Roscoe gordon biography children

Roscoe Orman is best known to most Americans as Gordon on the Sesame Street children's television program, a fixture of the Public Broadcasting System television network since the mids. With his shaved head, Orman seemed an almost ageless presence among the truly ageless Muppets in the show's regular cast. The seeming simplicity of Orman's Sesame Street performances was grounded in solid theatrical training; he began his working life as a stage actor and continued to expand his range as his career developed, having been freed from financial constraints by his success as a beloved icon of children's television.

Orman heard of the wonders of a theatrical life from his maternal grandfather, Hunter Wells, who had worked as a vaudeville performer and who entertained the family with tales of the stage. Orman took any chance he could to appear in plays and musicals, and his teachers encouraged his talents. Orman worked cutting picture-frame mats when he was young, but his life from his teenage years onward has been dominated by acting.

New opportunities were opening up for African Americans in New York theaters in the early s, and the producers of a musical revue called If We Grow Up asked him to join the show in After joining the Actors' Equity union around , Orman began to make a living as an actor. Remaining with the New Lafayette Theatre for five years, Orman appeared in numerous productions with the company and also directed several plays.

After being invited by director Gilbert Moses to take the lead role in Willie Dynamite , one of the last of the classic so-called "blaxploitation" films, Orman began to think about a big-time film career.

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Movies hadn't come as far as New York theater in ending discrimination, however. Unsure of what to do next, Orman auditioned for the role of Gordon on Sesame Street , which was open after the character's creator Matt Robinson had left the show and briefly been replaced by another actor. Orman had little experience performing for children and was nervous as he auditioned opposite Muppet Oscar the Grouch.

But as a five-year-old child became part of the audition situation, Orman loosened up. When Orman got the part, he became part of an award-winning program that was eventually broadcast in more than countries.