Louis Gossett Jr.

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Date of Birth : May 27th 1936

Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winning American actor, Louis Gossett, Jr. was born in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. He was raised by his mother Hellen Rebecca Wray Gossett and his father, Louis Gossett, Sr. A sports injury left Gossett, Jr. with no choice but to take an acting class, and at 16 he made his stage debut in the school’s production of You Can’t Take It with You.

After graduating high school, he attended New York University, on an athletic scholarship, where he was a star basketball player. The New York Knicks were so impressed with Gossett’s athletic ability, that they made him an offer of a professional contract upon graduation. He played with them briefly in 1958, before choosing to focus completely on his acting career.

He also has performed in other media, including television productions. In fact, it was his Emmy award-winning role of “Fiddler” in the 1977 groundbreaking television miniseries Roots that first gave Gossett audience’s attention. In 1983, Gossett was cast in the title role in Sadat, a miniseries which chronicled the life and assassination of Anwar Sadat. While filming An Officer and a Gentleman, Gossett was also starring in the 1982–1983 science fiction series, The Powers of Matthew Star.