Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (May 27, 1936 – March 29, 2024) was an American actor.

He made his stage debut at the age of 17. Shortly thereafter, he successfully auditioned for the Broadway play Take a Giant Step. Gossett continued acting onstage in critically acclaimed plays including A Raisin in the Sun (1959), The Blacks (1961), Tambourines to Glory (1963), and The Zulu and the Zayda (1965). In 1977, Gossett appeared in the popular miniseries Roots, for which he won Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards.

Gossett continued acting in high-profile films, television, plays, and video games. In 1982, for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and became the first African-American actor to win in this category. At the Emmy Awards, Gossett continued to receive recognition, with nominations for The Sentry Collection Presents Ben Vereen: His Roots (1978), Backstairs at the White House (1979), Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1981), Sadat (1983), A Gathering of Old Men (1987), Touched by an Angel (1997), and Watchmen (2019). He won and was nominated at other ceremonies including the Golden Globe Awards, Black Reel Awards, and NAACP Image Awards. Gossett was also well known for his role as Colonel Chappy Sinclair in the Iron Eagle film series (1986–1995).

Gossett's other film appearances include Hal Ashby's The Landlord (1970), Paul Bogart's Skin Game (1971), George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt (1972), Stuart Rosenberg's The Laughing Policeman (1974), Philip Kaufman's The White Dawn (1974), Peter Yates's The Deep (1977), Wolfgang Petersen's Enemy Mine (1985), Christopher Cain's The Principal (1987), Mark Goldblatt's The Punisher (1989), Daniel Petrie's Toy Soldiers (1991), and Blitz Bazawule's The Color Purple (2023), his television appearances include Bonanza (1971), The Jeffersons (1975), American Playhouse (1990), Stargate SG-1 (2005), Boardwalk Empire (2013), The Book of Negroes (2015).

Biography

1936-1954: Early life, education, and stage breakthrough

Gossett was born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, to Hellen, a nurse, and Louis Cameron Gossett, a porter. He was an alumnus of Mark Twain Intermediate School 239 and Abraham Lincoln High School. He contracted polio during his youth.[5] His stage debut came at age 17, in a school production of You Can't Take It with You when a sports injury resulted in the decision to take an acting class.

Gossett's high school teacher had encouraged him to audition for a Broadway part, resulting in his selection at the age of 17 for his first role on Broadway in the version of Take a Giant Step in 1953. He replaced Bill Gunn as Spencer Scott. The play ran from late September to late November and had 76 performances. The show was selected as one of the 10 best Broadway shows of 1953 by The New York Times. His performance was well received, and he won the Donaldson Award for best newcomer of the year.

After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1954, he attended New York University, declining an athletic scholarship.

1955–1977: Continued success to television breakthrough

On October 24, 1955, the Broadway play The Desk Set started its run, with Gossett acting in it. The show had 297 performances and closed on July 7, 1956. Its a comedy about office workers. On its 200th performance, Jack Y. Kohl's The Morning Call review praised the entire cast.

At the end of the 1950s, standing 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall, he was offered the opportunity to play for the New York Knicks; he turned down the offer to instead accept a role in A Raisin in the Sun.

In 1959, continuing his Broadway career, Gossett played the role of George Murchison in A Raisin in the Sun. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances. The character of Murchison represents the "fully assimilated black man" who denies his African heritage with a "smarter than thou" attitude. The play received rave reviews. In Boyd Martin's review in The Courier Journal he said that the play is "magnificently played by the entire cast." It won best play at the New York Drama Critics' Circle.

During the early 1960s, Gossett was considered to be a talented folk musician, for which he was well known. His singing career was helped along with appearing at Gerde's Folk City in New York. In 1961, Gossett had his cinematic debut with the film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. Due to the critical acclaim of the play, Columbia Pictures bought the film rights. Most of the original cast, including Gossett, returned to their roles. The film, just like the play, received excellent reviews. In the same year, Gossett appeared in the original cast of Jean Genet's The Blacks, the longest running off-Broadway play of the decade, running for 1,408 performances. The original cast also featured James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge, Maya Angelou and Charles Gordone. — so "their collective star power" rubbed off on on Mr. Gossett.

In 1963, Gossett acted in the Broadway play Tambourines to Glory. William Glover in his review published in The Bee, describes it as the first Broadway play with a gospel score, and praised the entirety of the cast for their energy and vocals. In 1964, Gossett acted in the Broadway play Golden Boy. Also that year, he signed to Powertree Records. Gossett's single, "Hooka' Dooka', Green Green" / "Goodmornin' Captain" was released in early 1964. Later in May, "Red Rosy Bush" / "See See Rider" was released. The following year, Gossett appeared in the musical play The Zulu and the Zayda on Broadway as Paulus with music and lyrics by Harold J. Rome. A December 1965 review of The Zulu, original cast recording that was released on Columbia Records noted Menasha Skulnik and Gossett's vocal performance of "It's Good to Be Alive.

In 1966, Gossett acted in the Broadway play My Sweet Charlie. Gossett wrote the antiwar folk song "Handsome Johnny" with Richie Havens; Havens recorded the song in 1966. "Handsome Johnny" was released in 1967, appearing on Richie Havens's album Mixed Bag,. Havens performed it on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson which resulted in a standing ovation that lasted through two commercial breaks. 

By September 1967, his single "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" / "Just a Girl" was released on Warner Brothers 7078. It was a Cash Box Newcomer Pick and received a good review with the reviewer calling it "easy-paced blues working and a mighty fine smooth vocal join forces in putting across a tempting r&b reading of the folk standard."

In 1968, Gossett acted in the play Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights. In the spring of 1969, Gossett was listed among the actors who could not be determined or uncredited in Stuart Rosenberg's WUSA.

In 1970, his album From Me to You was released on B.T. Puppy Records BTPS-1013. It contained some of his own compositions.

In 1971, Gossett acted in Paul Bogart's western comedy Skin Game starring James Garner. In it they play a pair scammers who repeatedly pretend that the character played by Gossett is Garner's slave named Jason O'Rourke, to resell him repeatedly in every town they pass by. Michael Bate of The Ottawa Citizen said "Gossett larks his way through the film's early portions and develops a complex characterization with appealing good humor and restraint. He rarely overplays an easily overdone role and for this he deserves full credit."

That year Gossett was cast in a film adaptation of the novel Finding Maubee, however the project went dormant, and was released as The Mighty Quinn in 1989 with another cast. On February 7, Gossett acted in "The Desperado", a Bonanza episode. Also that year he acted in the .play Murderous Angels, which is about an investigation regarding Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. In his Daily News review Douglas Watt said that Gossett's performance as Lumumba was "extremely convincing."

In 1972, Gossett acted in George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt. He was announced to act in a starring role in Brian De Palma's Sisters, but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflict, and to play a gang leader in Barry Shear's Across 110th Street, but he is not in the finished product.

In 1973, Gossett acted in Stuart Rosenberg's The Laughing Policeman. In 1974, Gossett acted in Philip Kaufman's The White Dawn.

In 1974, Gossett returned to his role from Skin Games in the made for television sequel Sidekicks.

In 1975, Gossett acted in George's Best Friend, an episode of The Jeffersons, Clark Templeton O'Flaherty an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.

On April 4 of that year, the western comedy Black Bart premiered on television. It was a spinoff of Blazing Saddles (1974). Gossett played the lead as the first black sheriff in the old west. Also that year, Gossett acted in Delancey Street: The Crisis Within a television film about a halfway house in San Francisco for junkies and ex-convicts.

In 1976, films Gossett acted in were Arthur Marks's horror film J. D.'s Revenge, and Krishna Shah's dramaThe River Niger. Both film were noted to have good performances by its cast.

That year on television, Gossett acted in Foul on the First Plan an episode of The Rockford Files, and The Long Road Home an episode of Little House on the Prairie.

In 1977, Gossett played the role of Fiddler in the television miniseries Roots based on Alex Haley's book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Gossett stated that he was initially "insulted when they decided to give me the part of Fiddler. He resembled Stepin Fetchit, the Uncle Tom part. But I said, OK, I will take it. I'll do something. Then doing the research I realized there's no such thing as an Uncle Tom. If it wasn't for Fiddler, we wouldn't be in America. He was a survivor. He understood both cultures and knew how to maneuver to stay alive and be solvent. We needed that lesson in order to survive here today. Having done Fiddler is a stripe on my uniform now". The program which ran for eight nights in a row was success with a record-breaking audience of 140 million. The role was his screen breakthrough, earning him an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a single appearance in a drama or comedy series.

Other television appearances for Gossett that include one episode of The Rockford Files, and Freeman an episode part of the anthology television series Visions.

Premiering on January 16 of that year, Gossett acted the television film Little Ladies of the Night about prostitution. It was the highest-rated program of its night, with a 36.9 rating and 53 share, seen by 26,270,000 households. ABC claimed this made it the highest-rated TV movie of all time as it surpassed the 36.5 average rating for Helter Skelter (although the second part of Helter Skelter had a higher rating of 37.5). The rating for a made-for-TV movie was only bettered by 1983. At the time of its broadcast, it was the twelfth-highest-rated movie to air on network television.

In the same year, Gossett acted in Robert Aldrich's The Choirboys, and Peter Yates's The Deep. The Choirboys was a critical panned and viewed as one of Aldrich's weakest films. In Yates's film, an underwater thriller, Gossett played the lead villain. For his role he had to learn how to dive and said "to become an efficient diver I was trained in the largest swimming pool I'd ever been in every day for a whole month. Then the instructor said, 'I think you are ready now for the Atlantic Ocean. Once we got into the heavy stuff, those lessons saved my life quite a few times." On playing the lead villain he explained "there are villainous traits and there are heroic traits in all of us, and as an actor you are taught to dip into all those sections of your personality. I guess, in a non artistic profession, you have to keep certain doors locked. I like to play anything that is significant, and of a quality that I would call a stretch. Anything that is really quite different from what I have done before." On his performance, he thought "he did one of his finest jobs of acting during the filming". While the film got mixed to negative reviews, critic Bernard Drew, in his review published in The Courier-News, explained he liked it, enjoyed all performances and wrote that Gossett is "unctuous and evil as the arch-fiend". The films was a success and was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 1977 in the United States and Canada with a gross of $47.3 million. Overseas, the film was Columbia's highest-grossing film and grossed over $100 million worldwide.

Personal life

Marriages

Gossett was married three times; he fathered one son and adopted another. His first marriage was to Hattie Glascoe; it was annulled. His second, to Christina Mangosing, took place on August 21, 1973. Their son Satie was born in 1974. Gossett and Mangosing divorced in 1975. His third marriage, to Star Search champion Cyndi James-Reese, took place on December 25, 1987. They adopted a son, Sharron (born 1977). Gossett and James-Reese divorced in 1992.

Gossett was the first cousin of actor Robert Gossett.

Gossett stated that in 1966 he was handcuffed to a tree for three hours by the police in Beverly Hills.

Illness and death

Gossett struggled with a debilitating illness during the 1990s and early 2000s, having been given a prognosis of six months to live from a doctor at one stage. In 2001, he learned much of his illness was due to toxic mold in his Malibu home.

On February 9, 2010, Gossett announced that he had prostate cancer. He added the disease was caught in its early stages, and he expected to make a full recovery.

In late December 2020, Gossett was hospitalized in Georgia with COVID-19.

Gossett died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a rehabilitation center in Santa Monica, California, on March 29, 2024, at the age of 87; heart failure and atrial fibrillation were cited as contributing factors.