Louis Gossett Jr, the first black man to win an Oscar for best supporting actor, dies at 87
Louis Gossett Jr, the first black man to win a supporting actor Oscar for his role in An Officer And A Gentleman, has died aged 87.
The actor’s family released a statement confirming he died on Friday morning.
“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” the statement said.
“We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
Gossett’s nephew told The Associated Press the actor was in Santa Monica, California, at the time.
No cause of death was revealed.
Gere and Gossett in An Officer And A Gentlemen. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock
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 in 1982.
He also won a Golden Globe for the same role.
“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 film expert, Dave Karger’s, 2024 book “50 Oscar Nights”.
He said at the time that his statue was in storage.
The star became the third black Oscar nominee in the supporting actor category. Pic: AP
Born on 27 May 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, Gossett later added Junior to his name to honour his father.
He first started acting in school productions and at the age of 16 made his Broadway debut in the play Take A Giant Step.
Having studied at New York University on a basketball and drama scholarship, the actor became friends with Hollywood great James Dean and studied acting alongside Marilyn Monroe, Martin Landau and Steve McQueen.
In 1959 he gained critical acclaim for his role in the Broadway production of A Raisin In The Sun, and in 1961 appeared in the film version of the same production.
Gossett in Roots in 1977. Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock
Gossett’s big break on the small screen was as Fiddler in the 1977 TV miniseries Roots, which depicted the atrocities of slavery.
He later won an Emmy Award for the role.
He also appeared in TV movies including The Story of Satchel Paige, Backstairs at the White House, The Josephine Baker Story – for which he won another Golden Globe – and Roots Revisited.
In 2023, he played patriarch, Ol’ Mister Johnson, in the musical remake of The Colour Purple, alongside Halle Bailey, Danielle Brooks and Colman Dolmingo.
Gossett was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and hospitalised with COVID in 2020. Pic: AP
Throughout his career, Gossett was subject to racism, including an incident in the late 1990s, when he said he was pulled over by police while driving his restored 1986 Rolls Royce Corniche II.
Read more from Sky News:
Man arrested after death of Gogglebox star released
Arnold Schwarzenegger ready for TV return
Bill Nighy on style, social media and holy socks
An officer told him he looked like someone they were searching for, but the officer recognised Gossett and left.
He later founded the Eracism Foundation to “help create a world where racism does not exist”, according to the foundation’s website.
In the years after his Academy win, Gossett struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction. He went to rehab, where he was diagnosed with toxic mould syndrome – associated with prolonged exposure to mould which he attributed to his house in Malibu.
Pic: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
In 2010, Gossett announced he had prostate cancer, which he said was caught in the early stages and in 2020, he went into hospital after contracting COVID-19.
The actor married three times, the third to actor Cyndi James-Reese. The pair divorced in 1992.
He is survived by his two sons – Satie, a producer and director from his second marriage, and Sharron, a chef whom he adopted after seeing the seven-year-old in a TV segment on children in desperate situations.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has learned his lesson from the last time he was in the Oval Office.
When the Ukrainian leader was at the White House in February, he didn’t wear a suit and was berated by Donald Trump and JD Vance over alleged disrespect.
Trump-Zelenskyy latest: NATO-style security guarantees
Zelenskyy’s learned from that moment six months ago and he’s taken on board what other European and world leaders have done with these Oval Office moments – that the best policy is to say as little as possible.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
When Zelenskyy last went to White House
Such was the contrast that the right-wing reporter Brian Glenn, who questioned Zelenskyy over not wearing a suit in February, told the Ukrainian leader: “You look fabulous in that suit.”
The best tactic for dealing with Trump in front of reporters is to not answer the question, don’t rise to the bait.
Get in there and out as soon and as quickly as you can. And this time, that is precisely what Zelenskyy did.
Did Vance learn his lesson too?
The vice president berated Zelenskyy last time but this time, while the US president’s key advisers were there, JD Vance sat quietly to Trump’s side, saying nothing altogether.
It was a marked contrast from six months ago, but some sort of “gulf between the two sides in terms of any peace deal” continues.
Read more from Sky News:
‘Ketamine Queen’ admits drug charge
Putin ‘demands key regions of Ukraine’
Melania’s influence
The influence of Melania Trump seems apparent again.
The US first lady sent a letter to Vladimir Putin via Trump at the Alaska summit on Friday, calling for the war to end.
And on Monday, Zelenskyy gave Trump a letter from his own wife for Melania.
When Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies meet Donald Trump in Washington, a huge amount is at stake.
Ukrainian officials are reported to feel betrayed by the US president, who appears to have shifted position to side with Vladimir Putin on a number of key points in the wake of the meeting with him in Alaska.
Trump has undermined the unity of the Western alliance by abandoning their calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s last meeting with Donald Trump at the White House ended in disaster. Pic: AP/ Mystyslav Chernov
He is no longer threatening more severe sanctions, and more worryingly still he seems open to the idea of making the Ukrainians hand over territory the Russians have not yet captured.
He and his real estate lawyer turned rookie negotiator Steve Witkoff seem to believe the conflict can be resolved by an exchange of territory. Putin on the other hand has made it clear he is fighting to extinguish Ukraine as an independent and democratic entity.
Read more:
Putin has ‘agreed NATO-style security guarantee’
How a chaotic 24 hours unfolded
Why is Zelenskyy bringing posse of leaders to talks?
Ukrainians say that for Zelenskyy, handing over land his troops have been fighting to defend since 2014 would be politically suicidal and strategically insane.
Sergeant Andriy Poluhin, from the Ukrainian 24th Brigade, has fought the Russians in Donetsk on and off since 2015 and is currently based in the fiercely embattled town of Chasiv Yar.
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈
He’s typical of many Ukrainians, appalled at the idea his country would have to hand over land so many of their comrades have died fighting for.
Putin’s claim that he wants to end the war and stop the killing, he says, is self-evidently false.
“It’s a lie, it’s obviously a lie. I think it’s not only my thoughts or Ukrainian ones, but everyone who deals with Russia understands he just lies,” he says.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Behind the scenes in Alaska with the Sky News team
Many would agree – except the US president himself, who says he believes the Russian leader wants the killing to end.
The challenge for Zelenskyy and his European outriders when they go to the White House is avoiding a repeat of the disastrous Oval Office encounter between him and Trump and his vice president in February.
They need to steer Trump back to their side of the argument without angering the famously thin-skinned president and driving him further towards Moscow.
The unity of the alliance against Putin has never been so threatened.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike