John kani biography

South African actor and writer (born 1942)

Bonisile John KaniOISOBE (born 30 August 1942) is a South African actor. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in The Lion King (2019) and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix films Murder Mystery (2019) and Murder Mystery 2 (2023).

Early and personal life

Kani was born on 30 August 1942 in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth In the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.^[1] In 1975, after appearing in Athol Fugard's anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which he also co-wrote, in the United States, Kani returned to South Africa.

There, he received a phone call saying that his father wanted to see him. On his way there, he was surrounded by police who beat him and left him for dead. His left eye was lost as a result of the incident, and he now wears a prosthesis which is technically a glass eye.^[2]