Louis Gossett Jr, who has died aged 87, was the first black man to win an Oscar for best-supporting actor after putting naval aviation cadet Richard Gere through his paces in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982); he was only the third black person to win any Oscar after Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind (1939) and Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field (1963).
In the 1970s, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, and Diahann Carroll ushered in bold, new characterizations of Black women on film, and scored Best Actress Oscars nominations for three completely different roles.