Howard Rollins

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Academy Awards
Howard Rollins
Howard Rollins in A Soldier's Story
Birth name	Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr.
Born	October 17, 1950 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	December 8, 1996 (age 46) New York, New York, U.S.
Notable roles	Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in Ragtime Capt. Davenport in A Soldier's Story Det. Virgil Tibbs in In the Heat of the Night (TV series)

Nominated: Best Supporting Actor 1981 Ragtime

Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr. (October 17, 1950 – December 8, 1996) was an American actor.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he studied theater at Towson State College. In the late 1960s he played the role of "Slick" in the Maryland Public Television Series "Our Street," sthe nation's first black soap opera.

He got his start in acting in a production of Of Mice and Men directed by his friend Steve Yeager (filmmaker). Many years later, he would star in Yeager's film, On the Block.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Daytime Drama Series for his role on Another World. Rollins was also nominated for the 1981 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Dino De Laurentiis/Miloš Forman motion picture, Ragtime.

In 1984, he starred in director Norman Jewison's film, A Soldier's Story which led to his role as "Virgil Tibbs" on the In the Heat of the Night television series based on Jewison's acclaimed motion picture of the same name.

In 1993, Rollins spent about a month in jail for driving under the influence and reckless driving. Because of continued legal problems, Rollins was ultimately dropped from In the Heat of the Night and was replaced by Carl Weathers. Rollins was invited back as a guest star on several episodes in the seventh season, but further legal problems led to his being totally banned from the county where the series was filmed.

In the last years of his life, Rollins worked hard to address his drug and alcohol problems and began to rebuild his career. He appeared in the TV shows New York Undercover and Remember WENN, in the PBS film Harambee, and in the theatrical film Drunks. His superb acting throughout his career inspired subsequent generations of African American actors, playwrights, and filmmakers.

Rollins died in 1996 after complications from AIDS-related lymphoma ^[1] ^[2] and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in his native Baltimore. He had been diagnosed with the condition approximately six weeks earlier.

An unveiling of a wax statue of Rollins took place at the Senator Theater in Baltimore on October 26, 2006. The statue is now at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum [1]