Moses Gunn
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Moses Gunn (October 2, 1929 – December 16, 1993) was an American actor.
A formidable Obie award-winning stage player, he co-founded the Negro Ensemble Company in the 1960s. His 1962 Broadway debut was in Jean Genet's The Blacks. He was nominated for a 1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for The Poison Tree and played Othello on Broadway in 1970.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Gunn is best-remembered for his portrayal of mobster Bumpy Jonas in the first two Shaft movies, and for his brief role of Booker T. Washington in the 1981 movie Ragtime, a performance which won him an NAACP Image award. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1977 for his role in the TV mini-series Roots. He also costarred with Avery Brooks on the TV series A Man Called Hawk. Gunn also appeared in a multi-episode story arc as atheist shop owner Carl Dixon on the sitcom Good Times, as Joe Kagan on Little House on the Prairie and as the character Moses Gage in the 1980s NBC drama Father Murphy.
Gunn was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
He died from the complications of asthma in Guilford, Connecticut in 1993.
[edit] Partial filmography
- 1964 Nothing But a Man (film debut)
- 1971 Shaft as Bumpy Jonas
- 1972 Shaft's Big Score! as Bumpy Jonas
- 1973 The Iceman Cometh as Joe Mott
- 1972 The Hot Rock as Dr. Amusa
- 1974 Amazing Grace as Welton J. Waters
- 1975 Rollerball as Cletus
- 1980 The Ninth Configuration as Major Nammack
- 1981 Ragtime as Booker T. Washington
- 1982 Amityville II: The Possession as Detective Turner
- 1984 The NeverEnding Story as Cairon
- 1986 Heartbreak Ridge as Sergeant Webster
- 1989 The Women of Brewster Place
- 1991 Brother Future
[edit] External links
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