When Louis Gossett, Jr. was a struggling student at NYU, he had little notion of what life had in store for him. Balancing pre-med classes, drama studies, and basketball, he excelled in each. When the New York Knicks invited the 6’4” Gossett to their training camp in 1958, it quickly became decision time for the young athlete. He made the Knicks’ squad, but turned his back on professional basketball. He turned, instead, to drama.

“I was already a professional actor by the age of fourteen,” Gossett explains. “I also got Golden Boy with Sammy Davis, Jr. the same year I made the Knicks. So I said, ‘I’m going back on stage.’ That was my choice.”

Some choice. He has since won great critical and popular acclaim on both stage and screen. He received an Emmy award for his memorable portrayal of Fiddler in Roots, and an Academy Award as Drill Sergeant Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman.