Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936)

PHOTO OF A 17-YEAR-OLD LOUIS GOSSETT, JR. IN THE 1953 PLAY ‘TAKE A GIANT STEP’
Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, winning him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won an Emmy Award for his role as Fiddler in the 1977 ABC television miniseries Roots.

Gossett was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York City. Louis is the first cousin of actor Robert Gossett who starred on TNT’s The Closer.

He is an alumnus of Mark Twain Intermediate School 239 and Abraham Lincoln High School. He initially focused on sports when he was in high school, but an injury that temporarily prevented him from playing basketball led him toward theatre. His stage debut came at the age of 17, in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You.

His high school teacher had encouraged him to audition for a Broadway part, resulting in his selection for a starring role on Broadway in 1953 from among 200 other actors well before he entered NYU. Gossett replaced Bill Gunn as Spencer Scott in Broadway’s Take a Giant Step, which was selected by The New York Times drama critics as one of the 10 best shows of the year. He was 17, and still a student at Abraham Lincoln High School, with no formal drama training.

After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1954, he attended New York University, declining an athletic scholarship. Standing 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall, he was offered the opportunity to play varsity basketball during his college years at NYU; he declined the basketball offer to concentrate on theater.

After college he was drafted by the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) but chose to fully dedicate himself to acting as a career.

Gossett’s Broadway theatre credits also include A Raisin in the Sun (1959); he had his cinematic debut with the play’s film adaptation in 1961.

Also in 1961, 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.

In 1965, Gossett appeared in the musical play The Zulu and the Zayda on Broadway as Paulus with music and lyrics by Harold Rome.

Gossett also wrote the antiwar folk song “Handsome Johnny” with Richie Havens; Havens recorded the song in 1966.

His Emmy Award-winning role of Fiddler in the 1977 television miniseries Roots first brought Gossett to the audience’s attention. In 1983, he was cast in the title role in Sadat, a miniseries which chronicled the life and assassination of Anwar Sadat. While filming An Officer and a Gentleman, Gossett was also starring in the 1982–1983 science fiction series, The Powers of Matthew Star.

His role as drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the first black male to win an Oscar in a supporting role, the second black male to win for acting, and the third black actor to win overall.

Gossett has had roles on several TV shows, including Good Times as Uncle Wilbert and Donald Knight (1974-1975); The Jeffersons as Wendell Brown (1975); The Six Million Dollar Man as O’Flaherty (1975); Police Story as Det. Virgil Barnes and Freddie (1975-1976); and The Rockford Files as Marcus Aurelius ‘Gabby’ Hayes and Marcus Aurelius Hayes / O’Brien (1976-1977).

Gossett has also starred in numerous other film productions including A Raisin in the Sun, The Landlord, Skin Game, Travels with My Aunt, The Laughing Policeman, The White Dawn, The Deep, Jaws 3-D, Wolfgang Petersen’s Enemy Mine, The Principal, the Iron Eagle series, Toy Soldiers and The Punisher, in an acting career that spans over five decades.

In 2013, Gossett starred in the drama Boiling Pot. Gossett plays a detective attempting to decipher a murder case that was fueled by racism, all while putting aside his own prejudices.

In 2021, Gossett appears in the film Not To Forget (2021), which aims to raise awareness and funds for the fight against Alzheimer’s.

In 2022, Gossett was cast in a supporting role for the upcoming American horror film, Awaken the Reaper. The film also features performances by Lance Henriksen and Robin Curtis. Awaken the Reaper is directed by Justin Paul and Dave Campfield. The film is produced by Fourth Horizon Cinema, Impact Media Studios and Design Weapons.

In 2023 he portrayed Ol’ Mister in the 2023 remake of The Color Purple. The role was originally portrayed by Adolph Caesar in the Steven Spielberg-directed critically acclaimed 1985 film.