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Louis Gossett Jr., the tough guy with a sensitive side who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a steely sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman and an Emmy for his performance as a compassionate slave in the landmark miniseries Roots, has died. He was 87.

Gossett’s nephew told the Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica. The cause of death is unknown, but Gossett announced in 2010 that he had prostate cancer.

With his sleek, bald pate and athlete’s physique, Gossett was intimidating in a wide array of no-nonsense roles, most notably in Taylor Hackford’s Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley he rides Richard Gere’s character mercilessly (but for his own good) at an officer candidate school and gets into a memorable martial arts fight.

He was the second Black man to win an acting Oscar, following Sidney Poitier in 1964.

For the role,...

Ellen Holly, the first Black actor to have a leading role on a daytime soap opera, died peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. She was 92.

Photo by Ashley E. Jones

Holly joined ABC’s One Life to Live in 1968, in the role of Carla Benari, an actress of seemingly Italian heritage who found romance with Jim Craig, a white doctor (played by Robert Milli and then Nat Polen). It eventually came out that Carla Benari was actually Carla Gray, an African-American passing as white –and the daughter of Llanview Hospital housekeeping boss Sadie Gray...

Ellen Holly, a stage and screen actor who became the first Black star of a daytime television series with her role as Carla Gray in ABC’s soap opera “One Life to Live,” died Wednesday at Cavalry Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 92.

Holly’s death was confirmed by a representative for the actor.

Cast on “One Life to Live” in 1968, Holly stayed with the long-running series through 1980, before returning from 1983 to 1985. Producer Agnes Nixon cast Holly in the role after reading the actor’s New York Times opinion piece “How Black Do You Have To Be?,” in which Holly recounted her personal difficulties in finding acting work as a light-skinned Black woman.

Carla Gray’s main conflict in the series regarded a love triangle between two doctors — one white, one Black. The arc predated storylines on “All My Children” and “General Hospital” that also directly confronted race.

Ellen Holly, the first Black person to star in a soap opera with her lead role on One Life to Live, died Wednesday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 92 and died in her sleep.

Her first roles on television included appearances on The Big Story (1957), The Defenders (1963), Sam Benedict (1963), Dr. Kildare (1964) and The Doctors and the Nurses (1963 and 1964).

Holly played the groundbreaking character Carla Gray on the hit ABC show One Life to Live from 1968 to 1980 and 1983 to 1985. She was personally chosen for the role by television producer Agnes Nixon after she saw a New York Times opinion piece that Holly wrote, called “How Black Do You Have To Be?” about the difficulty of finding roles as a light-skinned Black woman.

Holly was born on January 16, 1931, in Manhattan to parents William Garnet Holly, a chemical engineer, and Grayce Holly, a housewife and writer.

A graduate of Hunter College,...

"The Handmaid's Tale" is steadily inching towards its end: Season 5 of the Hulu series debuts on the streamer with its first two episodes today. The adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel has been lauded for its ability to disguise itself as a metaphor for real-world issues. Its latest season is an honest depiction of its protagonist's trauma and how the past can sometimes be inescapable. The new season dives deep into June's (Elisabeth Moss) story, her actions, and the weight of their consequences, and highlights how they impact the people she loves.

Ahead of "The Handmaid's Tale" season 5 premiere, /Film spoke with its Emmy-winning showrunner Bruce Miller, executive producer Warren Littlefield, Emmy-nominated actors Madeline Brewer (Janine) and Max Minghella (Nick Blaine), and Emmy-winners Bradley Whitford (Commander Lawrence) and Ann Dowd (Aunt Lydia). The creator and producer shined a light on the creative partnership they share with actor/director Elisabeth Moss,...