Louis Gossett Jr., first Black man to win Best Supporting Actor Oscar, dies at 87

Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, has died at the age of 87.

The actor made history by picking up the award for his role as the drill instructor Sgt. Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer And A Gentlemen.

Gossett died at a rehabilitation centre in Santa Monica, California today (March 29), as reported by the Associated Press.

“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” his family said in a statement. “We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

Born Louis Cameron Gossett Jr in Brooklyn in 1936, he spent a long and successful career on stage, debuting on Broadway in 1953 in Take A Giant Step. In addition to his acting work, he also wrote about suffering racial discrimination and police harassment during his early adulthood.

Gossett came to broader prominence for his role in the influential 1977 television miniseries Roots, in which his character Fiddler taught English to the protagonist Kunta Kinte and trained him in the ways of servitude.

For that role, Gossett also picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series.

More recently, he received an Emmy nomination for his role in the HBO television adaptation of Watchmen. He played Will Reeves on the show, the grandfather of Regina King’s Angela and the first masked hero who inspired the Minutemen.

He also appeared in the recent musical film version of The Color Purple, playing Ol’ Mister Johnson, the father of Colman Domingo’s Mister. It would prove to be Gossett’s final role.

Other high-profile roles in his career included playing an alien in Enemy Mine (1985) opposite Dennis Quaid’s astronaut, and a US Air Force veteran in Iron Eagle (1986).

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