Home / Birthday profiles / John Kani
Portrait of John Kani

Birthday profile

John Kani

John Kani, South African actor

Find birthday twinsOpen interactive profile
Born
August 30, 1942
Age in 2026
84
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1942

About John Kani

Bonisile John Kani 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 Mufasa: The Lion King as well as Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix films Murder Mystery (2019) and Murder Mystery 2 (2023). Also a playwright, Kani co-wrote with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona the 1975 anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, as well as performing in it. Kani's work has been widely performed around the world, including New York, where he and Winston Ntshona won a Tony Award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (which ran for 159 performances) and The Island. Nothing but the Truth (2002) was his debut as sole playwright and was first performed in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. It won the 2003 Fleur du Cap Awards for the best actor and best new South African play.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

John Kani timeline

  1. Kani's work has been widely performed around the world, including New York, where he and Winston Ntshona won a Tony Award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (which ran for 159 performances) and The Island.
  2. Also a playwright, Kani co-wrote with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona the 1975 anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, as well as performing in it.
  3. Nothing but the Truth (2002) was his debut as sole playwright and was first performed in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg.
  4. It won the 2003 Fleur du Cap Awards for the best actor and best new South African play.

The world when John Kani was born

John Kani was born in 1942. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1942

  • #1 song"White Christmas" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieCasablanca
  • Best-selling bookThe Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Negro League World Series
  • Top headlineBattle of Midway becomes turning point of WWII in the Pacific
  • Technology milestoneEnrico Fermi achieves first nuclear chain reaction
  • Defining fadRationing and war bonds
  • Notable inventionNapalm
  • World population2.35 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population134.9M

1942 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in John Kani's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19422026
Gas$0.20$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,800$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population134.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.