Louis Gossett Jr., first Black man to win supporting actor Oscar, dies [Video]

Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87. Gossett’s nephew told The Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica, California. No cause of death was revealed.Gossett always thought of his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and propelling him forward toward his Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman.”He earned his first acting credit in his Brooklyn high school’s production of “You Can’t Take It with You” while he was sidelined from the basketball team with an injury.”I was hooked – and so was my audience,” he wrote in his 2010 memoir “An Actor and a Gentleman.”His English teacher urged him to go to Manhattan to try out for “Take a Giant Step.” …