R.I.P. Louis Gossett Jr.: First Black Actor To Win Oscar For Best Supporting Role Dead At 87

Louis Gossett Jr., who was the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the 1982 romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, has died. He was 87.

The actor died Thursday night (March 28) in Santa Monica, CA, his nephew confirmed to the Associated Press. No official cause of death has been announced, though it was previously revealed that he was diagnosed with the early stages of prostate cancer in 2010.

Gossett began acting in his high school production of You Can’t Take It with You when he was benched on the basketball team due to an injury. He ended up making his Broadway debut when he was only 16 years old in the play Take a Giant Step, according to AP News.

After attending New York University, he made his Hollywood debut in the 1961 film version of A Raisin in the Sun. He previously starred in the Broadway version alongside Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands.

Gossett went on to appear in episodes of TV shows like The Mod Squad (1968-1972), The Rookies (1972) and The Young Rebels (1970-1971). However, his breakout role on the small screen came in the ABC miniseries Roots, which took place during and after slavery in America. He ultimately won an Emmy for his role as Fiddler, an older slave who taught a young Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) how to speak English.

“All the top African-American actors were asked, and I begged to be in there,” Gossett once said of landing the part, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I got the best role, I think. It was wonderful.”

In 1983, he became the second Black actor to win an Oscar after Poitier — and the first to win in the Best Supporting Actor category — for his role as a marine drill instructor in An Officer and a Gentleman, which also starred Richard Gere and Debra Winger.

“More than anything, it was a huge affirmation of my position as a Black actor,” he wrote in his memoir An Actor and a Gentleman, per AP News. In Dave Karger’s 2024 book 50 Oscar Nights, Gossett said the accolade also helped him land good roles in movies like Enemy Mine (1985), Sadat (1983) and the Iron Eagle franchise.

He later founded the Eracism Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to eradicate racism by providing “training for youth and adults alike that enrich their lives by assisting them in setting the example for living a racially diverse and culturally inclusive life,” according to the website.

In more recent years, Gossett played Will Reeves in HBO’s Watchmen, which earned him his eighth Emmy nomination. On the big screen, he starred in the 2023 version of The Color Purple. Plus, he lent his voice to John Krasinski‘s upcoming fantasy comedy IF, which is set to release in May of this year.

He is survived by his sons, Satie and Sharron, as well as his cousin, actor Robert Gossett.