Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr., known for his roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and Jaws III, has died at the age of 87.
His daughter confirmed his death Thursday evening in Santa Monica, California. No cause of death was given.
Gossett revealed this past year that he gave up a potential professional basketball career with the New York Knicks when he decided to head to Hollywood.
He earned his first acting credit in his Brooklyn high school’s production of “You Can’t Take It with You” while sidelined from the basketball team with an injury.
“I was hooked — and so was my audience,” he wrote in his 2010 memoir, “An Actor and a Gentleman.”
His English teacher urged him to go to Manhattan to try out “Take a Giant Step.” He got the part and made his Broadway debut in 1953 at the age of 16.
Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr., known for his roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and Jaws III, has died at the age of 87, pictured here in 2016
Gossett Jr. poses with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in An Officer and a Gentleman, in 1983. He became the first black man to win the gong for Supporting Actor
“I didn’t know enough to be nervous,” Gossett wrote. “In retrospect, I should have been terrified when 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 befriended 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,” co-starring 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 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 where black people were welcome.
In 1968, he returned to Hollywood for a major role in “Companions in Nightmare,” NBC’s first TV movie starring Melvyn Douglas, Anne Baxter and Patrick O’Neal.
This time, Gossett was booked at the Beverly Hills Hotel and Universal Studios had rented him a convertible. As he drove 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 raise the top of the car before letting it go.
Gossett will be honored at the Hollywood Legacy Award American Black Film Festival in February 2020
Gossett pictured during the filming of the 1986 film Iron Eagle
Gossett Jr celebrates his 1982 Oscar win with actress Susan Sarandon (left) and Superman star Christopher Reeve (right)
Within minutes, he was stopped by eight sheriff’s deputies, who had him lean against the car and let him open the trunk while they called the car rental company before letting him go.
“Although I understood that I had no choice but to endure this abuse, it was a terrible way to be treated, a demeaning way to feel,” Gossett wrote in his memoir. ‘I realized this was happening because I was black and showing off a nice car – which they said I had no right 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 he had broken a law against walking through the residential area of 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 released when the original police car returned.
“Now I came face to face with racism, and it was an ugly sight,” he wrote. “But it wouldn’t destroy me.”
In the late 1990s, Gossett said he was stopped 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 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 guest appearances on shows like “Bonanza,” “The Rockford Files,” “The Mod Squad,” “McCloud” and a memorable turn with Richard Pryor on “The Partridge Family.”
Gossett made a string of guest appearances on shows like ‘Bonanza’, ‘The Rockford Files’, ‘The Mod Squad’, ‘McCloud’ and a memorable turn with Richard Pryor in ‘The Partridge Family’
Louis Cameron Gossett was born on May 27, 1936 in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, the son of Louis Sr., a doorman, and Hellen, a nurse. He later added Jr. to his name to honor his father
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 first went home to shower and change clothes. As he was getting ready to leave, he saw a news flash on TV about Tate’s murder. She and others were murdered that night by Charles Manson’s associates.
“There had to be a reason why I escaped this bullet,” he wrote.
Louis Cameron Gossett was born on May 27, 1936 in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, the son of Louis Sr., a doorman, and Hellen, a nurse. He later added Jr. to his name to honor his father.
Gossett broke through on the small screen as Fiddler in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which depicted the atrocities of slavery on TV. The extensive 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.
“Above all, it was a huge affirmation of my position as a black actor,” he wrote in his memoir.
“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 look at it anymore,” he said in the book. “I need to be free of it.”
Gossett appeared in TV movies such 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 roles.
He played a wayward 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 he had prostate cancer, which he said was caught in its early stages. In 2020, he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
He is survived by sons Satie, a producer-director from his second marriage, and Sharron, a chef he adopted after seeing the 7-year-old in a TV segment about children in desperate situations. His first cousin is actor Robert Gossett.
Gossett’s first marriage to Hattie Glascoe was annulled. His second, from Christina Mangosing, ended in divorce in 1975, as did his third from actor Cyndi James-Reese in 1992.