Photo: Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons
Richard Pryor and Louis Gosset Jr. in 1978
Richard Pryor and Louis Gosset Jr. in 1978
As a lifelong devotee of vintage movies and television, I best remember Louis Gossett Jr. via Richard Basehart’s opening and closing line in 1951’s Decision Before Dawn: “A man stays alive as long as he’s remembered and is killed only by forgetfulness.”
And to me, a Black man who thrives on the kind of vintage fare in which Gossett appeared, this 6-foot, 4-inch Black giant of the silver screen will never be forgotten. It’s as if Basehart’s prophetic words years ago somehow had him in mind.
Thus, I was tremendously troubled when I heard of Gossett’s passing March 29, at 87, in Santa Monica, California. His family announced he had contracted prostate cancer in 2010, yet he continued to appear in movie-movies and in television films.
Speaking as a proud U.S. Army veteran, I revered Lou (the name I preferred calling him) for his spellbinding supporting actor Oscar-winning turn as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley in 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman. This is the role for which he is probably is best remembered. And as the second male Black actor to be so honored, his work was shattering, to say the least.
Indeed, how could that have been? Hollywood was chock-full of dynamite by Black males such as James Earl Jones, Brock Peters, Harry Belafonte and Gossett in the years after Sidney Poitier was first Oscar-honored as best actor in 1963’s Lilies of the Field.
Fiddler in ‘Roots’
Regardless, my personal fave was Lou’s fine take as older slave Fiddler, in Roots, 1977’s acclaimed, eight-part TV mini-series. His glorious performance as a teacher of Kunta Kinta (LeVar Burton), had everyone in my office chattering daily. Lou also was riveting in 1987’s searing down-South race drama, A Gathering of Old Men.
Long, lanky Lou first came to my attention on screen in 1961’s A Raisin in the Sun, still the finest “Black” movie of all time. In it, Lou portrayed George Murchison, a white shoe wearing, subdued suitor of Diana Sands, taunted by her brother, co-star Sidney Poitier, for his “faggotty white shoes.” But there was something strong and authentic about Lou’s character that stuck with me. Prior to the film, Lou and the rest of the stellar cast, including Ruby Dee and Claudia McNeil, starred in the original Broadway version of the Lorraine Hansberry domestic tragedy classic.
In the mid-1960s, Lou portrayed a tough, Black café owner in TV’s all-time best sci-fi series “The Invaders.” His work was effusively praised by series star, Roy Thinnes. Over the years, Lou made his memorable mark in a number of well-known vehicles, including Enemy Mine (1985), Iron Eagle (1986) and three sequels as Col. Charles “Chappy” Sinclair. He also had an acclaimed role in TV’s “Josephine Baker Story” (1991).
Strutting His Stuff
But An Officer and a Gentleman was in which the versatile, Coney Island (Brooklyn) born Gossett strutted his stuff for all to see. After training for a month at the Marine Corps Recruitment Division at Camp Pendleton, in San Diego, he wrote in his 2010 biography: “I knew I had to put myself through at least some degree of this all-encompassing transformation.”
So sporting a gleaming bald head and slim athletic body in the film, now hardened drill-training sergeant Lou mercilessly harassed malcontent Marines officer candidate Richard Gere, leading to an awesome one-on-one karate fight in a gymnasium ring. And it was one for the ages.
Originally, the script had Gere getting the best of Gossett, but according to Lou in a 2010 interview: “The Marines changed it. They said that an enlisted man would never beat up a drill sergeant. We’ll tear the place up unless you change it. If you don’t do this, Mr. Gossett, we’re going to have to kill you.” And the scene was changed.
Now the tall, talented Louis Gosset Jr. (my man Lou) is gone. But as Basehart proclaimed in 1951, “…he’s killed only by forgetfulness.” And Lou will never be forgotten.
