Death of American actor Louis Gossett Jr.
American actor Louis Gossett Jr., aged 87, the first black actor to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, has passed away, American media reported on Friday.
Media outlets, including CBS, quoted Gossett Jr.’s family as saying he died Thursday evening in Los Angeles, without specifying the cause of his death.
According to the Agence France-Presse, Louis Gossett Jr. won an Oscar in 1983 for his role as a sergeant in the film “An Officer and a Gentleman”. He also won a Golden Globe for this role.
The actor appeared in over 60 films and was the third black actor after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier to win an Oscar.
Louis Gossett also appeared in numerous television series, including “Roots”, whose final episode was watched by over 100 million people in January 1977.
The New York-born actor, who announced in 2010 that he had prostate cancer, gained a reputation as a strong man in action films such as “Iron Eagle”.
Louis Gossett, who lived in Malibu, California, separated from his third wife in 1992 and is a father of two.
Louis Gossett was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 27, 1936, and his first theatrical appearance was in “Take a Giant Step”, chosen by The New York Times as one of the top ten Broadway productions of 1953.
Among the films he also appeared in are “The Deep”, “Blue Chips”, “Daddy’s Little Girls”, and “Firewalker”.
Louis Gossett was nominated six times for Emmy Awards.
In 2015, he said in an interview with Variety magazine that his favorite role was that of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in a TV movie.
