The cause of death for 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 been revealed.
Gossett Jr. died from a lung condition, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) being listed as the main cause of death, according to the actor’s death certificate, which was obtained by TMZ.
The document also notes heart failure and atrial fibrillation as contributing conditions, and that Gossett Jr. had been battling COPD for years.
As Breitbart News reported, Gossett Jr. died on March 29 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 87. At the time, no cause of death for the actor was revealed.
While Gossett Jr. had been acting in the ’60s and early ’70s, his breakthrough role was in 1977, when he played Fiddler in the TV mini series Roots — which depicted the atrocities of slavery — alongside actors LeVar Burton and John Amos.
His other credits include the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, the 1985 film Enemy Mine, the 2019 mini series Watchmen, the 2013 TV series Boardwalk Empire, the Iron Eagle film series, and last year’s adaptation of the Broadway musical The Color Purple, among many other credits.
The actor had been married three times during his life. His first wife was Hattie Glascoe, whom he was married to for five months before divorcing in 1968. His second marriage was to Christina Mangosing. The pair was together from 1973 to 1975. And Gossett Jr.’s third wife was actress Cyndi James-Reese, whom he was married to from 1987 to 1992.
Gossett Jr. is survived by his two sons, Satie, a producer-director from his second marriage, and Sharron, a chef whom he adopted after seeing the 7-year-old in a TV segment on children in desperate situations. He is also survived by his first cousin, actor Robert Gossett.
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