Louis Gossett Jr. was the Oscar- and Emmy-winning star of such movies and TV series as “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Roots.”
- Died: March 29, 2024 (Who else died on March 29?)
- Details of death: Died in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 87.
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Louis Gossett Jr.’s legacy
Among Gossett’s many roles on the big and small screens, his best-known include drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in “An Officer and a Gentleman,” for which he became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won an Emmy Award for his performance as Fiddler, mentor to Kunta Kinte, in the 1977 TV miniseries “Roots.”
Gossett’s film debut was 1961’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” reprising the role of George Murchison that he originated on Broadway and appearing alongside Sidney Poitier (1927–2022). While Gossett continued to appear on Broadway in productions including “The Blacks” and “The Zulu and the Zayda,” he also developed his movie career with such films as “The Landlord,” “Enemy Mine,” and “Iron Eagle.”
Gossett’s notable TV appearances include “The Mod Squad,” “The Jeffersons,” “Picket Fences,” and “ER.” He returned to his role as Fiddler in the 1988 TV movie “Roots: The Gift,” and he earned another Emmy nomination for playing Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat in the 1983 TV movie “Sadat.” Gossett won an NAACP Image Award for his 1997 guest spot on “Touched by an Angel.”
In 2019, he was nominated for an Emmy and a Black Reel Award for his work in the HBO miniseries “Watchmen.” In 2023, he was part of the cast that received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the remake of “The Color Purple.”
On his work in “Roots”:
“It was a very sacred place to go to work. And everyone caught that sacred glow — crews, the actors, Lorne Greene, Chuck Connors, all of us treating it with such wonderful reverence. Which is why it had such a longevity, a long shelf life.” —from a 2014 interview with Ebony
Tributes to Louis Gossett Jr.
Full obituary: Los Angeles Times
