CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Well-known actor and West Virginia State University (WVSU) alumni Lou Myers passed away Tuesday, Feb. 19, in Charleston.
Perhaps best known for his role as Mr. Gaines in the 1980s television sitcom “A Different World,” Myers had a long career in show business and appeared in countless other TV shows and movies.
Myers was a 1962 graduate of WVSU with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
In 2010, he was the Black History Month Convocation speaker at WVSU.
After college, Myers moved to New York City where he began a long career on Broadway. He appeared in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on five different occasions, and developed his own one-man cabaret show entitled “Just a little bit of Somethin’.” He also appeared in Oprah Winfrey’s “The Color Purple” on Broadway.
In 1988, he began a five-year run as restaurant owner Vernon Gaines on “The Cosby Show” spin-off “A Different World.”
Myers also had numerous guest spots on TV shows including “E.R.,” “The Cosby Show,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Jag” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.”
He also appeared in several Hollywood movies, including “Cobb,” “Tin Cup,” “Bulworth,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “The Fighting Temptations” and “Lackawanna Blues.”
Myers won an NAACP Image Award for his role as Stool Pigeon in the August Wilson play, “King Hedley II.” He has also won the off-Broadway Audelco Award for his role in the play, “Fat Tuesday.”
In 2005, the Appalachian Education Initiative listed Myers as one of 50 “Outstanding Creative Artists” from the state of West Virginia and featured him in their coffee table book Art & Soul.