R.I.P. Louis Gossett Jr., Oscar winner for An Officer And A Gentleman
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black performer to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, died on Thursday at 87
Aux News Louis Gossett Jr.
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win the award for Supporting Actor at the Oscars, has died, according to The Associated Press. His cousin confirmed to the outlet that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica, California; no cause of death has yet been revealed. He was 87 years old.
“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 Neal L. Gossett told the AP.
Gossett began his career on Broadway in the 1950s when he was just 16 years old. He went on to star opposite Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Diana Sands in Raisin In The Sun, eventually reprising his stage role in the 1961 film adaptation, which brought him to Hollywood for the first time. He would become a critically acclaimed star of both stage and screen, working with Sammy Davis Jr. on Broadway, earning an Emmy for his role in the iconic 1977 miniseries Roots, and becoming just the third Black nominee—and first-ever winner—of the Supporting Actor award at the Oscars for An Officer And A Gentleman.
But as a trailblazer, Gossett was not exempt from experiencing racism throughout his career. Speaking with The A.V. Club in 2010, he recalled the intense bigotry he faced because of the markers of success (a fancy car, staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel) that came with starring in Companions In Nightmare in 1968. After Roots, he said, “There was a backlash for about eight months to a year before blacks were working in television again.” And even his historic Oscar win didn’t move the needle as much as he expected: “It did create a lot of opportunities, but I thought there would be more. I thought it would be a windfall. But it wasn’t,” he reflected. “It was what it was. It only affected me for a little while, and then it stopped affecting me. I just come out the other end.”
While Gossett was quick to clarify that “The whole of a 58- or 59-year career was wonderful,” part of coming out the other end was creating the Eracism Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting racism. His activism—Gossett’s cousin remembered him as a “man who walked with Nelson Mandela”—is just one of the many fascinating aspects of Gossett’s colorful off-screen life, much of which he detailed in his memoir An Actor And A Gentleman. He befriended James Dean and partied with the Rat Pack; he “emceed the Cafe Wha? hootenannies,” as he told The A.V. Club, and wrote folk songs for Richie Havens (who performed Gossett’s song “Handsome Johnny” at Woodstock). In California, he spent time with The Mamas and the Papas and Roman Polanski, and said he narrowly missed being murdered by Charles Manson’s followers when Sharon Tate was killed, one of a handful of near-misses in his life. “Finally you get the point: be careful, don’t go anywhere,” he joked in his “Random Roles” interview.
Of course, Gossett didn’t take his own advice; he continued to go places and stretch himself, remaining active in his career through the final year of his life, most recently appearing in the musical adaptation of The Color Purple. In 2019, he starred in the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries Watchmen opposite Regina King. “We could read the telephone book together, I wouldn’t mind,” he told The A.V. Club in 2019. “[We] made a little magic together, and I sometimes feel like maybe in some other lifetime we were relatives anyway.”
Gossett said at the time what compelled him about the story of Watchmen was its theme of people needing each other in order to make the world better. “Because there’s no time for resentment, there’s no time for revenge. There’s no time for bad things. There’s only time for us to get together for mutual salvation; otherwise, we’re all lost. We have to work together to clear up the oceans, and make sure the food chain is there available for us all. I have a personal opinion that every child in the world has to have free medicine, free food, shelter, clothing, and education. We have to make sure every child is educated. That’s how you make the world better, not worse,” he said. “So we all must be together to make that mutual decision to do that. It should be a necessary thing, and everything we do on a daily basis should be for the benefit of the whole tribe. So we have to stop this ‘me against you.’ There’s no such thing anymore.”
25 Comments
A fantastic career, and to think I know him mainly from the Iron Eagle movies and Jaws 3-D.I need to watch better movies, is my main takeaway from this.
Is Diggstown good? That’s the one I think of. I love it, but I’m not sure it’s good.
If you love it, then it’s good. Who cares what its RT or MetaCritic score is?
Diggstown is AWESOME. Flat out. You get Bruce Dern, young and not an asshole James Woods and Gossett is great in it. SO highly recommended.
Iron Eagle, Jaws 3D and Enemy Mine were my reference points for him. Pretty sure it’s the same for any kid who stayed at home a lot in the late 80’s and had cable TV.
Enemy Mine!
Half-Life 2!
JFC, how did I forget Enemy Mine? That’s a legit good movie!
Enemy Mine is the very first thing that pops into my head when I hear his name. It was so good*, why isn’t it more well-known?
*Don’t tell me if it’s not good, let me keep my happy childhood memories.
IRON EAGLE
It was always great to see him pop up, and he was awesome in Watchmen.
IRON EAGLE
“CHAPPY!”…was literally the first thought that entered my head on hearing the news. RIP.
IRON EAGLE
He met with Demme about playing Hannibal Lecter.THAT would be a fun parallel universe to visit.
So blackety black black black black.
Johnny Lawrence will have his class observe an Eagle Claw moment of silence for Chappy!
Made some good films, made some rubbish. The thing they all had in common was that he was always the best thing in it either way.
Diggstown definitely my favourite of his.
And in a role that almost nobody remembers…RIP.
Roots and An Officer and a Gentleman are my touchstones for Mr. Gossett. RIP.
It could be a cliche, but it’s not: he made everything he was in better, and he NEVER gave a bad performance.My favorite of his is the little-seen Skin Game, starring him and James Garner as a couple of con men in slave times. Swear to god it’s not just legitimately funny, but has as much compassion and history as Roots (which of course he was also great in). He surely deserved the Oscar for his role in Officer but … I know there are rules about screen time and all, I just think it should have been Best Actor, not Best Supporting: without his character that movie would be nothing.[Oh, yes, and in answer to someone on this thread, yes Diggstown is good. It’s great, in fact, and a fine adaptation; the novel is really good too. (I know we all have problems with James Woods, and I think he was probably an ass even then, but he’s really a fine actor, or can be with his best type of role.)
The world needs more people like Louis now than ever. He got off the ‘crazy train’ at the right time though. Things are only going to get darker in the near future.
I just watched all the Iron Eagle movies over the last few weeks. I loved how most of the time he goes back and forth between being a Colonel or a General doing big-deal military shit, or he’s turning wrench on some guy’s piston-pounder.
As a high school kid in 1977 he will always be remembered as Fiddler in Roots.
Couldn’t keep the obit on front page to sundown? I had to search Google to see if you made one. Whoever buys the husk of this website, I hope they fire the whole lot of you.