Louis Gossett Jr., 1st Black man to win supporting actor Oscar, dies at 87
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner...
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Lou Gossett Jr. was still a teen, fresh off a successful Broadway run, when he landed at LAX and headed to Beverly Hills in a cherry red Ford Fairlane, feeling on top of the world.
He didn’t get far before the cops pulled him over, saying he matched a description of someone they were looking for. A few miles later, it happened again. And then again. By the time he got to the Beverly Hills Hotel, a squad car rolled up and the officers handcuffed Gossett to a tree as they tried to figure out what a young Black man was doing in town.
“Welcome to Hollywood,” the Oscar-winning actor wrote years later in his memoir, “An Actor and a Gentleman,” recounting his inaugural trip to L.A. in 1967. “Welcome to reality.”
For Gossett, it was just another painful reminder that as a Black actor, no matter the awards, no matter the acclaim, the barriers would always be high, the odds always long.
“I had to act as if I was second class. I had to behave myself,” he told The Times in 2008. “The only time I was really free was when the director said ‘action’ in front of a camera or on the stage and that’s when I flew.”
Forever remembered for his career-defining roles in “An Officer and a Gentlemen” and the influential television miniseries “Roots,” Gossett died Thursday night in Santa Monica, his nephew told the Associated Press. No cause of death was revealed.He was 87.
No!!!!! RIP to a true legend
Rip uncle Wilbert
