Louis Gossett Jr. (1936-2024)
Louis Gossett Jr., the first African-American to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and an Emmy for his performance in the landmark TV miniseries "Roots", recently died on 29th March 2024. He was 87 years old. After a career that spanned over 60 years and hundreds of films, Louis Gossett Jr. has established a legacy as an unwearied actor, a charismatic stage presence, and a trailblazing talent who set a standard for black acting.
Gossett was born on 27th May 1936 in Brooklyn, New York. In honour of his father, he later added Junior to his name. He began acting in school productions and debuted on Broadway debut at age 16 in the play "Take A Giant Step". After attending New York University on a basketball and drama scholarship, the actor befriended Hollywood great James Dean before studying acting with such luminaries as Marilyn Monroe, Martin Landau and Steve McQueen. His Broadway success came with Sammy Davis Jr. and Sidney Poitier (who in 1964 became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Gossett guest-starred in numerous TV shows, but his breakthrough role on the small screen was that of Fiddler in "Roots", the 1977 miniseries about the terrible atrocities of slavery. His performance would later win him an Emmy Award. Gossett would win an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor as Emil Foley, the intimidating drill instructor alongside Richard Gere and Debra Wagner in 1982's "An Officer and a Gentleman". A few years later, after winning the Oscar, Gossett Jr. also acted opposite Dennis Quaid in "Enemy Mine" and in 1986's "Iron Eagle", the latter of which led to three more sequels and established him as the star of a bona fide franchise. His other movies include "The Deep", "Blue Chips", "Daddy's Little Girls", "Firewalker", "Jaws 3D", "The Punisher" and "Toy Soldiers".
In recent years, Gossett has appeared in television shows, such as "Boardwalk Empire", "Extant", "Madam Secretary", "ER", and "Watchmen", and played a stubborn patriarch in a remake of "The Color Purple".
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