An Actor and a Gentleman
An unvarnished account of a stellar career in interesting times\ From his days as a teenage Broadway star through his prominent role in Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Louis Gossett Jr. has always had an unusual perch from which to view American life. In An Actor and a Gentleman, he uses that unique perspective to create a smart, funny, and bittersweet memoir of his career and of the many changes, positive or not, that have reshaped America during his extraordinary life.\ "Lou Gossett...
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Award-winning African-American actor Lou Gossett, Jr. takes an unvarnished look at the daunting challenges and incredible triumphs of his fifty-year career Louis Gossett, Jr. is one of the most respected African-American stage and screen actors, who rose to fame with his Emmy-winning role in the television mini-series Roots and Oscar-winning performance in An Officer and a Gentleman. Now he tells the story of his fifty years in the entertainment world—from his early success on the New York stage appearing with Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier in Raisin in the Sun, through his long Hollywood career working alongside countless stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Dennis Quaid. He writes frankly of his struggle to get leading roles and fair pay as a black man in Hollywood, the problems with drugs and alcohol that took years to overcome, and of his current work to eradicate racism and violence and give our children a better future. Includes revealing stories and reminiscences involving famous performers, including Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Shirley Booth, Sammy Davis, Jr., Steve McQueen, Richard Gere, Maggie Smith, Halle Berry, and Gena Rowlands Spans half a century of American theater and film history, people, and performances Highlights the problem of racism in Hollywood and the challenges faced by African American actors from the 1950s and 1960s onward Standing Tall penetrates the celebrity glitz and glamour to offer an honest, heartfelt portrayal of the African-American experience both in Hollywood and the New York theater world, as told by one of the nation’s most enduring and highly esteemedactors.
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Foreword Christopher Lawford viiAcknowledgments xi1 The Bubble Burst: Hollywood, 1968 12 Twice as Good: 1936-1952 193 The Beatnik Years: 1954-1959 554 Hooked on Theater: 1959-1963 815 Finding My Place: 1964-1967 1106 More Like Home: 1967-1970 1337 A Rock and a Hard Place: 1970-1974 1498 Fatherhood: 1974-1980 1709 An Officer and a Gentleman: 1981-1983 18410 The Eyes of a Lizard: 1983-1985 19611 Losing Love: 1985-1992 21412 Dodging the Bullet: 1992-1993 23513 Six Months to Live: 1993-2001 24714 No, Thanks: 2001-2004 25515 Putting the Demons to Rest: July 4, 2004 26316 Eracism: January 5, 2006 271Photo Credits 299Index 301
\ Publishers WeeklyToday, it's hard to imagine the world Gossett Jr. inhabited during much of his acting and music career: driving to a Hollywood movie studio in a convertible in 1968, he was stopped eight times by police who assumed he had stolen the car (a similar event would occur in 1986); during that same period, while his white co-stars stayed at swank hotels, he checked in at a fleabag Washington Boulevard motel that was one of the few to admit blacks. It's a testament to Gossett's perseverance and faith in his fellow human beings that he is not bitter, but rather has devoted time and money to developing "The Eracism Foundation," an organization devoted to cultural diversity and ending racism. Gossett looks back on an impressive career that includes his Oscar-winning role in An Officer and a Gentleman and Emmy-winning work in Roots, but also a lifelong struggle with alcohol and drugs. For all his eventful recollections, however, Gossett's tone is strangely flat, robbing his memoir of emotional resonance and making it a bit of a chore to get through. \ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \
