Wally Amos, the creator of 'Famous Amos' cookies, has died
The famed entrepreneur died in Honolulu from complications of dementia, his family said in a statement.
Wallace “Wally” Amos Jr., creator of the iconic cookie brand Famous Amos, has died. He was 88.
The famed entrepreneur died in Honolulu on August 13, from complications of dementia, according to his family.
“With his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story, and a source of Black pride,” his children, Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn, said in a statement. “Our dad taught us the value of hard work, believing in ourselves, and chasing our dreams.”
Born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1936, Amos moved to Harlem as a teenager before joining the Air Force in the ‘50s. He then moved back to the Big Apple to work with the William Morris Agency, where he started off in the mailroom but later became a talent agent — working with notable figures like Simon and Garfunkel, Sam Cooke and Dionne Warwick.
In the ‘60s, Amos moved to California to open his own agency, and Hollywood took notice of his culinary talents — he would bake cookies for his clients.
“I began to bake as a hobby; it was a kind of therapy,” Amos explained to The New York Times in August 1975. “I'd go to meetings with [the] record company or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them.”
With the financial backing of stars like Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy, Amos launched the Famous Amos Cookie Company in 1975 in Los Angeles. By the ‘80s, the brand was making $12 million in revenue.
However, Amos found it difficult to maintain the business and faced fierce competition from other cookie brands. In 1988, he ended up selling his stake in the company for $3 million — and lost the rights to the brand. “I was stupid, plain and simple. I sold the company and didn’t realize I had sold my future along with it,” he told CNBC in 2008.
President Baking Company brought Famous Amos for $61 million, according to HISTORY.
Amos never lost the entrepreneurial spirit, even at his advanced age. In 2016, he appeared on the hit business reality show “Shark Tank” to pitch his “Cookie Kahuna” brand, which went out of business and left him “broke.”
He didn’t stop there: In 2018, he launched another cookie company named after his aunt Della Bryant, who would bake cookies for him when he was young.
“This is my last company, I can tell you that for sure. Put that on my tombstone: ‘He died starting one last cookie company,’” Amos told Charlotte Magazine in 2018, with a laugh.
Wow, I remember him coming to my elementary school in South Philly in the mid-'70s. I remember us kids getting packs of his cookies after assembly. He was huge celebrity for us at the time.
Oh no!! I’m so sorry to hear this! I met him back when I lived in Tallahassee — I wanna say with George Clinton — and he was awesome. Thanks for letting me know, he was a character ❤️ and definitely will be missed.