Louis Cameron Gossett Jr.

Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York. Standing 6 feet 4 inches, he turned down an offer to play professional basketball with the New York Knicks to focus on acting. He made his Broadway debut at age seventeen in Take a Giant Step and replaced Albert Hall in the original 1959 Broadway cast of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun opposite Sidney Poitier.

In 1977, Gossett won an Emmy Award for his heartbreaking portrayal of Fiddler in the groundbreaking ABC miniseries Roots, which galvanized the nation. In 1982, he delivered a legendary performance as tough-as-nails Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman, winning the Golden Globe and becoming the first Black performer in history to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Gossett starred in films like Enemy Mine and the Iron Eagle series, and spent his later years operating the Eracism Foundation to combat racial prejudice and systemic discrimination.