The founder of the popular chocolate chip cookie brand Famous Amos, Wallace “Wally” Amos, has passed away at the age of 88.
He died on died Tuesday, August 13, at age 88 in his home in Honolulu following complications from dementia, according to his children.
Amos turned his hobby of baking bite-sized cookies while working as a talent agent for the stars into the hugely successful brand in 1975 when he opened up his Famous Amos cookie shop on Sunset Boulevard with a $25,000 loan from the likes of Marvin Gaye and other Hollywood friends.
“I began to bake as a hobby; it was a kind of therapy,” Amos told Times in 1975. “I’d go to meetings with record companies or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them.”
His cookies were a hit, and he decided to make his hobby his career with the opening of his Sunset Boulevard bakery which quickly stood out among shops selling cookies full of added preservatives and artificial additives.
Amos’ store made $300,000 in revenue in its first year and became a $12 million company by 1981, as dozens of new locations opened and his cookies were packaged and sold at retailers across the country, according to History.
As the success of his Famous Amos cookies grew, Amos himself became somewhat of a pop culture icon.
He would have guest appearances in TV shows like “The Jeffersons,” “Taxi” and, later, “The Office.”
But he struggled to keep up with the company’s finances as it grew and by 1988 had sold off his ownership of and equity in the company.
In the years following, he worked as a motivational speaker and author sharing his self-made story while advocating for black entrepreneurs as well as childhood literacy.
He is survived by his fourth wife Carol Williams, four children — Shawn, Sarah, Michael and Gregory — seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
