Louis Gossett, Jr., who made film history in 1982 by becoming the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, had just passed away at the age of 87. A star of stage and screen, Gossett earned many accolades during his life, including two Golden Globe wins as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for a guest starring role in the TV miniseries Roots.
Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, Gossett made his stage debut at the age of 17. Encouraged by his high school English teacher to audition for a Broadway part, he landed a part in the play Take a Giant Step in 1953. While his sporting skills and 6'1″ height gave him the opportunity to play for the New York Knicks, he declined it to continue pursuing an acting career. In 1959, he played the role of George Murchison in the play A Raisin in the Sun. He then reprised his role in the movie version released two years later.
Gossett's most popular role was that of drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), which earned him the Academy Award. Starring alongside Richard Gere and Debra Winger, Gossett played a strict man whose no-nonsense character ultimately uplifts the protagonist. In his 2010 memoir, An Actor and a Gentleman, Gossett described the award as, “More than anything, it was a huge affirmation of my position as a Black actor.”
Despite his success, he had some run-ins with racism from police officers in Los Angeles in the 1960s, including a time when he was chained to a tree and handcuffed for three hours for walking around a residential Beverly Hills area after 9 p.m. “Now I had come face-to-face with racism, and it was an ugly sight,” he wrote. “But it was not going to destroy me.” Moved by these events, he created the Eracism Foundation to help create a world where racism doesn't exist.
More recently, Gossett appeared in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019) as well as the latest musical film version of The Color Purple (2023), where he played Ol' Mister Johnson, sharing the screen alongisde Taraji P. Henson and Colman Domingo, among others. “He was open and generous. Kind beyond measure. Regal. We owe so much to him. What a monumental life he lived,” Domingo wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Gossett's passing was announced by his family via a statement, in which no cause of death was revealed. His cousin, Neal L. Gossett, reminisced about the actor's time walking with Nelson Mandela, his sense of humor, and his values. “Never mind the awards, never mind the glitz and glamor, the Rolls-Royces and the big houses in Malibu. It’s about the humanity of the people that he stood for.”
Louis Gossett, Jr., the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, passed away at 87.
A star of stage and screen, Gossett earned many accolades during his life, including two Golden Globe wins as well as a Primetime Emmy Award.
Louis Gossett, Jr. (Left) with Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier in a scene scene from the play ‘A Raisin in the Sun.' (Photo: Friedman-Abeles, New York via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
More recently, Gossett appeared in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019) as well as the latest musical film version of The Color Purple (2023).
“He was open and generous. Kind beyond measure. Regal. We owe so much to him. What a monumental life he lived,” actor Colman Domingo wrote on X.
Richard Pryor and Lou Gossett Jr. backstage at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles (Photo: Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
h/t: [AP]
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