Veteran actor Lou Gossett Jr. died last week in Santa Monica, California after years of dealing with debilitating illnesses. He was 87 years old.
Gossett starred in films such as Toy Soldiers, Iron Eagle, Blue Chips, and The Josephine Baker Story as well as the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots. In 1983, Gossett Jr. won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in An Officer and a Gentleman, acting alongside Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
But six years earlier, Lou Gossett Jr. was in Elkton to film the made-for-TV movie ‘Lawman Without a Gun.’ Gossett Jr. played a Black man running for sheriff in a small southern town. It was based on Rev. Thomas Gilmore Sr. who became the first Black sheriff in Greene County, Alabama in the late 1960s.
Filming took place in Elkton, Todd County, Pembroke, and Hopkinsville in the summer of 1977. The Elkton Court Square and historic courthouse were central figures in the cinematography of the picture.
However, there was a small faction who didn’t want the movie filmed in Todd County, uneasy about how the community would be portrayed in the picture.
Gossett Jr., along with Clu Gulager, a veteran of TV westerns, and Mary Alice, who later found more fame on the TV show 227, were the stars of the movie. However, a look through the credits will find two actors who later found stardom through two other police projects. Phillip Michael Thomas, who would later star on the TV show Miami Vice, and John Ashton, who was Sgt. Taggart in Beverly Hills Cop along with Eddie Murphy, also appeared in the movie. In a non-speaking part, former Christian County Sheriff Bill Dillard could also be seen along with 300 to 500 locals who were asked to be part of scenes involving large crowds on the court square or at a key church scene in Hopkinsville.
The film’s crew was fed each day at the Millikan House.
‘Lawman Without a Gun’ only took three weeks to film. The only known issue involving its production came between the Kentucky Film Commission and the production company, who found trouble locating enough cars from the late 1960s to be used as police cars in the film.
Filming wrapped in July 1977 and shirts were sold to raise money for the local library.
However, it would be over a year before the movie premiered on NBC. It finally appeared on the small screen on May 30, 1979, and would be a common repeat on the network into the mid-1980s.
It was thought Elkton would become a popular filming location for movies seeking small-town charm with historic architecture set in the South. But it never happened. ‘Lawman Without a Gun’ is the only movie filmed primarily in Todd County according to IMDB.com.
But in the summer of 1977, Hollywood came to Elkton and featured an actor who would be an Oscar winner just six years later.
