Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor. He
is best known for his role as Walt on The Powers of Matthew Star. He
also had an Academy Award winning role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley
in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman and his Emmy Award winning
role as Fiddler in the 1977 ABC television miniseries Roots. Gossett
has also starred in numerous other film productions including A Raisin
in the Sun, The Landlord, Skin Game, Travels with My Aunt, The
Laughing Policeman, The Deep, Jaws 3-D, Wolfgang Petersen's Enemy
Mine, the Iron Eagle series, Toy Soldiers and The Punisher, in an
acting career that spans over five decades.Gossett was born in
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, to Hellen Rebecca (née Wray), a
nurse, and Louis Gossett Sr., a porter. He is an alumnus of Mark Twain
Intermediate School 239 and Abraham Lincoln High School. His stage
debut came at the age of 17, in a school production of You Can't Take
It with You when a sports injury resulted in the decision to take an
acting class. Polio had already delayed his graduation.After
graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1954, he attended New
York University, declining an athletic scholarship. Standing 6 feet 1
inch (1.85 m) tall, he was offered the opportunity to play varsity
basketball during his college years at NYU, which he declined to
concentrate on theater. His high school teacher had encouraged him to
audition for a Broadway part, which resulted in his selection for a
starring role on Broadway in 1953 from among 200 other actors well
before he entered NYU.Gossett replaced Bill Gunn as Spencer Scott in
Broadway's Take a Giant Step, which was selected by The New York Times
drama critics as one of the 10 best shows of the year. He was 17, and
still a student at Abraham Lincoln High School, with no formal drama
training. Louis Gossett Jr. Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter