Oscar winner and Roots actor Louis Gossett Jr. dies at 87

LOS ANGELES >> Louis Gossett Jr., the first black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy for his role in the television miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87 years old.

Gossett's first cousin, Neal L. Gossett, told the Associated Press that the actor died in Santa Monica, California. A statement from the family says Gossett died this morning. No cause of death has been revealed.

Gossett's cousin remembered a man who knew Nelson Mandela and who was also a great joke teller, a parent who confronted and fought racism with dignity and humor.

“No matter the awards, no matter the glitz and glamour, the Rolls-Royces and the big houses of Malibu. It’s about the humanity of the people he defended,” his cousin said.

Louis Gossett always viewed his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him at a young age and propelling him forward, toward his Oscar for “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

Gossett rose to prominence on the small screen as Fiddler in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which depicted the atrocities of slavery on television. 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 portrayal of the intimidating Navy drill instructor in “An Officer and a Gentleman” alongside 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” when he was cut from the basketball team due to injury.

“I was hooked, as was my audience,” he wrote in his memoir.

His English teacher urged him to go to Manhattan to try out “Take a Giant Step.” He got the role and made his Broadway debut in 1953, at the age of 16.

“I knew too little to be nervous,” Gossett wrote. “In retrospect, I should have been scared to death going on stage, but I wasn’t.”

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

Gossett befriended James Dean and studied acting with Marilyn Monroe, Martin Landau and Steve McQueen at a branch of the Actors Studio taught by Frank Silvera.

In 1959, Gossett won critical acclaim for his role in the Broadway production of “A Raisin in the Sun” alongside Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands.

He became a star on Broadway, replacing Billy Daniels in “Golden Boy” with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964.

Gossett first went to Hollywood in 1961 to direct 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 black people were admitted.

In 1968, he returned to Hollywood for a major role in “Companions in Nightmare,” NBC's first television film starring Melvyn Douglas, Anne Baxter and Patrick O'Neal.

This time, Gossett was booked at the Beverly Hills Hotel and Universal Studios rented him a convertible. Returning 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 raise the roof of the car before letting him go.

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

“Even though I understood that I had no choice but to endure 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 showing off with a luxury car – which they said I wasn't allowed to drive.”

After dinner at the hotel, he went for a walk and was stopped a block away by a police officer, who told him that he had broken a law against walking in the Beverly Hills residential area after 9 p.m. hours. Two more officers arrived and Gossett said he was chained to a tree and handcuffed for three hours. He was eventually released when the original police car returned.

“Now I was confronted with racism, and it was a horrible sight,” he wrote. “But it wasn’t going to destroy me.”

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

He founded the Eracism Foundation to help create a world where racism does not exist.

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

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

“There must have been a reason I escaped that bullet,” he wrote.

Louis Cameron Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in the Coney Island neighborhood 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 opportunity to choose good roles in films 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 watch it,” he says in the book. “I need to be free of it.”

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

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

He played a headstrong 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 Malibu home.

In 2010, Gossett announced that he was suffering from prostate cancer, which he said was detected at an early stage. In 2020, he was hospitalized with COVID-19.

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

Gossett's first marriage to Hattie Glascoe was annulled. His second, with Christina Mangosing, ended in divorce in 1975, as did his third with actor Cyndi James-Reese in 1992.

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Associated Press journalists Mark Kennedy in New York and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

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