Louis Gossett, Jr.

Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. was born on May 27, 1936, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, to Hellen, a nurse, and Louis Cameron Gossett, a porter. He attended Mark Twain Intermediate School 239 and Abraham Lincoln High School. During his youth, Gossett contracted polio. A sports injury led him to take an acting class, and his first stage appearance came at age 17 in a school production of You Can't Take It with You. Encouraged by a high school teacher to audition for a Broadway role, Gossett was selected to appear in Take a Giant Step in 1953, replacing Bill Gunn as Spencer Scott. The production ran from late September to late November for 76 performances and was named one of the ten best Broadway shows of 1953 by The New York Times. For this debut, Gossett received the Donaldson Award for best newcomer of the year. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1954, he enrolled at New York University, declining an athletic scholarship.

Gossett's Broadway career continued with The Desk Set, which began its run on October 24, 1955, and closed on July 7, 1956, after 297 performances. Standing 6 feet 1 inch tall, he was offered the opportunity to play for the New York Knicks at the end of the decade but declined in order to accept a role in A Raisin in the Sun. In 1959, he played George Murchison in that production, which won best play at the New York Drama Critics' Circle. The role of Murchison represents a fully assimilated Black man who denies his African heritage. In 1961, Gossett reprised the role in the Columbia Pictures film adaptation, in which most of the original cast returned. That same year, he appeared in the original cast of Jean Genet's The Blacks, an off-Broadway production that ran for 1,408 performances and featured James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge, Maya Angelou, and Charles Gordone.

In 1963, Gossett acted in the Broadway play Tambourines to Glory, described in a review by William Glover in The Bee as the first Broadway play with a gospel score. The following year, he appeared in the Broadway production of Golden Boy. In 1965, Gossett played the role of Paulus in The Zulu and the Zayda on Broadway, a musical with music and lyrics by Harold J. Rome. A December 1965 review of the original cast recording, released on Columbia Records, noted his and Menasha Skulnik's vocal performance of "It's Good to Be Alive." In 1966, Gossett acted in the Broadway play My Sweet Charlie, and in 1968 he appeared in Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights. He continued performing on Broadway through 1996, with additional credits including Chicago and Murderous Angels, the latter concerning an investigation into Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

During the early 1960s, Gossett was recognized as a folk musician and performed at Gerde's Folk City in New York. He co-wrote the antiwar folk song "Handsome Johnny" with Richie Havens; Havens recorded it in 1966, and it appeared on his 1967 album Mixed Bag. Havens performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, resulting in a standing ovation that lasted through two commercial breaks. In 1964, Gossett signed to Powertree Records, releasing the singles "Hooka' Dooka', Green Green" / "Goodmornin' Captain" and, later in May, "Red Rosy Bush" / "See See Rider." By September 1967, his single "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" / "Just a Girl" was released on Warner Brothers 7078, receiving a Cash Box Newcomer Pick designation. In 1970, his album From Me to You was released on B.T. Puppy Records, containing some of his own compositions.

Gossett's film career began with the 1961 adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun and expanded steadily over subsequent decades. His film appearances include Hal Ashby's The Landlord (1970), Paul Bogart's Skin Game (1971), in which he played Jason O'Rourke alongside James Garner, George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt (1972), Stuart Rosenberg's The Laughing Policeman (1974), Philip Kaufman's The White Dawn (1974), Peter Yates's The Deep (1977), Wolfgang Petersen's Enemy Mine (1985), Christopher Cain's The Principal (1987), Mark Goldblatt's The Punisher (1989), Daniel Petrie's Toy Soldiers (1991), and Blitz Bazawule's The Color Purple (2023). He was also well known for playing Colonel Chappy Sinclair in the Iron Eagle film series from 1986 to 1995. In 1982, Gossett won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman, becoming the first African-American actor to win in that category.

On television, Gossett appeared in Bonanza (1971), The Jeffersons (1975), American Playhouse (1990), Stargate SG-1 (2005), Boardwalk Empire (2013), and The Book of Negroes (2015), among other productions. In 1977, he appeared in the miniseries Roots, for which he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series. He received additional Emmy nominations for The Sentry Collection Presents Ben Vereen: His Roots (1978), Backstairs at the White House (1979), Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1981), Sadat (1983), A Gathering of Old Men (1987), Touched by an Angel (1997), and Watchmen (2019). Gossett also received recognition from the Golden Globe Awards, Black Reel Awards, and NAACP Image Awards. He died on March 29, 2024.