At 78, Jimmie Walker Finally Tells the Truth About Esther Rolle
Jimmie Walker is 78 years old now, and after decades of dodging questions, he's finally opened up about one of the most complicated relationships of his career — the tension between himself and his Good Times co-star, Esther Rolle.
The on-screen chemistry between Rolle, who played matriarch Florida Evans, and Walker, who became a pop culture phenomenon as the wisecracking J.J., masked years of creative conflict behind the scenes. For years, Walker gave polite, vague answers whenever the topic came up. But now, he's setting the record straight.
"Esther was tough because she cared," Walker said in a recent interview. "She believed in the mission of the show. I didn't always see it that way back then. I was young, chasing laughs and enjoying the fame. But looking back, I can see she was fighting for something bigger."
Walker and Rolle's dynamic on Good Times was a clash of purpose. Rolle, a classically trained stage actress, viewed the show as a platform to portray a dignified, realistic Black family. Walker, a comedian at heart, saw it as a hit sitcom — and leaned hard into the punchlines that made him famous.
"She came from the stage, from drama and social change," Walker said. "I came from the clubs, from punchlines and comedy. We were two different energies trying to make the same thing work."
That tension defined the show's evolution. While Walker's character J.J. became wildly popular — his catchphrase "Dyn-o-mite!" became a national sensation — Rolle and co-star John Amos worried the show was turning into a cartoon. They pushed back, often clashing with producers and with Walker himself over tone and intent.
But now, decades later, Walker credits Rolle with grounding the series in something real.
"She made Good Times matter," he said. "She gave it a soul."
Walker also expressed regret that the two never truly reconciled before Rolle's death in 1998. "If I could talk to her now," he said, "I'd tell her thank you for standing up for what she believed in, for teaching me even when I didn't want to be taught."
Walker's late-in-life honesty has given fans a new lens on Good Times — not just as a sitcom, but as a creative battleground between two performers with very different ideas about what the show could be.
And now, finally, he's honoring what Rolle brought to the screen — and to him.