The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Nothing But a Man (1964)

In 1973, Yaphet Kotto starred as Dr Kananga in Live and Let Die, the evil Prime Minister of San Monique who holds a second identity as drug lord Mr Big.

Yaphet Kotto is Mr Big in Live and Let Die (1973)

Kotto has had roles in over twenty television movies with his most recent being the 2001 action thriller Stiletto Dance. Some of his prominent TV films are:

The Ride (2000)
Homicide: The Movie (2000)
Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan (1995)
The American Clock (1993)
After the Shock (1990)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel (1987)
Desperado (1987)
Rage! (1980)
Raid on Entebbe (1976)
Night Chase (1970)

In the critically acclaimed crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street, Yaphet Kotto appears as Lieutenant Al Giardello. The award winning series aired on the NBC network for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999 and contained 122 episodes.

Yaphet Kotto has had roles in over twenty television series including:

Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-99)
Civil Wars (1992)
For Love and Honor (1983)
Daniel Boone (1968-69)
The Big Valley (1966-67)

Dr Kananga

In Live and Let Die (1973), James Bond faces the hard-nosed villain Dr Kananga. He is portrayed by American actor Yaphet Kotto and is the Prime Minister of San Monique, a Caribbean island nation.

The villain has a second identity as crime head Mr Big, the owner of the Fillet of Soul group of restaurants in the United States. Kananga plans to monopolise the U.S. heroin market utilising his poppy fields in San Monique.

Serving the master villain are a host of interesting characters including:

Adam (Tommy Lane), a fiercely determined henchman
Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder), a mythical voodoo figure
Dambala (Michael Ebbin), a voodoo priest in San Monique
Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry), an undercover CIA agent
Tee Hee (Julius Harris), an imposing henchman with a steel arm
Whisper (Earl Jolly Brown), a softly spoken henchman

In San Monique, Dr Kananga controls his country by commanding the island's police and forcing his people to believe in the threat of voodoo.

He resides in San Monique in a house high on a hill overlooking the ocean. Here he lives with Solitaire (Jane Seymour), his mistress who reads tarot cards to tell the future.

Kananga has many supporters in the United States and San Monique. He arranges for three British agents to be murdered when the CIA and MI6 investigate his activities:

Dawes (James Drake) is killed in the United Nations after receiving a painful signal through his ear piece
Hamilton (Robert Dix) is assassinated in downtown New Orleans when watching a funeral service outside a Fillet of Soul restaurant.
Baines (Dennis Edwards) receives a fatal snake bite during a voodoo ceremony in San Monique.

James Bond (Roger Moore) is assigned to investigate the death of his three comrades and soon comes under attack by various henchmen.

Disguised as Mr Big, Kananga first meets 007 at his Fillet of Soul restaurant in Harlem, New York City. Here he orders Bond to be wasted outside. However, Agent 007 is saved when CIA agent Harold Strutter (Lon Satton) comes to his rescue.

In San Monique, Rosie Carver is ordered to lead Bond to his death. However, she fails and is killed by a gun hidden inside a scarecrow.

Agent 007 then infuriates Kananga when he flees San Monique with Solitaire. However, the drug kingpin later captures the pair in the United States.

Posing as Mr Big, he asks Bond if he has slept with Solitaire. When 007 refuses to answer, he is forced to remove his face to reveal himself as Dr Kananga.

The angry drug baron then knocks Solitaire to the floor after discovering she has slept with Bond and supposedly lost her foresight powers.

007 is taken to a crocodile farm where the villain's U.S. heroin processing laboratories are located. Here, Bond manages a miraculous escape after being placed in a crocodile pen.

Agent 007 then leads various henchmen on a wild boat chase through the Louisiana bayous.

In San Monique, Kananga arranges for Solitaire to be killed in a voodoo ceremony. James Bond comes to her rescue at the last minute and then destroys the island's poppy fields.

When Bond and Solitaire are lured to the villain's underground lair, they are almost fed to sharks, but 007 uses his nifty watch to break free.

A brutal battle ensues in the shark pool and Dr Kananga is subsequently killed - he explodes after Bond places a compressed air pellet inside his mouth.

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