Louis Gossett Jr., who made Oscar history dead, aged 87

Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Academy Award for "An Officer and a Gentleman" and an Emmy for "Roots," passed away. The Hollywood Reporter stated that he was 87 years old. 

At a Santa Monica, California, rehabilitation facility, the actor passed away. Though Gossett's cause of death is unclear, he had recently fought prostate cancer and a respiratory infection. His family released the following statement, which The Hollywood Reporter was able to obtain: "We hate to inform you that our father died away this morning. We appreciate everyone's condolences during this difficult time. Please respect the family's right to privacy at this trying time.  

Gossett was menacing in a variety of tough roles, most notably in Taylor Hackford's Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where he played Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley and rode Richard Gere's character mercilessly (but for his own good) at an officer candidate school before engaging in an unforgettable martial arts duel. Gossett had a sleek, bald pate and an athlete's physique. He was the second Black man to win an acting Oscar, following Sidney Poitier in 1964. For the role, the 6-foot-4 Gossett trained for 30 days at the Marine Corps Recruitment Division, an adjunct of Camp Pendleton north of San Diego. "I knew I had to put myself through at least some degree of this all-encompassing transformation," Gossett wrote in his 2010 biography, 'An Actor and a Gentleman'. 

Gossett accepted a dramatics scholarship to NYU and became friends with James Dean at the Actors Studio in New York. 1957 saw him appear in his first motion picture, The Big Story, an NBC anthology series. He, Lola Falana, and Mae Barnes performed as part of the ensemble of "modern minstrel show" America, Be Seated, which was created by Mike Todd Jr. and featured performances during the 1964 World's Fair in New York.He co-wrote the anti-war song "Handsome Johnny" for Richie Havens' debut album two years later; three years later, the folk icon played the song as the opening act at Woodstock. Gossett went on to play an angry man living in a run-down apartment building in Hal Ashby's The Landlord (1970), a con artist opposite James Garner in the slavery-era Skin Game (1971), a drug-dealing cutthroat in The Deep (1977), a headmaster in Toy Soldiers (1991) and a down-and-out boxer in Diggstown (1992), as per The Hollywood Reporter.