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Louis Gossett Jr., who with his iconic role in An Officer and a Gentleman became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, died on Thursday at age 87, his nephew told the Associated Press.

No cause of death was disclosed. (In February 2010, Gossett revealed a prostate cancer diagnosis, but it was promptly treated.)

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Gossett’s other accolades include an Emmy (for his role as Fiddler in...

Well, this is a bummer. The great Louis Gossett Jr., star of An Officer and a Gentleman, Roots, Diggstown, Jaws 3D, Iron Eagle, and so many more classics, has died at age 87. According to his obit in THR, no cause of death was immediately revealed, but the actor was treated for prostate cancer in 2010, and also battled Covid-19 back in 2020.

If you grew up in the eighties and nineties, Louis Gossett Jr was one of those faces you saw everywhere. He was in high demand as a character actor, winning an Oscar for playing Richard Gere’s tough but compassionate drill instructor in An Officer and a Gentleman. If you haven’t seen that movie in a while or remember it as a sappy romantic drama, I’d urge you to watch it again. It’s actually a pretty gritty, R-rated drama, and it climaxes with a nifty martial arts battle between Gossett and Gere,...

Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Emmy for his role in the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots and an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman, died Thursday night in Santa Monica. He was 87.

His death was first reported by his nephew to the Associated Press. No cause of death was given.

“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” his family said in a statement obtained by Deadline. “We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The first Black actor to win a Best Supporting Oscar, Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn. He made his stage debut at 17 in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You and soon would successfully audition for the Broadway production Take a Giant Step, then perform in a star-making supporting...

Louis Gossett Jr., the tough guy with a sensitive side who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a steely sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman and an Emmy for his performance as a compassionate slave in the landmark miniseries Roots, has died. He was 87.

Gossett’s nephew told the Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica. The cause of death is unknown, but Gossett announced in 2010 that he had prostate cancer.

With his sleek, bald pate and athlete’s physique, Gossett was intimidating in a wide array of no-nonsense roles, most notably in Taylor Hackford’s Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley he rides Richard Gere’s character mercilessly (but for his own good) at an officer candidate school and gets into a memorable martial arts fight.

He was the second Black man to win an acting Oscar, following Sidney Poitier in 1964.

For the role,...

Birthday shoutouts go to Tyson Beckford (above), who is 42, Jennifer Beals is 49, and Limahl is 54, and taught us all how to reach the stars, fly a fantasy (and I still say that if they ever do a Limahl biopic, Tom Hardy would be perfect).

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