Badja Djola

Djola's breakout role was as Leon Isaac Kennedy’s cellmate, the villainous "Half Dead" Johnson, in the 1979 movie Penitentiary, which led to many more feature films, including a supporting role in Wes Craven’s 1988 movie The Serpent and the Rainbow. Djola was best known for playing a thug who Bruce Willis's character kills after making him laugh in The Last Boy Scout and as an FBI agent in Mississippi Burning who intimidates a racist mayor played by R. Lee Ermey.

Djola's other film and TV credits include A Rage in Harlem, The Lonely Guy, NYPD Blue, Rosewood, Who's the Man?, The Hurricane, Night Shift, The Waterdance, ER, The X-Files, Millennium and Roc. He also had a role in The Players Club starring Ice Cube. Djola's final performance was in Back in the Day alongside Ja Rule, Pam Grier and Frank Langella.

Djola died of a heart attack on January 8, 2005, aged 56. He is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

• 1979 The Main Event as Heavyweight In Gym
• 1979 Penitentiary as "Half Dead" Johnson
• 1982 Night Shift as Cleon
• 1984 The Lonely Guy as Native
• 1985 The Lightship as Nate
• 1988 The Serpent and the Rainbow as Lieutenant Gaston
• 1988 Mississippi Burning as FBI Agent Monk
• 1989 An Innocent Man as IA Detective John Fitzgerald
• 1991 A Rage in Harlem as "Slim"
• 1991 The Last Boy Scout as Alley Thug
• 1992 The Waterdance as Decton
• 1992 Eddie Presley as The Drycleaner (uncredited)
• 1993 Who's the Man? as Lionel Douglas
• 1996 Heaven's Prisoners as Batist
• 1997 Rosewood as John Bradley
• 1997 The Brave as Rider
• 1998 Gunshy as Abel
• 1998 The Players Club as Doctor
• 1998 Butter as Roscoe
• 1999 Deterrence as Harvey
• 1999 The Hurricane as Mobutu
• 2000 Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel as Eddie "Fast Eddie"
• 2000 The Price of Air as "Sugar"
• 2001 Night at the Golden Eagle as Gabriel
• 2005 Back in the Day as Grant Brown
• 2005 Slipdream as Sahdu (final film role)

• Badja Djola at IMDb
• Badja Djola at Find a Grave