Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born November 15, 1937) is an American actor. His parents were from Cameroon. His father, Abraham Kotto, was royalty, the Crown Prince of the Royal Bell family of the Douala region of Central Africa’s Cameroon.

Yaphey Kotto with Roger Moore in ‘Live and Let Die’.

Kotto is a devout, practicing Jew. Being Black and Jewish gave other kids even more reason, he said, to pick on him growing up in New York City. “It was rough coming up,” Kotto said. “And then going to shul, putting a yarmulke on, having to face people who were primarily Baptists in the Bronx meant that on Fridays I was in some heavy fistfights.”

By the age of 16 he was studying acting very seriously at the Actor’s Mobile Theatre Studio, and at 19 made his professional acting debut in Othello. He also was a member of the Actors Studio in New York. Kotto got his start in acting on Broadway, where he appeared in The Great White Hope, among other productions.

His film debut was in 1963 in an uncredited role in 4 For Texas, but his first big break came in Nothing But a Man in 1964. Later, he landed the role of Mister Big in Live and Let Die, as well as roles in Across 110th Street and Truck Turner. He also starred as an auto worker alongside Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel in the commercial failure Blue Collar.

The following year he played one of his best-known roles, as Parker in the successful sci-fi/horror film Alien.