Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos cookies, dies at 88, reports say

Wally Amos, pictured with a sheet of cookies at his home office in Kailua, Hawaii, in 2007, died at 88 years old. (Lucy Pemoni / AP via CNN Newsource)

New York — Wally Amos, the charismatic founder of Famous Amos cookies, has died at age 88, according to reports.

The New York Times reported Amos died Tuesday in his home in Honolulu, and his children told the outlet the cause was complications of dementia.

Amos opened his bakery in 1975 on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, selling bite-sized chocolate chip cookies that were a novelty for the time, according to the company’s site. The bakery, whose cookies were developed from a family recipe, attracted Hollywood celebrities and musicians.

Amos was born in Tallahassee, Florida.

Famous Amos wasn’t just a business, he said in a 1991 Detroit Black Journal interview.

“I started making cookies just to make a living and to be happy doing what I was doing,” Amos said in the interview. “And I just, I was so committed and so involved and so joyous about it.”

From there, he created a cookie empire.

“I didn’t say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go in the cookie business, make a lot of money, you know, sell out of cookies.’ I said, ‘Well, do something I like the way I want to do it,’ you know, I’m going to have fun doing it,” Amos said in the interview.

Amos was also a figure in U.S. pop culture. He famously appeared in a cameo in the sitcom “The Office” to excitement and applause from the cast members. Before that, he also appeared on “The Jeffersons” and “Taxi.”

Amos sold the cookie brand to a private equity group in 1988 after years of financial struggles for the company.

CNN has reached out to the Amos family and Ferrero, the current owner of Famous Amos Cookies, for comment.