He explored that cruel past in the landmark 1977 television miniseries “Roots.” Gossett won a Primetime Emmy for the role of Fiddler. It was not an easy role to play. Fiddler, an enslaved person, is tasked with helping to break young Kunta Kinte, played by LeVar Burton, and turn a proud young Mandinka into an American slave. Gossett had to use his gifts to find humanity in a character accused of being a tool of an indescribable process of dehumanization.
There is a certain poetry to Gossett's leading roles. He played the walking embodiment of assimilation in Hansberry's play, then a man crushed by the mental and spiritual pressures of resistance for Hal Ashby. In some ways, Fiddler was the first of the mentor figures Gossett would spend the rest of his career playing, notably U.S. Army Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in Taylor Hackford's 1982 hit “An Officer and a Gentleman.” . The role was not written for a black man, but Taylor Hackford saw the potential in letting Gossett play this character who is tasked with brutally turning wild young men into disciplined soldiers. Gossett won the Academy Award, making him the first black actor to win Best Supporting Actor and the second black actor to win an Academy Award, behind, of all people, Sidney Poitier.
An Oscar usually leads to bigger roles and bigger opportunities. Unfortunately, the times did not offer Louis Gossett, Jr. many roles equivalent to his great talent. But he kept working, playing memorable roles as an alien in Wolfgang Petersen's “Enemy Mine,” a sci-fi version of “The Defiant Ones” opposite Dennis Quaid with a fascinating genre twist; and in the four “Iron Eagle” films (the first film in the series was released months before “Top Gun,” although we'll always consider them knockoffs) as a Vietnam veteran pilot who has to mentor the son of a fellow pilot. . .
Gossett was the consummate professional, always delivering excellence, whether it was a day in a television movie, a small role in a faith-based project, or voice work for a video game. In a time when bad behavior was tolerated, he was known for his kindness and skill. His last act gave him a pivotal role in Damon Lindelof's HBO series “Watchmen,” and his last role in a major studio release as Old Mister in last year's “The Color Purple” .
Timing is everything, and Gossett was forged in the era in which he was born, like all of us. Of all the lessons his life has to offer young artists, Gossett stands out for his commitment to the craft, to his humanity, and to bringing both to bear on parts that were sometimes dangerously close to cliché. . His gifts and commitment to his craft made everything he did so much more.
