“Though I understood that I had no choice but to put up with this abuse, it was a terrible way to be treated, a humiliating way to feel,” Gossett writes in his memoir. “I realized this was happening because I was Black and had been showing off with a fancy car, which they thought I shouldn't drive.”
After eating at the hotel, he went for a walk and was stopped by a police officer a block away for violating a Beverly Hills after-9 p.m. law. Two more officers arrived, and Gossett said he was handcuffed and fastened to a tree for three hours. His release came when the first police car returned.
“Now I had come face-to-face with racism, and it was an ugly sight,” he wrote. “But it wouldn't destroy me.” Gossett stated authorities stopped his refurbished 1986 Rolls Royce Corniche II on the Pacific Coast Highway in the late 1990s. The cop recognized Gossett and left after saying he looked like someone they were looking for.
To eliminate prejudice, he formed the Eracism Foundation. Gossett guest-starred on “Bonanza,” “The Rockford Files,” “The Mod Squad,” “McCloud,” and famously with Richard Pryor on “The Partridge Family.”
Gossett was invited to Sharon Tate's house in August 1969 after partying with the Mamas and Papas. His first stop was home to shower and change. The Tate murder news flashed on TV as he left. Charles Manson's gang killed her and others that night. He stated, “There had to be a reason for my escaping this bullet.” Louis Cameron Gossett was born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, on May 27, 1936, to porter Louis Sr. and nurse Hellen. Later, he added Jr. to commemorate his father.
The Oscar gave me the ability of choosing good parts in movies like ‘Enemy Mine,’ ‘Sadat’ and ‘Iron Eagle,’” Gossett stated in Dave Karger’s 2024 book “50 Oscar Nights.” He claimed in the book, “I’m going to donate it to a library so I don’t have to keep an eye on it.” Need to be free of it.
The Story of Satchel Paige, Backstairs at the White House, “The Josephine Baker Story,” for which he won another Golden Globe, and “Roots Revisited” were among Gossett's TV films. Despite earning an Oscar, he maintained his parts were always supporting.
He played a stubborn patriarch in the 2023 version of “The Color Purple.” After winning the Oscar, Gossett battled alcohol and cocaine addiction for years. He was diagnosed with toxic mold syndrome in rehab, blaming his Malibu home. Gossett revealed he had early-stage prostate cancer in 2010. He was hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020.
He is survived by sons Satie, a producer-director from his second marriage, and Sharron, a chef he adopted after seeing the 7-year-old on a TV piece on needy youngsters. Actor Robert Gossett is his first cousin. His first marriage to Hattie Glascoe was annulled. Second marriage to Christina Mangosing terminated in 1975; third to Cyndi James-Reese in 1992.
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