Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Oscar for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy for “Roots,” each playing a mature man who guides a younger man as he takes on a recent role – but under drastically different circumstances – died Friday in Santa Clara. Monica in California. He was 87 years old.
Mr. Gossett’s cousin, Neal L. Gossett, confirmed the death. He didn’t specify the cause.
Mr. Gossett was 46 when he played Emil Foley, the hellish Marine drill instructor who ultimately shapes the humanity of an emotionally damaged young Naval Air recruit (Richard Gere) in “An officer and a gentleman” (1982). Reviewing the film in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described Sergeant Foley as a cruel taskmaster, “remade into a man of recognizable cunning, dedication and humor”, revealed in “award-winning performances”.
Gossett told The Times that he immediately recognized the value of the role. “Those words just tasted good,” he recalls.
When he accepted the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1983, he was the first black actor to win in that category and only the third (after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier) to win an Oscar for acting.
Mr. Gossett, a versatile actor, has played a number of roles over his long profession. However, he was best known for enjoying decent, simple-minded men, often authorities.
Before he won an Oscar, he had already won an Emmy for his role as Fiddler, the mentor of most important character Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), in the hit 1977 miniseries “Roots“
The Fiddler was, as the name suggests, a musician, an enslaved man on an 18th-century plantation in Virginia. Initially, Mr. Gossett was not thrilled with the role. “Why did you choose me to play Uncle Tom?” he remembered enthusiastic about: a Video interview with the 2018 Television Academy. However, he said he got here to admire the survival skills of ancestors like Fiddler and modeled the character after his grandfathers and great-grandmothers.
This portrait, he said, became “a tribute to all the people who taught me how to behave.”
Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn, the only child of Louis Gossett, a porter, and Helen (Wray) Gossett, a nurse. He made his Broadway debut at age 17 and was still a student at Abraham Lincoln High School on Ocean Parkway.
While recovering from a basketball injury, he appeared in the school play to occupy his time. Impressed, his teacher suggested he audition for Louis Peterson’s play “Take a Giant Step,” which premiered at the Lyceum Theater in the fall of 1953. He won the lead role of Spencer Scott, a troubled teenager. Brooks Atkinson of The Times. praised his “admirable and winning performance” which showed “the full extent of Spencer’s turmoil”.
Sidney Fields devoted a column to the young man in The Sunday Mirror, in which he shared his profession plans. “I always wanted to study pharmacy,” Mr. Gossett said. “But now, after college, I will try acting. I know it’s a tough business, but if I don’t make it, I’ll have my pharmacy degree to fall back on.”
He majored in drama (and minored in pharmacy) on a basketball scholarship to New York University. In 1955, he returned to Broadway in William Marchant’s comedy “The Desk Set.” By the time he graduated, acting was paying him greater than any basketball team.
He made his film debut as an annoying student in “A raisin in the sun” (1961), an adaptation of the play by Lorraine Hansberry, starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. He had previously appeared on screen only twice – in two episodes of the NBC drama series “The Big Story” in 1957 and 1958.
Before becoming a movie star, Mr. Gossett had a thriving theater career. In less than ten years, he landed six roles on Broadway, including a role as a Harlem hustler in “Tambourines to Glory” (1963), a servant to a South African grandfather in “The Zulu and the Zayda” (1965), and a lawyer who was killed by a white man in a demonstration at civil rights in “My Sweet Charlie” (1966) and Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in “Dangerous Angels” (1971).
In the mid-1960s, he replaced the actor who played the great boxing promoter Eddie Satin in the musical “Golden Boy” with Sammy Davis Jr. starring. Perhaps his most unfortunate role was as a Black man with a white slave in “Carry ‘Me Back to Morningside Heights” (1968), a comedy written by Robert Alan Aurthur and directed by Sidney Poitier. The show, which Clive Barnes of The Times called racist, was closed after a week.
Mr. Gossett has never pursued another role on Broadway. But he appeared for four nights as brilliant lawyer Billy Flynn in the musical “Chicago” in 2002.
His dozens of feature films include: “The Landlord” (1970), in which he played a man on the verge of madness; “Travels with my aunt” (1972); and “The Deep” (1977) as a Bahamian drug dealer. His later films included “Diggstown” (1992), in which he played a boxer, and the film version of Sam Shepard’s “The Curse of the Starving Class” (1994), in which he played a bar owner.
Mr. Gossett has appeared in more than 100 television shows, ranging from lighthearted comedies such as “The Partridge Family” to dramas such as “Madam Secretary.” He played the title role of a Columbia anthropology professor who investigates crimes in the short-lived 1989 series “Gideon Oliver.”
He also appeared in numerous television films, including: in “Lazarus Syndrome” (1978) about a cardiologist; “A Gathering of Old Men” (1987) – a story about a black man who kills in self-defense; “Strange Justice” (1999), about the confirmation process of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court (he played advisor to President Vernon Jordan); and “Lackawanna Blues” (2005), based on the play by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. His other roles in TV movies include an Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat and baseball star Satchel Paige.
He continued acting until last year, when he was seen in the film version of the Broadway musical “The Color Purple.”
Mr. Gossett’s marriage to Hattie Glascoe in 1964 lasted only five months. He and Christina Mangosing married in 1973, had one child, and divorced after two years. His 1987 marriage to Cyndi James Reese ended in divorce in 1992.
Mr. Gossett is survived by his sons, Satie and Sharron Gossett, and several grandchildren.
In an interview with the Television Academy, Gossett urged his fellow actors to help spark political and social change in a troubling world. “Art can accomplish this overnight,” he said. “Millions of people are watching it.” He added: “We can get to them faster than anyone else.”
Michael S. Rosenwald reporting contributed.
