Actor Carl Gordon R.I..P.

Actor Carl Gordon, who played the father on the television series Roc, passed on July 20 at the age of 78. The cause was Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Carl Gordon was born Rufus Carl Gordon Jr. on January 20, 1932 in Goochland, Virginia. He was always caleld by his middle name. While young his family moved to Brooklyn. He served in the United States Air Force from 1951 to 1955. Afterwards he attended Brooklyn College, but dropped out to look for work. Mr. Gordon worked at such jobs as a sheet metal worker and stockroom clerk before he started acting in his thirties. He made his debut on Broadway in 1970  in The Great White Hope. In 1972 he appeared on Broadway in Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. He made his film debut in Gordon's War in 1973 playing a pimp. Carl Gordon appeared in such films as The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976), Violated (1984), The Brother From Another Planet (1984), No Mercy (1986), Better than Ever (1997), and Somebody's Hero (2010).

Mr. Gordon appeared on television in the two part telefilm The Murder of Mary Phagan in 1988. From 1991 to 1994 he played the role of Andrew Emerson on the sitcom Roc. In the Nineties and Naughts he made frequent guest appearances on television, including Burke's Law, Malcolm and Eddie, Felicity, ER, Nash Bridges, and Law and Order. He appeared on Broadway in The Piano Lesson  in 1990 and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 2003.