https://apnews.com/article/louis-gossett-jr-dies-1e86e1441ec8b614a282f3de22490a07

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win
a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the
seminal TV miniseries "Roots," has died. He was 87.

Gossett's first cousin Neal L. Gossett told The Associated Press
that the actor died in Santa Monica, California. A statement from
the family said Gossett died Friday morning. No cause of death was
revealed.

Gossett's cousin remembered a man who walked with Nelson Mandela
and who also was a great joke teller, a relative who faced and
fought racism with dignity and humor.

"Never mind the awards, never mind the glitz and glamor, the
Rolls- Royces and the big houses in Malibu. It's about the
humanity of the people that he stood for," his cousin said.

Louis Gossett always thought of his early career as a reverse
Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and
propelling him forward, toward his Academy Award for "An Officer
and a Gentleman."

Gossett broke through on the small screen as Fiddler in the
groundbreaking 1977 miniseries "Roots," which depicted the
atrocities of slavery on TV. The sprawling cast included Ben
Vereen, LeVar Burton and John Amos.

Gossett became the third Black Oscar nominee in the supporting
actor category in 1983. He won for his performance as the
intimidating Marine drill instructor in "An Officer and a
Gentleman" opposite Richard Gere and Debra Winger. He also won a
Golden Globe for the same role.

"More than anything, it was a huge affirmation of my position as a
Black actor," he wrote in his 2010 memoir, "An Actor and a
Gentleman."

He had earned his first acting credit in his Brooklyn high
school's production of "You Can't Take It with You" while he was
sidelined from the basketball team with an injury.

"I was hooked -- and so was my audience," he wrote in his memoir.

His English teacher urged him to go into Manhattan to try out for
"Take a Giant Step." He got the part and made his Broadway debut
in 1953 at age 16.

"I knew too little to be nervous," Gossett wrote. "In retrospect,
I should have been scared to death as I walked onto that stage,
but I wasn't."

Gossett attended New York University on a basketball and drama
scholarship. He was soon acting and singing on TV shows hosted by
David Susskind, Ed Sullivan, Red Buttons, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar
and Steve Allen.

Gossett became friendly with James Dean and studied acting with
Marilyn Monroe, Martin Landau and Steve McQueen at an offshoot of
the Actors Studio taught by Frank Silvera.

In 1959, Gossett received critical acclaim for his role in the
Broadway production of "A Raisin in the Sun" along with Sidney
Poitier,Ruby Dee and Diana Sands.

He went on to become a star on Broadway, replacing Billy Daniels
in "Golden Boy" with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964.

Gossett went to Hollywood for the first time in 1961 to make the
film version of "A Raisin in the Sun." He had bitter memories of
that trip, staying in a cockroach-infested motel that was one of
the few places to allow Black people.

In 1968, he returned to Hollywood for a major role in "Companions
in Nightmare," NBC's first made-for-TV movie that starred Melvyn
Douglas, Anne Baxter and Patrick O'Neal.

This time, Gossett was booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and
Universal Studios had rented him a convertible. Driving back to
the hotel after picking up the car, he was stopped by a Los
Angeles County sheriff's officer who ordered him to turn down the
radio and put up the car's roof before letting him go.

Within minutes, he was stopped by eight sheriff's officers, who
had him lean against the car and made him open the trunk while
they called the car rental agency before letting him go.

"Though I understood that I had no choice but to put up with this
abuse, it was a terrible way to be treated, a humiliating way to
feel," Gossett wrote in his memoir. "I realized this was happening
because I was Black and had been showing off with a fancy car --
which, in their view, I had no right to be driving."

After dinner at the hotel, he went for a walk and was stopped a
block away by a police officer, who told him he broke a law
prohibiting walking around residential Beverly Hills after 9 p.m.
Two other officers arrived and Gossett said he was chained to a
tree and handcuffed for three hours. He was eventually freed when
the original police car returned.

"Now I had come face-to-face with racism, and it was an ugly
sight," he wrote. "But it was not going to destroy me."

In the late 1990s, Gossett said he was pulled over by police on
the Pacific Coast Highway while driving his restored 1986 Rolls
Royce Corniche II. The officer told him he looked like someone
they were searching for, but the officer recognized Gossett and
left.

He founded the Eracism Foundation to help create a world where
racism doesn't exist.

Gossett made a series of guest appearances on such shows as
"Bonanza," "The Rockford Files," "The Mod Squad," "McCloud" and a
memorable turn with Richard Pryor on "The Partridge Family."

In August 1969, Gossett had been partying with members of the
Mamas and the Papas when they were invited to actor Sharon Tate's
house. He headed home first to shower and change clothes. As he
was getting ready to leave, he caught a news flash on TV about
Tate's murder. She and others were killed by Charles Manson's
associates that night.

"There had to be a reason for my escaping this bullet," he wrote.

Louis Cameron Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in the Coney
Island section of Brooklyn, New York, to Louis Sr., a porter, and
Hellen, a nurse. He later added Jr. to his name to honor his
father.

"The Oscar gave me the ability of being able to choose good parts
in movies like 'Enemy Mine,' 'Sadat' and 'Iron Eagle,'" Gossett
said in Dave Karger's 2024 book "50 Oscar Nights."

He said his statue was in storage.

"I'm going to donate it to a library so I don't have to keep an
eye on it," he said in the book. "I need to be free of it."

Gossett appeared in such TV movies as "The Story of Satchel
Paige," "Backstairs at the White House, "The Josephine Baker
Story," for which he won another Golden Globe, and "Roots
Revisited."

But he said winning an Oscar didn't change the fact that all his
roles were supporting ones.

He played an obstinate patriarch in the 2023 remake of "The Color
Purple."

Gossett struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction for years
after his Oscar win. He went to rehab, where he was diagnosed with
toxic mold syndrome, which he attributed to his house in Malibu.

In 2010, Gossett announced he had prostate cancer, which he said
was caught in the early stages. In 2020, he was hospitalized with
COVID-19.

He also is survived by sons Satie, a producer-director from his
second marriage, and Sharron, a chef whom he adopted after seeing
the 7-year-old in a TV segment on children in desperate
situations. His first cousin is actor Robert Gossett.

Gossett's first marriage to Hattie Glascoe was annulled. His
second, to Christina Mangosing, ended in divorce in 1975 as did
his third to actor Cyndi James-Reese in 1992.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / baldwin@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------

Haven't seen a LOT of his films, and further, certainly didn't realize the late Gossett was as aged as 87. Maybe that's because when thinking about him from time to time, I always thought of him in his "An Officer and a Gentleman" role.

Oh, and scrolling fairly far down in his Wiki entry, you'll find a terrific photo of three certified cinematic icons gathered (though one them had by that point long since transitioned into politics).

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
=================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Gossett_Jr.

A very fun fact about Lou:

On August 9, 1969, Gossett was partying with members of The Mamas
and the Papas when they were all invited to a party at Sharon
Tate's house in Los Angeles. Gossett went home to shower and
change clothes and was about to leave when he saw on television
the news broadcast that Tate had been murdered by Charles Manson
and his associates.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / baldwin@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------