Today's non-sports card highlights one of those moments when you find a card for an actor or famous person (politicians) that you had no idea existed. Yaphet Kotto is one of my favorite actors and if you ever wanted to see a tour de force performance watch any of his work on Homicide: Life on the Street which was basically the prequel to The Wire. Kotto was the man in charge of the homicide police as Lieutenant Al Giardello and he took no crap from anyone.
He was also famously one of the victims of the Xenomorph in Alien and co-stars in one of the best crime dramas of the 1970's, Across 110th Street, which gave us the famous theme song (made famous again in Jackie Brown).
Live and Let Die places him as the villain who plays two roles in the film. As Mr. Big, he is trying to take control of the heroin trade and his is also Dr. Kananga, a Caribbean dictator whose tiny country produced the heroin. James Bond has to get to the bottom of things and Roger Moore, in his first Bond role, does an excellent job as an older Bond.
Live and Let Die is my favorite post-Connery Bond film (including the Craig films) and Kotto being the villain is definitely part of my love for the film. It has has the best Bond credit song with the Wings playing "Live and Let Die."
Back in 2002, Rittenhouse issued a James Bond 40th Anniversary set and 10 years later, Rittenhouse must have thought "let's get those Bond photos and print some more cash!" This time around with way more gold foil! Kotto also has cards in the 2002 Rittenhouse 40th Anniversary set and the 2008 Rittenhouse James Bond: In Motion set.
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