Louis Gossett Jr. had already won an Emmy for his role in Roots when he appeared as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley, a strict Marine drill instructor at a Naval Aviation School in Washington State in An Officer and a Gentleman. While Richard Gere plays the title role and romantic hero, it was Gossett who seems to command the screen every time he’s present on screen.
When we first see him, he gives a tour de force performance as he observes the new class including Gere’s Zack Mayo with a cane in his left hand up all the way up to under his arm. He moves and speaks in a rhythm that is commanding and omniscient. He’s seen these types come and go before and he knows who is going to make it and who is going to flake out. He was in his mid-40s when he made the movie only about 13 years older than Gere who’s character is supposed to be in his early to mid 20s.
Some people might say Foley is a sadistic person, but he’s not. He only wants the best to complete the course because the military needs the best pilots. They don’t need hotshots and people trying to take the glory for themselves. His goal is to make the best of the best of the best. And his goal is to make them realize what they are capable of. That means he has to be brutally honest with everyone. He tells Mayo that he’s talking about character not performance. As he keeps egging Mayo on to quit during a weekend of punishment, Mayor doesn’t screaming the iconic line, “I got nowhere else to go!”
Foley finally realizes that there is something inside Mayo that he will learn. But he has to learn it for himself. Mayo is wanting to break a record for passing an obstacle course. However, his fellow officer candidate, Casey Seegler (Lisa Eilbacher), is stuck having a hard time getting over a wall obstacle. Mayo goes back and helps her, encouraging her to do it, because it’s the only way she can pass. It’s symbolic because Seegler has a literal wall stopping her and Mayo has a metaphorical one. As they all celebrating passing, Foley observes trying not to let his guard down as he realizes Mayo is going to make it. It’s the look of a leader being surprised and glad it’s happened.
Gossett would win an Oscar for his role, becoming the first black actor to win Best Supporting Actor. The role brought him a lot of glory but the roles afterwards were less than stellar. He appeared in Jaws 3-D playing a millionaire businessman who opens a SeaWorld that is terrorized by a great-white shark. Then there was the atrociously bad Firewalker co-starring with Chuck Norris. It tried to mix Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone but without the charm, wit, excitement and adventure.
Mostly, he ended up doing cult classic movies like Iron Eagle, which seemed to have been rushed into production to get a jump on Top Gun. I mean, how many freaking missiles can an Air Force fighter jet really carry? And then there was Enemy Mine, which is like Robinson Crusoe set in space where Gossett plays a reptilian humanoid who eventually befriends a human space pilot played by Dennis Quaid on a deserted planet. They eventually grow to have a brotherly love of one another. The movie directed by Wolfgang Petersen is actually pretty good to watch despite the deus ex machina ending.
Other movies would include the guilty pleasure of The Principal co-starring alongside Jim Belushi in which he plays the head guard at an inner-city school who helps Belushi as the new principal to clean it up of drug and gang elements. Then he appeared in the first adaptation of The Punisher which is mostly forgotten and the reprised his role as Col. Charles “Chappy” Sinclair in three Iron Eagle sequels.
But there were a few great moments, such as his role in Diggstown as an aging boxer Roy Palmer who finds himself roped into a risky bet in which he has to fight 10 opponents within a 24-hour period. The movie was a failure at the box office and got mixed to positive reviews but he still shined as a leading actor. He also had a leading role as a black gunslinger Van Leak in the western comedy El Diablo on HBO. But for most of the 1990s and 2000s, he appeared in less than stellar movies and TV shows. He played U.S. President Gerald Fitzhugh in the straight-to-video Left Behind: World at War.
But in the 2010s, his career would reach a resurgence on TV appearing on shows like Boardwalk Empire, Extant and the Watchmen series where he played Will Reeves, otherwise known as Hooded Justice. The role would earn him an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie alongside co-stars Jovan Adepo and Yahya Adbul Manteen II, who would win.
Gossett had many awards and honors in his lifetime. And he was humble about it. In his acceptance speech at the 1983 Oscars, he acknowledged the four other actors in his speech, which included Charles Durning, John Lithgow, James Mason and Robert Preston saying, “This is ours.” It was a good selection of actors to be part of for special recognition. With over 200 acting credits on TV and in the movies, he appeared on the stage alongside Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee in A Raisin in the Sun. His first Broadway performance was at 17 in Take a Giant Leap, which was selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best plays of the year 1953. Gossett had gotten into acting while in high school after a sports injury sidelined him.
He said his favorite role was as Anwar Sadat in the 1983 miniseries Sadat, despite objections from Egyptians over the portrayal of the assassinated Egyptian president. Gossett earned both nominations from the Emmys and Golden Globes. But what makes his role as Foley so different is that he was playing a person of authority at a time in which black actors were still being cast in stereotypical roles. Only two other actors had been nominated in the Best Supporting category and only two other black actors had won Oscars.
Yet, what makes Foley different is there is nothing in the script or the movie that indicates the drill instructor is black. He eventually becomes the fatherly figure the cocky Mayo needs to tear him down and build him back up as Mayo’s real father, played by Robert Loggia, was never a good example. In the end of their training, all officers present Foley with a silver dollar that he places in one pocket with the exception of Mayo’s who who puts on the other side. R. Lee Ermey, who Gossett would later co-star with in Toy Soldiers, was hired as the technical advisor on the movie which might explain why some of the stuff Ermey later used in Full Metal Jacket sounds familiar.
The last film role to be released before his death on March 29 was as Ol’ Mister in the 2023 musical The Color Purple. He had reportedly filmed two roles in movies, Soul to Keep and Sin, still set to be released. He also reported at done voice acting in the upcoming fantasy comedy If set to be released in May.
No cause of death has been listed. Gossett was 87. He was hospitalized in December 2020 with Covid and diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 before making a full recovery. In a case of dumb luck, Gossett was partying with members of the rock group The Mamas and the Papas on Aug. 9, 1969 when they were all invited to a party at the house of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. Gossett reportedly had gone home to shower and change his clothes when he heard or saw a news report about the murders that had been committed.
My college friend, Ginny Hall Cameron, who has appeared on TV and movies herself, said she enjoyed speaking to Gossett at a past convention he was at noting he was pleasant to talk to. I’m sure he was.
What was your favorite role of his? Please comment.
Zane Says 