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Louis Gossett Jr., First Black Man to Win Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Dead at 87

Louis Gossett Jr., the 'An Officer and a Gentleman' actor who became first Black man to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, has died at the age of 87.

Finding success on television, the actor spent the next five years predominantly on the small screen — including starring as Satchel Paige in a TV biopic about the Hall of Fame pitcher — before he was cast as strict Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman opposite Richard Gere. Now an established character actor, Gossett Jr. starred in films like Iron Eagle, The Principal, Enemy Mine, and Jaws 3-D in the Eighties, and continued to work steadily over the ensuing decades. Most recently, Gossett Jr. appeared as an older version of the superhero Hooded Justice in the acclaimed HBO series Watchmen and played the role of Ol’ Mister in the 2023 big-screen musical adaptation of The Color Purple.

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