Los
Angeles,
Mar
29
(AP)
Louis
Gossett
Jr.,
the
first
Black
man
to
win
a
supporting
actor
Oscar
and
an
Emmy
winner
for
his
role
in
the
seminal
TV
miniseries
“Roots,”
has
died.
He
was
87.
Gossett's
nephew
told
The
Associated
Press
that
the
actor
died
Thursday
night
in
Santa
Monica,
California.
No
cause
of
death
was
revealed.
Gossett
always
thought
of
his
early
career
as
a
reverse
Cinderella
story,
with
success
finding
him
from
an
early
age
and
propelling
him
forward,
toward
his
Academy
Award
for
“An
Officer
and
a
Gentleman.”
He
earned
his
first
acting
credit
in
his
Brooklyn
high
school's
production
of
“You
Can't
Take
It
with
You”
while
he
was
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
into
Manhattan
to
try
out
for
“Take
a
Giant
Step.”
He
got
the
part
and
made
his
Broadway
debut
in
1953
at
age
16.
“I
knew
too
little
to
be
nervous,”
Gossett
wrote.
“In
retrospect,
I
should
have
been
scared
to
death
as
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
became
friendly
with
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”
along
with
Sidney
Poitier,
Ruby
Dee
and
Diana
Sands.
He
went
on
to
become
a
star
on
Broadway,
replacing
Billy
Daniels
in
“Golden
Boy”
with
Sammy
Davis
Jr.
in
1964.
Gossett
went
to
Hollywood
for
the
first
time
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
to
allow
Black
people.
In
1968,
he
returned
to
Hollywood
for
a
major
role
in
“Companions
in
Nightmare,”
NBC's
first
made-for-TV
movie
that
starred
Melvyn
Douglas,
Anne
Baxter
and
Patrick
O'Neal.
This
time,
Gossett
was
booked
into
the
Beverly
Hills
Hotel
and
Universal
Studios
had
rented
him
a
convertible.
Driving
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
put
up
the
car's
roof
before
letting
him
go.
Within
minutes,
he
was
stopped
by
eight
sheriff's
officers,
who
had
him
lean
against
the
car
and
made
him
open
the
trunk
while
they
called
the
car
rental
agency
before
letting
him
go.
“Though
I
understood
that
I
had
no
choice
but
to
put
up
with
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
had
been
showing
off
with
a
fancy
car
—
which,
in
their
view,
I
had
no
right
to
be
driving.”
After
dinner
at
the
hotel,
he
went
for
a
walk
and
was
stopped
a
block
away
by
a
police
officer,
who
told
him
he
broke
a
law
prohibiting
walking
around
residential
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
freed
when
the
original
police
car
returned.
"Now
I
had
come
face-to-face
with
racism,
and
it
was
an
ugly
sight,”
he
wrote.
“But
it
was
not
going
to
destroy
me.”
In
the
late
1990s,
Gossett
said
he
was
pulled
over
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
searching
for,
but
the
officer
recognized
Gossett
and
left.
He
founded
the
Eracism
Foundation
to
help
create
a
world
where
racism
doesn't
exist.
Gossett
made
a
series
of
guest
appearances
on
such
shows
as
“Bonanza,”
“The
Rockford
Files,”
“The
Mod
Squad,”
“McCloud”
and
a
memorable
turn
with
Richard
Pryor
on
“The
Partridge
Family.”
In
August
1969,
Gossett
had
been
partying
with
members
of
the
Mamas
and
the
Papas
when
they
were
invited
to
actor
Sharon
Tate's
house.
He
headed
home
first
to
shower
and
change
clothes.
As
he
was
getting
ready
to
leave,
he
caught
a
news
flash
on
TV
about
Tate's
murder.
She
and
others
were
killed
by
Charles
Manson's
associates
that
night.
“There
had
to
be
a
reason
for
my
escaping
this
bullet,”
he
wrote.
Louis
Cameron
Gossett
was
born
on
May
27,
1936,
in
the
Coney
Island
section
of
Brooklyn,
New
York,
to
Louis
Sr.,
a
porter,
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
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
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.
“More
than
anything,
it
was
a
huge
affirmation
of
my
position
as
a
Black
actor,”
he
wrote
in
his
memoir.
“The
Oscar
gave
me
the
ability
of
being
able
to
choose
good
parts
in
movies
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
keep
an
eye
on
it,”
he
said
in
the
book.
“I
need
to
be
free
of
it.”
Gossett
appeared
in
such
TV
movies
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
ones.
He
played
an
obstinate
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
house
in
Malibu.
In
2010,
Gossett
announced
he
had
prostate
cancer,
which
he
said
was
caught
in
the
early
stages.
In
2020,
he
was
hospitalised
with
COVID-19.
He
is
survived
by
sons
Satie,
a
producer-director
from
his
second
marriage,
and
Sharron,
a
chef
whom
he
adopted
after
seeing
the
7-year-old
in
a
TV
segment
on
children
in
desperate
situations.
His
first
cousin
is
actor
Robert
Gossett.
Gossett's
first
marriage
to
Hattie
Glascoe
was
annulled.
His
second,
to
Christina
Mangosing,
ended
in
divorce
in
1975
as
did
his
third
to
actor
Cyndi
James-Reese
in
1992.
(AP)
GSP
GSP