Actor Louis Gossett Jr. who appeared in numerous films, television shows, and plays, as well as two video games, died this week at age 87, AP News reported. [He played many roles on the Broadway stage, including the 1959 classic "A Raisin in the Sun," won an Emmy in 1977 for his performance in the TV miniseries "Roots," and in 1983 "An Officer and a Gentleman" for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Although he has not won any awards for this work to my knowledge, Gossett has also appeared in two of the most famous PC games: Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. In both games, Gossett voiced Vortigant, a friendly alien who was once subjugated by the Combine, Half-Life's interdimensional antagonist (in Episode Two and Half-Life, Vortigant is called "Alyx"): in Episode Two and Half- Life: Alyx, Vortigant is voiced by Tony Todd).

In one notable encounter in the beach section of Half-Life 2 (where walking on the sand summons Arion), a pair of Vortigants, who normally communicate with each other by "flux-shift" but who are impaired in their "vital input" They explain that they use auditory language "as a courtesy" to the player, unless they do not want him to know what they are saying. As soon as they finish speaking to the player, they begin speaking in a melodic alien language.

Half-Life 2 and its first expansion were not the only times Gossett played an alien; in the 1985 cult sci-fi classic "Enemy Mine" (which probably led to his appearance in "Half-Life 2"), Gossett and a human played by Dennis Quaid were Gossett played an alien stranded on a desolate planet with a human played by Dennis Quaid.

In his memoir, An Actor and a Gentleman, Gossett describes the racism he experienced as a black actor in Hollywood, as summarized in an Associated Press obituary.

In his final role, Gossett played Old Mr. Johnson in last year's musical adaptation of The Color Purple.

"You left many mementos for us and paved the way for black actors and actresses," Fantasia Barrino-Taylor, the film's lead actor, wrote in a post today." You will be missed, but you lived a blessed life."

"We have lost a true great man. A true legend," said actor Colman Domingo, who played Albert Johnson in the film. "... We are forever indebted to him. May we stand firmly on his shoulders. Lift him up today, R.I.P."