A charismatic black actor with a flair for projecting quiet authority, Louis Gossett Jr has scored well personally in a string of diverse and challenging stage, film and TV roles. Sidelined by a sports injury in high school, Gossett decided to try acting at the suggestion of one of his teachers. Success in a school production led to a Broadway audition for "Take a Giant Step" (1953), where, the 16-year-old Gossett beat out 400 other aspiring actors and landed the lead. His acting career soon flourished with parts on TV and a return to Broadway supporting Shirley Booth in "The Desk Set" (1955), but he also attended New York University on an athletic scholarship, impressing the New York Knicks sufficiently enough to garner an offer of a professional contract upon graduation. Theater, however, had become his first love, and he passed up that opportunity to turn pro, opting instead to play on Broadway in "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959), Lorraine Hansberry's ground-breaking drama about African-American family life. He reprised his role for his feature debut in the 1961 film version.
Throughout the 60s, Gossett continued his love affair with the New York stage, acting in such fare as the musical version of "Golden Boy" (1964), "My Sweet Charlie" (1966) and "Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights" (1968), but he also began appearing more frequently on TV in episodes of "The Defenders", "Mod Squad" and "Daktari". This exposure led to his first regular series role as 18th-century blacksmith Isak Poole in "The Young Rebels" (ABC, 1970-71). Although he appeared in but one feature film during the 60s, his big screen reputation grew quickly in the 70s with critically acclaimed work in comedies like "The Landlord" (1970) and "Travels with My Aunt" (1972) and the 1975 film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning drama "The River Niger". Gossett's popularity then soared exponentially on the strength of his eloquent and Emmy-winning portrayal of Fiddler in the landmark 1977 ABC miniseries "Roots", followed by a riveting performance as a drug-dealing cutthroat stalking Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset in "The Deep" (1977).
Gossett portrayed Dr MacArthur St Clair in the short-lived ABC medical drama "The Lazarus Syndrome", delivered an Emmy-nominated turn as a faithful butler in the NBC miniseries "Backstairs at the White House" (both 1979) and lent his athleticism to the part of baseball great Satchel Paige in the ABC biopic "Don't Look Back" (1981). His next feature turn as the by-the-book drill sergeant in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) won him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award and consolidated his place in the Hollywood hierarchy. Although Oscar did not bring an avalanche of plum movie roles, Gossett excelled as a razor-sharp con-man in "Finders Keepers" (1984), won kudos as the lizard-like alien in the sci-fi adventure "Enemy Mine" (1985) and established the action adventure franchise "Iron Eagle" (1985). Saving his best performances for the small screen, he turned in finely tuned portrayals as the assassinated Egyptian leader in the syndicated miniseries "Sadat" (1983), which provoked the Egyptian government to temporarily ban his films, and as a strong-willed septuagenarian in "A Gathering of Old Men" (CBS, 1987), earning Emmy nominations for both.
Still going strong in the 90s, Gossett cut quite a figure with his shaved head and imposing six-foot-four physique, a look which served him well in "Diggstown" (1992), playing a down-and-out boxer, and as an African dignitary in "A Good Man in Africa" (1994), alongside Colin Friels, Sean Connery and Diana Rigg. He has frequently turned up on TV as a host or presenter for various awards shows, as well as a narrator of specials, and continued acting in better than average TV-movies like HBO's "The Josephine Baker Story" (1991), for which he won a Golden Globe Award.
Beginning with a co-executive producing credit on the NBC movie "Ray Alexander: A Taste for Justice" (1994), Gossett embarked on a producing career that guarantees more creative control over the projects in which he acts. Since then he has executive produced and starred in several Showtime movies, including Arthur Penn's "Inside" (1996), "The Inspectors" (1998) and its follow up "The Inspectors 2: A Shred of Evidence" (2000). Credits as an executive producer and star extended to CBS TV-movies as well, most notably the acclaimed 1997 effort "To Dance With Olivia" and 2000's "The Color of Love: Jacey's Story", both frank and sensitive depictions dealing with breaking down racial intolerance. With the Showtime episodic drama "Love Songs" (1999), Gossett made his directorial debut, helming the first entry of the trilogy, the inspirational boxing-themed segment "A Love Song For Champ" in addition to co-starring in the two other segments of the anthology.
While Gossett remained an active presence in television into the new millennium, his feature output had dwindled by the late 90s, with just a few small roles to his credit. In 1997, however, he starred in and co-produced the action drama "Managua". His name was also tied to such interesting projects as biopics of actor Stepin Fetchit and Crow Nation leader James Pierson Beckworth as well as a western about an African-American rodeo veteran.