R.I.P. Louis Gossett, Jr.

[Mister Tee]

I've seen him a bit more than some of you -- in addition to the obvious Raisin in the Sun/Officer and a Gentleman/Roots, I saw him in The Landlord, Skin Game (a quite funny pairing with James Garner), Travels with My Aunt, The Laughing Policeman...and, much later in life, Diggstown. But the majority of stuff on his extensive resume are things I've never seen or heard of. Like Sabin, I only realized he was still around when I saw him pop up in The Color Purple. Around and working like a demon, it should be added: he has a dozen "future" projects listed on IMDB -- many of which will now have to be recast, but indicative of how directors still prized working with him.

He also did a fair amount of quality stage work. I may be the one person here who's seen him onstage: he was part of the cast of the Sammy Davis Jr. musical version of Golden Boy, which i saw when I was in grade school.

And, as someone pointed out at another site, this leaves Glynn Turman as the only surviving member of the legendary original Broadway cast of A Raisin in the Sun. Imagine a cast as deep in talent as Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Turner, as well as those who went on to great renown as director (Douglas Turner Ward) and playwright (Lonne Elder III). A truly seminal production.

[danfrank]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think he was the first black actor to win an Emmy award - for Roots.

He was memorable in so many films and made a superb Anwar Sadat in Sadat (1983).

R.I.P.

I know that Bill Cosby won an acting Emmy in 1968 for I Spy. I’m not sure if there were others. Harry Belafonte is listed as the first Black Emmy winner, but that was for a variety program.

Edit: Olivia Cole won an Emmy the same year as Gossett, also for Roots.

[Reza]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think he was the first black actor to win an Emmy award - for Roots.

He was memorable in so many films and made a superb Anwar Sadat in Sadat (1983).

R.I.P.

[Big Magilla]

He was one of the giants, a true actor's actor. His best work was on TV in his Emmy-winning role in 1978's Roots, Part 2 and his Emmy-nominated role in 1979's Backstairs at the White House in which he aged from 37 to 88, almost making it to that age in real life.

He had an extensive Broadway resume beginning at the age of 17 as replacement for Bill Nunn in the starring role in Take a Giant Step which was made into a film in 1959 with singer-composer Johnny Nash ("I Can See Clearly Now") in the role. He finally got to reprise one of his Broadway roles on screen in A Raisin in the Sun and was at his impressive best in The Landlord acting alongside Beau Bridges, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, and Lee Grant.

He was in his late forties when he won his Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman and although he never had another great role on screen, he never stopped working. With over 200 credits on IMDb., he has another 12 in the pipes.

I would recommend that if you really want to do some catching up, that you start with A Raisin the Sun and The Landlord and then if you can find the time, Roots and Backstairs at the White House are definite must-watches, both for their historical context and the many great performances they both contain of which Gossett is at the forefront.

[danfrank]

Looking through his credits in IMDB, I realize I’ve seen him in very little, save for A Raisin in the Sun, Roots, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Color Purple, and perhaps the odd TV guest appearance.

He certainly made an impression on the teenage me playing Fiddler in Roots. He was one of the few from that enormous cast to win an Emmy.

He wasn’t the most subtle actor, but was served well by having a rich speaking voice and expressive eyes.

I didn’t realize he’d worked so much on Broadway in his early career until reading his obit. That, an Emmy, an Oscar (the third ever for a black actor), eight Emmy nods, and a very long list of credits makes for quite a laudable career.

[Sabin]

Dead at 87.

https://variety.com/2024/film/obituarie ... 235955575/

A 60+ year career, and yet I'm ashamed to say I've seen him in three projects: An Officer and a Gentleman (for which he won his Oscar), the Watchmen miniseries a few years ago, and a few months ago briefly in The Color Purple. If it wasn't for the latter two, I would've thought he was already dead. An Officer and a Gentleman is the film he'll be known for, as the first black person since 1961 to win an Oscar and while not one of the best winners in the category seemed like a fairly popular winner at the time. Growing up, the film was parodied enough that I felt like I'd already seen it before I did. I haven't seen Roots.

Looking forward to the thoughts of others.