Louis Gossett Jr.

Pushed into acting as a high school student after a sports injury, Louis Gossett Jr. was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 27, 1936, and broke onto Broadway at age 16, turning down a professional contract with the New York Knicks to play the lead a few years later in "A Raisin in the Sun."

Gossett reprised the role in his film debut (1961) and found widespread acclaim the following decade with an Emmy-winning role in the epic television miniseries Roots (1977) and an Emmy-nominated performance in the miniseries Backstairs at the White House (1979). But he is most often linked with his powerful portrayal of a hard-nosed drill sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), a performance that earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Career highlights since then include a pair of Emmy-nominated performances in the miniseries Sadat (1983) and A Gathering of Old Men (1987).

Filmography