Gossett recently spoke to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his role in “The Color Purple,” which came out in December and was shot in Georgia. He played Mister’s crotchety father Albert “Mister” Johnson.
“It was like a reunion,” he said. “It’s great to be part of that family. It was like Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas wrapped into one. There was so much love and respect.”
He had been friends for decades with producers Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey and Georgia-born Alice Walker, author of the 1982 best-selling book “The Color Purple.”
As a child, the New York native spent summers in Athens with his great-grandmother. “It was a farm with watermelon, cabbage and okra,” he said. “It was all organic. We were poor but very healthy!”
Gossett moved to Fayetteville in 2018. “It’s a bungalow with a nice yard and an indoor swimming pool,” he said. About that time, he nabbed a key role in the HBO series “Watchman” in 2019, which was shot at Trilith Studios not far from his new home.
While in Atlanta, his favorite restaurants included Atlanta Fish Market and South City Kitchen, which “feels like home to me.” And he regularly attended the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Gossett also liked to visit area universities and churches, offering wisdom to the youth. “I love speaking my experience, strength and hope to the young,” he told the AJC.
Gossett’s cousin Neal Gossett remembered a man who walked with Nelson Mandela and told great jokes, a relative who faced and fought racism with dignity and humor.
“Never mind the awards, never mind the glitz and glamor, the Rolls-Royces and the big houses in Malibu. It’s about the humanity of the people that he stood for,” his cousin said.
Gossett found fame on the small screen as Fiddler in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which depicted the atrocities of slavery on TV. The sprawling cast included Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton and John Amos.
He became the third Black Oscar…
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