Famous Amos Cookies Founder Wally Amos Dies at 88

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

As reported by the New York Times, Amos passed away on Tuesday, August 13, at his home in Honolulu due to complications from dementia, as confirmed by his children, Shawn and Sarah Amos.

Born on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida, Amos attended the Food Trades Vocational High School and was interested in cooking from a young age. When he was 12 years old, he moved to New York to live with his aunt Della Bryant, who would bake cookies for him, and her recipe later inspired his chocolate chip cookie business.

After serving in the United States Air Force, Amos landed a job at the William Morris Agency, becoming the company’s first Black talent agent. While there, he headed the rock ‘n’ roll department, representing musicians such as The Temptations, Sam Cooke, Simon & Garfunkel, and Marvin Gaye. Part of his tactic to entice clients was to send them chocolate chip cookies along with an invitation to visit him.

In 1975, a friend suggested Amos open his own store selling cookies, and in March of that year, he opened his first Famous Amos cookie store in Los Angeles with the help of a $25,000 loan from Gaye and Helen Reddy. The store was a major success and began to expand, eventually landing the Famous Amos cookies in supermarkets across the United States.

“I began to bake as a hobby; it was a kind of therapy,” Wally told the New York Times in 1975. “I’d go to meetings with record company or movie people and bring along some cookies, and pretty soon everybody was asking for them.”

The success of his cookies business turned Amos into a famous pop culture star, and he would go on to appear as himself in various television shows. In 1981, he appeared in the Taxi episode “Latka’s Cookies,” and in 1988, he featured in episodes of Second Chance and Traxx.

More recently, he appeared as himself in The Office in the Season 8 episode “Tallahassee” in 2012. He also appeared on Shark Tank, where he pitched new cookie-based business ideas.

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Amos also wrote several books, many with a self-help theme, including The Cookie Never Crumbles and The Power in You. He also hosted the TV series Learn to Read, produced by Kentucky Educational Television and WXYZ-TV, which aimed to teach others how to read.

In 1988, Amos sold Famous Amos for $3 million; the Ferrero Group now owns the company. The sale meant Amos could no longer use his name and image to sell baked goods, but he still sold products under other names, such as Uncle Noname, Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., and the Cookie Kahuna.

He is survived by his fourth wife, Carol Williams; four children — Shawn, Sarah, Michael, and Gregory — seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.