Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. died of a lung condition, according to his death certificate obtained by TMZ. The actor died in Santa Monica on March 29 at the age of 87.
31.03.2024 - 18:17 / deadline.com
Richard Gere has issued a tribute to his An Officer and a Gentleman costar Louis Gossett Jr., who just died at age 87.
In the film, Gossett was Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, a drill instructor who shaped Gere’s character Zack Mayo in the 1982 film.
The film earned Gossett an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first Black performer to win the Supporting Actor Oscar.
“He stayed in character the whole time,” Gere, 74, recalled in a statement. “I don’t think we ever saw him socially. He was the drill sergeant 24-hours a day, and it showed clearly in his performance. He drove every scene he was in.”
Gere said Gossett was “a tough guy with a heart of gold,” adding, “We were all so proud of him when he won his Oscar.”
Director Taylor Hackford also issued a statement that he “admired” Gossett’s stage work.
“Lou Gossett’s Sargent Foley may have been the first Black character in American cinema to have absolute authority over white characters,” Hackford, 79, says. “The Academy recognized his consummate performance by voting him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He definitely deserved it.”
Gossett’s character was originally “written as a White man,” but Hackford said that changed after the director visited the Navy Officers Flight Training Center in Pensacola, Fla., where he learned “many of the Drill Instructors there were men of color.”
“I found it interesting that Black & Brown enlisted men had ‘make-or-break’ control over whether white college graduates would become officers and fighter pilots,” Hackford explains. “At that moment I changed the casting profile for Sargent Foley and started meeting actors of color.”
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Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. died of a lung condition, according to his death certificate obtained by TMZ. The actor died in Santa Monica on March 29 at the age of 87.
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Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, has died at the age of 87.The actor made history by picking up the award for his role as the drill instructor Sgt. Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer And A Gentlemen.Gossett died at a rehabilitation centre in Santa Monica, California today (March 29), as reported by the Associated Press.“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” his family said in a statement.
Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. has sadly passed away.
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 last night in Santa Monica. He was 87.
2023 remake of “The Color Purple.”Gossett struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction for years after his Oscar win. He went to rehab, where he was diagnosed with toxic mold syndrome, which he attributed to his house in Malibu.In 2010, Gossett announced he had prostate cancer, which he said was caught in the early stages.
Ethan Shanfeld 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,” has died, the AP reports. He was 87.
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