Louis Gossett Jr., 87, dies; 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and 'Roots' actor
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 8, 2024


Louis Gossett Jr., 87, dies; 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and 'Roots' actor
Louis Gossett, right, in his professional stage debut, in Louis Peterson’s “Take a Giant Step” in New York in 1953. Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy for “Roots,” died in Santa Monica, Calif. on March 29, 2024. He was 87. (Sam Falk/The New York Times)

by Anita Gates



NEW YORK, NY.- Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy for “Roots,” both times playing a mature man who guides a younger one taking on a new role — but in drastically different circumstances — died early Friday in Santa Monica, California. He was 87.

Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett confirmed the death. He did not specify a cause.

Gossett was 46 when he played Emil Foley, the Marine drill instructor from hell who ultimately shapes the humanity of an emotionally damaged young Naval aviation recruit (Richard Gere) in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982). Reviewing the movie in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described Foley as a cruel taskmaster “recycled as a man of recognizable cunning, dedication and humor” revealed in “the kind of performance that wins awards.”

Gossett told the Times that he had recognized the role’s worth immediately. “The words just tasted good,” he recalled.

When he accepted the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1983, he was the first Black performer to win in that category and only the third (after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier) to win an Academy Award for acting.

Gossett, a versatile actor, played a range of parts in his long career. But he was best known for playing decent, plain-spoken men, often authority figures.

By the time he won his Oscar, he had already won an Emmy as Fiddler, the mentor of the lead character, Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), in the blockbuster 1977 miniseries “Roots.”

Fiddler was, as the name suggested, a musician, an enslaved man on an 18th-century Virginia plantation. Gossett was not thrilled about the role at first. “Why choose me to play the Uncle Tom?” he remembered thinking in a 2018 Television Academy video interview. But he came to admire the survival skills of forebears like Fiddler, he said, and based the character on his grandparents and a great-grandmother.

That portrayal, he said, became “a tribute to all those people who taught me how to behave.”

Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. was born May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Louis Gossett, a porter, and Helen (Wray) Gossett, a nurse. He made his Broadway debut when he was 17 and still a student at Abraham Lincoln High School on Ocean Parkway.

While healing after a basketball injury, he appeared in a school play, just to occupy his time. Impressed, a teacher suggested that he audition for “Take a Giant Step,” a play by Louis Peterson that was opening at the Lyceum Theater in the fall of 1953. He won the lead role, that of Spencer Scott, a troubled adolescent. Brooks Atkinson of the Times praised his “admirable and winning performance,” one that conveyed “the whole range of Spencer’s turbulence.”

Sidney Fields devoted a column in The Sunday Mirror to the young man, who shared his career plans. “I always wanted to study pharmacy,” Gossett said. “But now after college I’ll try acting. I know it’s a tough business, but if I fail, I’ll have the pharmacy degree to fall back on.”

He ended up majoring in drama (and minoring in pharmacy) while on a basketball scholarship at 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 more than any basketball team would.

He made his film debut as an annoying college man in “A Raisin in the Sun” (1961), an adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play that starred Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. He had appeared on screen only twice before — in two episodes of “The Big Story,” an NBC drama series, in 1957 and 1958.

Before becoming a film star, Gossett had a thriving theater career. In less than a decade, he landed six Broadway roles, including that of a Harlem hustler in “Tambourines to Glory” (1963), a South African grandfather’s servant in “The Zulu and the Zayda” (1965), a lawyer who had killed a white man in a civil rights demonstration in “My Sweet Charlie” (1966) and Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in “Dangerous Angels” (1971).

In the mid-1960s, he replaced the actor playing big-time boxing promoter Eddie Satin in the musical “Golden Boy,” starring Sammy Davis Jr. His most unfortunate role may have been 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 play, which Clive Barnes of the Times called racist, closed after a week.

Gossett never committed to another Broadway role. But he appeared for four nights as flashy lawyer Billy Flynn in the musical “Chicago” in 2002.

In the 1960s, he also performed as a folk singer in Greenwich Village coffee houses. He and Richie Havens co-wrote the anti-war song “Handsome Johnny,” which Havens recorded in 1966 and later sang at Woodstock.

His dozens of feature films included “The Landlord” (1970), in which he played a man on the brink of insanity; “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 movie version of Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class” (1994), in which he played a bar owner.

Gossett made more than 100 television appearances, ranging from lighthearted comedies like “The Partridge Family” to dramas like “Madam Secretary.” He played the title role, a Columbia anthropology professor who investigates crimes, on the short-lived 1989 series “Gideon Oliver.”

He also appeared in numerous television movies, among them “The Lazarus Syndrome” (1978), about a cardiologist; “A Gathering of Old Men” (1987), about a Black man who kills in self-defense; “Strange Justice” (1999), about the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation process (he played presidential adviser Vernon Jordan); and “Lackawanna Blues” (2005), based on Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s play. His other TV-movie roles included Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat and baseball star Satchel Paige.

He continued to act until last year, when he was seen in the film version of the Broadway musical “The Color Purple.”

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.

Gossett is survived by his sons, Satie and Sharron Gossett, and several grandchildren.

In the Television Academy interview, Gossett urged fellow actors to help effect political and social change in a disturbing world. “The arts can achieve it overnight,” he said. “Millions of people are watching.” He added, “We can get to them quicker than anybody else.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

March 31, 2024

The rent was too high, so they threw a party

Cindy Sherman exhibits a new body of work at Photo Elysée

With this ring, I unwed

Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 closes to significant sales and a bristling local scene

Louis Gossett Jr., 87, dies; 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and 'Roots' actor

How many Easters remain for this century-old boys' choir school?

Does the Peace sign stand a chance?

"Shirin Towfiq" and "Cups to Connections" open at Mingei International Museum

Palm Springs Art Museum announces appointment of Christine Vendredi as Chief Curator

Cummer Museum announces its newest exhibition: "Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960"

Hosfelt Gallery opens two solo exhibitions with works by Tim Hawkinson and Alexandre Kyungu Mwilambwe

Eli Klein Gallery presents Liu Bolin's recent photographs

Praz Delavallade opens an exhibition of new paintings, works on paper and sculptures by Gregory Siff

Ho Tzu Nyen announced winner of the CHANEL Next Prize 2024

'On the Adamant' review: A psychiatric facility on the Seine

Exhibition at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire features monstrous and atypical sculptures and fantastic creatures

'Future Now' opens at the Portland Art Museum

Neeli Cherkovski, poet who chronicled the Beat Generation, dies at 78

An age-old riddle ginned up for postapocalyptic times

A Georgia town basks in bountiful filming. The state pays.

A British scandal intrigued J.T. Rogers. Then he went down the rabbit hole.

Eleanor Collins, Canada's 'First Lady of Jazz,' dies at 104

Play Smarter, Not Harder: Techniques for Enhancing Income through Online Slots

How Can Online Gaming Sites Bring a Life Balance?

Revolutionising HR: Exploring the Latest Trends in HR Software Solutions

Artistic Harmony: The Cultural Mosaic of Intersect Palm Springs




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful