Louis Gossett, Jr., a trailblazing actor who became the first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, sadly passed away late Thursday night on March 28, 2024. He was 87 years old. The news was reported by the Associated Press, who confirmed his death through the late actor's nephew Robert.
Most recently appearing in Warner Bros.' "The Color Purple" remake and in HBO's "Watchmen" series, Gossett, Jr. is perhaps most well known for his award-winning turn as drill instructor Emil Foley in 1982's "An Officer and a Gentleman." Additionally, he won an Emmy award for his role in the popular 1977 miniseries "Roots" and went on to earn widespread acclaim and recognition on both television and movies, racking up numerous Primetime Emmy Awards over the years. After first getting his start on Broadway at a time when the odds were severely stacked against him, Gossett, Jr. made his big-screen...
Most recently appearing in Warner Bros.' "The Color Purple" remake and in HBO's "Watchmen" series, Gossett, Jr. is perhaps most well known for his award-winning turn as drill instructor Emil Foley in 1982's "An Officer and a Gentleman." Additionally, he won an Emmy award for his role in the popular 1977 miniseries "Roots" and went on to earn widespread acclaim and recognition on both television and movies, racking up numerous Primetime Emmy Awards over the years. After first getting his start on Broadway at a time when the odds were severely stacked against him, Gossett, Jr. made his big-screen...
- 3/29/2024
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
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.)
More from TVLineRon Harper, Land of the Lost and Daytime-tv Vet, Dead at 91Robyn Bernard, General Hospital's Terry Brock, Dead at 64Steve Lawrence, Grammy and Emmy-Winning Entertainer, Dead at 88
Gossett’s other accolades include an Emmy (for his role as Fiddler in...
No cause of death was disclosed. (In February 2010, Gossett revealed a prostate cancer diagnosis, but it was promptly treated.)
More from TVLineRon Harper, Land of the Lost and Daytime-tv Vet, Dead at 91Robyn Bernard, General Hospital's Terry Brock, Dead at 64Steve Lawrence, Grammy and Emmy-Winning Entertainer, Dead at 88
Gossett’s other accolades include an Emmy (for his role as Fiddler in...
- 3/29/2024
- by Matt Webb Mitovich
- TVLine.com
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,” died early Friday morning. He was 87.
Gossett’s family announced his death in a statement, writing: “It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning. We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
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...
Gossett’s family announced his death in a statement, writing: “It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning. We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
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...
- 3/29/2024
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar winner and multiple Emmy winner Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Tuesday in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94.
“It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” her longtime manager Juliet Green said. “There was no one like Cloris. With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh ’till the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of her unparalleled magic.”
The daffy, self-absorbed Phyllis, a character she claimed was close to her own persona, brought the actress two Emmys as a featured actress in a series during the mid-’70s and made Leachman a household name.
Leachman...
“It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” her longtime manager Juliet Green said. “There was no one like Cloris. With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh ’till the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of her unparalleled magic.”
The daffy, self-absorbed Phyllis, a character she claimed was close to her own persona, brought the actress two Emmys as a featured actress in a series during the mid-’70s and made Leachman a household name.
Leachman...
- 1/27/2021
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
To honor Memorial Day with a tribute on Monday, Gold Derby takes a look back at celebrity and entertainment deaths so far in 2018. We are continuing to update our memoriam photo gallery above with major celebrity deaths from film, television, theater and music.
For this year, losses have included Oscar winners Milos Forman and Dorothy Malone, Emmy winners Steven Bochco, Reg E. Cathey and Olivia Cole, Emmy nominees Harry Anderson, John Mahoney and Jerry Van Dyke, Oscar-nominated composer Johann Johannsson, and legendary sports announcer Keith Jackson. Here is a brief summary of the careers of 14 people who have died in 2018:
See Over 100 video interviews with 2018 Emmy contenders
Actress Margot Kidder died at age 69 on May 13. She was best known for playing reporter Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in “Superman: The Movie” (1978). She won a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for the children’s TV show “R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.
For this year, losses have included Oscar winners Milos Forman and Dorothy Malone, Emmy winners Steven Bochco, Reg E. Cathey and Olivia Cole, Emmy nominees Harry Anderson, John Mahoney and Jerry Van Dyke, Oscar-nominated composer Johann Johannsson, and legendary sports announcer Keith Jackson. Here is a brief summary of the careers of 14 people who have died in 2018:
See Over 100 video interviews with 2018 Emmy contenders
Actress Margot Kidder died at age 69 on May 13. She was best known for playing reporter Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in “Superman: The Movie” (1978). She won a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for the children’s TV show “R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.
- 5/28/2018
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Olivia Cole, the Emmy-winning actress best known for her performances in the 1970s miniseries Backstairs at the White House and Roots, has died. She was 75.
Cole died Friday at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, her agent, Susie Schwarz at Sdb Partners, told The Hollywood Reporter. The New York Times reported that she had suffered a heart attack.
Cole also portrayed the gossipy Miss Sophie alongside Oprah Winfrey on the 1989 ABC miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and on a subsequent, short-lived series.
Cole received her supporting actress Emmy for her turn as Matilda...
Cole died Friday at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, her agent, Susie Schwarz at Sdb Partners, told The Hollywood Reporter. The New York Times reported that she had suffered a heart attack.
Cole also portrayed the gossipy Miss Sophie alongside Oprah Winfrey on the 1989 ABC miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and on a subsequent, short-lived series.
Cole received her supporting actress Emmy for her turn as Matilda...
- 1/24/2018
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New York -- Robert Vaughn, the debonair, Oscar-nominated actor whose many film roles were eclipsed by his hugely popular turn in television’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E., has died. He was 83.
Vaughn died Friday morning after a brief battle with acute leukemia, according to his manager, Matthew Sullivan.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was an immediate hit, particularly with young people, when it debuted on NBC 1964. It was part of an avalanche of secret agent shows (I Spy, Mission: Impossible, Secret Agent), spoofs (Get Smart), books (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) and even songs (Secret Agent Man) inspired by the James Bond films.
Vaughn’s urbane superspy Napoleon Solo teamed with Scottish actor David McCallum’s Illya Kuryakin, a soft-spoken, Russian-born agent.
Photos: Stars We've Lost In Recent Years
The pair, who had put aside Cold War differences for a greater good, worked together each week for the mysterious U.N.C.L.E. (United...
Vaughn died Friday morning after a brief battle with acute leukemia, according to his manager, Matthew Sullivan.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was an immediate hit, particularly with young people, when it debuted on NBC 1964. It was part of an avalanche of secret agent shows (I Spy, Mission: Impossible, Secret Agent), spoofs (Get Smart), books (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) and even songs (Secret Agent Man) inspired by the James Bond films.
Vaughn’s urbane superspy Napoleon Solo teamed with Scottish actor David McCallum’s Illya Kuryakin, a soft-spoken, Russian-born agent.
Photos: Stars We've Lost In Recent Years
The pair, who had put aside Cold War differences for a greater good, worked together each week for the mysterious U.N.C.L.E. (United...
- 11/11/2016
- Entertainment Tonight
Robert Vaughn, an Oscar-nominated actor who also starred in the 1960s TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., has died, People confirms. He was 83.
Vaughn passed away at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning in a hospital on the East Coast after a brief battle with leukemia, his rep Matthew Sullivan tells People. Just shy of his 84th birthday, Vaughn received treatments for his cancer battle in both Manhattan and in a hospital near Ridgefield, Connecticut before passing away.
A New York native, the veteran actor received his first and only Oscar nomination in 1960 for his supporting role in The Young Philadelphians.
Vaughn passed away at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning in a hospital on the East Coast after a brief battle with leukemia, his rep Matthew Sullivan tells People. Just shy of his 84th birthday, Vaughn received treatments for his cancer battle in both Manhattan and in a hospital near Ridgefield, Connecticut before passing away.
A New York native, the veteran actor received his first and only Oscar nomination in 1960 for his supporting role in The Young Philadelphians.
- 11/11/2016
- by nstonepeople
- PEOPLE.com
It’s not unusual for a movie to divide reviewers. To some, The Butler, Lee Daniels’ sprint through the American civil rights movement, is “deeply moving” (Time), “brilliantly truthful” (The New York Times), “illuminating” (New York), and “honest” (Slate). But it’s also been -dismissed as “obvious,” “over-the-top,” “clunky,” “lumbering,” and “thuggish”—by the very same critics. Daniels, who won acclaim for Precious and contempt for The Paperboy, has a unique ability to stir admiration and antipathy at once; if there were a word to describe the act of applauding while wincing, he could copyright it.
Daniels is a gay African-American filmmaker,...
Daniels is a gay African-American filmmaker,...
- 8/29/2013
- by Mark Harris
- EW.com - PopWatch
Award-winning actor renowned for her work on Broadway and roles in classic films such as East of Eden and The Haunting
Unable to make sufficient money from her novels, the great American writer Carson McCullers took advice from Tennessee Williams and allowed one of her masterpieces to be adapted for the theatre. The resultant success of The Member of the Wedding (1950) widened her fame, and made a Broadway star of Julie Harris, who has died aged 87.
The play's main character is Frankie Addams, a gawky 12-year-old who longs for companionship and the "we of me". Although the second juvenile role, in what is essentially a three-hander, went to a child actor, Brandon de Wilde, the complex part of Frankie fell to Harris, who was then 24. Born in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, and trained at the Yale School of Drama, Harris had made her Broadway debut in It's a Gift in...
Unable to make sufficient money from her novels, the great American writer Carson McCullers took advice from Tennessee Williams and allowed one of her masterpieces to be adapted for the theatre. The resultant success of The Member of the Wedding (1950) widened her fame, and made a Broadway star of Julie Harris, who has died aged 87.
The play's main character is Frankie Addams, a gawky 12-year-old who longs for companionship and the "we of me". Although the second juvenile role, in what is essentially a three-hander, went to a child actor, Brandon de Wilde, the complex part of Frankie fell to Harris, who was then 24. Born in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, and trained at the Yale School of Drama, Harris had made her Broadway debut in It's a Gift in...
- 8/25/2013
- by Brian Baxter
- The Guardian - Film News
Now that Lee Daniels’ The Butler is off and away, it shouldn’t be surprising that this is not the first project to deal with the work and the private lives of black servants in the White House.I’m sure some of our “boomer” readers might recall the 1979 NBC 8 hour mini-series Backstairs at the White House, which chronicled the lives of black servants who worked at the White house, from the administration of William Howard Taft through the Eisenhower years, which is just around the around the time when The Butter’s Cecil Gaines starts working at the White House in the film.The mini-series was based on a memoir by a former White House maid Lillian Rogers Parks, who is played in the...
- 8/20/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Occasionally moving, sweeping in ambition yet often haphazard in execution, "Lee Daniels' The Butler" is an epic that more closely resembles a made-for-tv movie or miniseries, albeit one from the high-minded heyday of TV movies, the '70s. Think "Backstairs at the White House," if your memory goes that far back.
Covering more than 80 years of American history through the eyes of a White House butler and his family -- decades of strife and conflict, from segregation to the election of Barack Obama to the presidency -- "The Butler" features Oscar winner Forest Whitaker in the title role, Oscar nominee Oprah Winfrey as co-star, and Oscar winners Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Redgrave in supporting roles. The director of "Precious" is like catnip to actors.
We follow a sharecropper's son who saw his father murdered by a white landowner (Alex Pettyfer) in 1920s Georgia, a boy raised to know service,...
Covering more than 80 years of American history through the eyes of a White House butler and his family -- decades of strife and conflict, from segregation to the election of Barack Obama to the presidency -- "The Butler" features Oscar winner Forest Whitaker in the title role, Oscar nominee Oprah Winfrey as co-star, and Oscar winners Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Redgrave in supporting roles. The director of "Precious" is like catnip to actors.
We follow a sharecropper's son who saw his father murdered by a white landowner (Alex Pettyfer) in 1920s Georgia, a boy raised to know service,...
- 8/15/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Academy Award winner Celeste Holm, who was the original girl who couldn't say no in Broadway's landmark musical Oklahoma! before she carved out a serious film career in the late '40s and '50s, has died, according to New York news station NY1. She was 95 and had been suffering heart and other ailments, say recent reports. A New York City native of Norwegian descent, she had studied drama at the University of Chicago before landing a series of Broadway roles, starting in a short-lived 1938 comedy called Gloriana. But it was her Ado Annie, the good-natured girl of easy virtue in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1943 tribute to the farmer and the cowboy, that made her a star and led to a contract with 20th Century Fox. Among her movies were the ground-breaking indictment of anti-Semitism, Gentleman's Agreement (1947), for which she won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. She played a fashion editor who befriends the investigative journalist played by Gregory Peck. Another strong role was that of the long-suffering wife of the playwright in the film classic about the stage, 1950's All About Eve, starring Bette Davis. In lighter roles, Holm played the photographer girlfriend of the Frank Sinatra character in the musical High Society, and she had an active TV career, earning Emmy nominations for Insight and Backstairs at the White House. Married five times, Holm, on her 87th birthday, wed opera singer Frank Basile, who was 41. He survives her, as do two sons.
- 7/15/2012
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.