Remembering Louis Gossett Jr. in ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’: His Timeless Acting Elevated the Movie Drill Sergeant Into a Mythic Figure
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic There had been drill sergeants in movies before Louis Gossett Jr. played one in “An Officer and a Gentleman” in 1982 (though for the life of me, I can’t remember any).
There would be a lot of them afterwards. But it’s a role that Gossett made his own, and the movie role that, more than any other, came to define him.
Gossett, who died on March 29 at the age of 87, was a great actor who imposed his presence; just watch the ferocious way he plays an alien soldier, under a mask of beaded make-up, in “Enemy Mine.” But in “An Officer and a Gentleman,” Gossett took the showpiece role of a tough-nut Navy drill sergeant and invested it with such flourish that he made it mythological.
He took possession of the role, infusing the very idea of the drill sergeant with a richness, a soul and wit, and a touch of something that no other actor ever brought to it — a quality of mystery.
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