Oscar-Winning Actor Lou Gossett Jr. Dies At Age 87

Variety reports:

Louis Gossett Jr., who won a supporting actor Oscar for playing the hard-as-nails drill instructor in 1982’s “An Officer and a Gentleman” a few years after winning an Emmy for his role as the cunning Fiddler in “Roots,” has died, the AP reports. He was 87.

In Taylor Hackford’s “An Officer and a Gentleman,” Gossett’s Sgt. Emil Foley memorably drove Richard Gere’s character to the point of near collapse at a Navy flight school. Gossett was the first Black man to win the best supporting actor Oscar for that role.

In addition to “An Officer and a Gentleman” Gossett is best known for “Enemy Mine” (1985), in which he played an alien forced to come to terms with his human enemy.

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Louis Gossett Jr. has died at 87 years old. He was the first Black performer to win the Oscar for best supporting actor thanks to 1982’s “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and he was also an Emmy winner for his role as Fiddler in “Roots.” https://t.co/oREHN2n13U

— Variety (@Variety) March 29, 2024