Wally Amos, famous founder of Amos Cookies, dies at the age of 88

Wallace “Wally” Amos, founder of the chocolate chip cookie brand Famous Amos, has died. He was 88 years old.

Amos died Tuesday at his home in Honolulu, his children Shawn and Sarah Amos told the New York Times. The cause of death was complications from dementia.

Born on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida, Amos moved to Harlem as a teenager to live with his aunt Della Bryant. He served in the Air Force from 1954 to 1957.

After his military service, he returned to New York and joined the William Morris Agency. He started in the mailroom and worked his way up the career ladder until he became the agency's first black talent agent. He signed Simon and Garfunkel, among others, and worked with Motown artists such as the Supremes, Diana Ross, Sam Cooke and Dionne Warwick.

In 1967, Amos moved to Los Angeles, where he began baking as a pastime in addition to running his own management company, using recipes he learned from his aunt.

“I started baking as a hobby; it was a kind of therapy,” Wally told the New York Times in 1975. “I would go to meetings with people from record companies or the movie industry and bring some cookies, and soon everyone wanted some.”

With the help of a $25,000 loan from his celebrity friends, music legends Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy, Amos opened the first Famous Amos store on Sunset Boulevard in LA. The company sold $300,000 worth of cookies in its first year and reached $12 million in sales by 1982.

Due to mismanagement and financial difficulties, Amos gradually sold shares in Famous Amos during the 1980s and sold the remainder of the cookie brand to a private equity firm, the Shansby Group, for $3 million in 1988. Amos later sold baked goods under other names, including Uncle Noname, Uncle Wally's Muffin Co. and Cookie Kahuna.

Outside of the famous Amos cookie empire, Amos has guest starred on the television series “The Office,” “Taxi,” and “The Jeffersons.”

Amos leaves behind his wife Christine Harris-Amos and children Shawn, Sarah, Gregory and Michael.

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