Louis Gossett, Jr.

                                                             Part 2

    One column was not enough to sum up the stellar career of Louis Gossett, Jr. Here are five more movies that included Gossett as an important cast member. There are well over 200 movies and TV shows not included here. 

The Deep (1977) is based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. It’s a harrowing adventure story of a lost Spanish galleon, millions of dollars worth of ampules containing morphine, and the effort to recover the treasure. Louis Gossett is on board as Henri Cloche, a despicable drug kingpin. You’ll hate him! Robert Shaw, Yvette Mimeux, Eli Wallach and Nick Nolte complete the cast. There seems to be a World War 1 wreck sitting atop a 16th century Spanish ship. The top one contains the morphine. The Spaniard contains gold and silver. Oh, and Cloche may not make it to the credits.

Swallow your incredulity before attempting Enemy Mine (1985), a sci-fi thriller. Dennis Quaid is a human fighter pilot. Louis Gossett is Jareeba, a Drac reptilian humanoid with about 50 pounds of make-up. They hate each other, then get over it when they both crash on an unhospitable planet. Dracs self-fertilize so Jareeba has a child. I guess you can make this stuff up- somebody did! Anyway, Gossett is quite convincing in a somewhat off the charts role.

In Diggstown (1992) Louis Gossett is Honey Roy Palmer, the only good guy in the film. He is a boxer who is slated to knock out ten men in one day. Yep. James Woods, Bruce Dern and Oliver Platt are perfect villains. Why Palmer would participate in this stupid wager is never quite explained. But Gossett makes a cool boxer! He was, in fact, quite an athlete. He was drafted by the New York Knicks but forewent athletics for acting. 

The 2023 musical version of The Color Purple received glowing critical and audience reviews and deserves them. The same characters that peopled the 1985 version are portrayed by actors who can sing, including Taraji Henson and our own Fantasia Barrino. Loouis Gosset plays Old Mister Johnson, not a major factor. Albert Johnson, also called Mister, is the bad guy whom Celie is forced to marry. His somewhat despicable character is allowed to be redeemed in this outing. 

Gossett has a small but pithy part in The Perfect Game (2009) the “based on a true story” sports movie about a ragtag Little League baseball team from Mexico who somehow wins the LL World Series via a perfectly pitched game. Cool Papa Bell was a legendary player in the Negro Leagues and Gossett does him full justice. No surprise.

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for adults. 

                                                             Louis Gossett, Jr.

                                                           Part One

    Louis Gossett, Jr. left us recently at 85. The guy was everywhere. He had over 200 acting credits and had 12 projects going when he died. But like Louise Fletcher or Mary Badham, he had one shining performance that defined his talent. The difference is that he had many other important roles. 

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) is the place of that peak performance. Gossett won the Best Supporting Oscar as Sgt. Emil Foley, the Drill Instructor from Hell. Zack Mayo (Richard Gere)  is the focus of Foley’s determination. Mayo is caught selling contraband goods to other officer candidates and Foley decides he has to go.  His aim is to break Mayo and cure him forever of his arrogance and flippancy. Mayo turns out to be tougher than anyone (including him) thought. He perseveres through this trial and others and winds up thanking Foley for being tough on him and for not giving up on him.

Gossett’s first appearance of note is in Loraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1961), He appears as George Murchison, the Younger family’s daughter’s boyfriend. She dumps him because of his views on racism. Don’t blink or you’ll miss him. 

His true break-out role was in Skin Game (1971). Though Jason was born a free man and still is, he and Quincy O’Rourke (James Garner) travel the country as owner and slave. Quincy continuously “sells” Jason to willing bidders. Then he and Jason split the profits and move on. There is, of course, a catch. It’s when a very savvy old slave trader realizes what they’re up to, and buys Jason, intending to take him south and make a profit. 

In Travels With My Aunt (1972) Louis Gossett has a ball playing Zachary Wordsworth, an African fortune teller. The aunt of the title is the legendary Maggie Smith. She may or may not be the legitimate aunt, and her message to her “nephew” that the woman he thinks was his mother is not, is deeply suspicious. This hectic film winds up in a fishing boat off the African coast piloted by none other than Wordsworth. A coin flip to decide the final outcome is freeze-framed as the major players watch after Wordsworth flips it into the air. 

Roots (1977) is not actually a movie. It is a TV mini-series based upon Alex Haley’s historical book about the life of Kunta Kinte, an ancestor of the author. The series was a sensation and at one time garnered the most viewers of any program on TV. Kunta is sold into slavery by African turncoats and lands in Colonial Virginia as a plantation slave. Louis Gossett portrays Fiddler, an elderly slave who mentors Kunta and tries to soften his now-tragic life change. Both are sold to another slave owner, and Fiddler continues to help Kunta until Fiddler’s death of natural causes. This is fairly early in the series, which continues on for many years.

All of the movies in this article are available (perhaps for a price). All are for adults. And I am not done with Mr. Gossett