Howard Rollins

Howard Rollins

Birth : 1950-10-17, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

Death : 1996-12-08

History

Howard Rollins (1950–1996) was an American television, film, and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime and Virgil Tibbs on In the Heat of the Night.

Profile

Howard Rollins

Movies

Drunks
Joseph
At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does - and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts - some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don't call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child - as they talk about their lives at the meeting
With Murder in Mind
Samuel Carver
A real estate agent is shot while trying to sell a rural farm and tries to bring the shooter to justice.
Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI
T.C. Russell
A police officer is called by F.B.I. to infiltrate into gang of arms smugglers.
The Children of Times Square
Otis Travis
An alienated teenage boy runs away from home and ventures to New York City where he falls in with a gang of juvenile delinquents working as drug dealers and pickpockets for a shady crime boss.
He's Fired, She's Hired
Raoul
Advertising executive, Alex Grier, is fired and is unable to find another position, being over-qualified. His wife, Annabelle, with no experience, is hired by the Freddie Fox agency when she uses her husband's résumé to get the job. He remains at home, raising their three children, coaxing his wife while trying to write the "great American novel."
A Soldier's Story
Captain Davenport
In a rural town in Louisiana, a black Master Sergeant is found shot to death just outside the local Army Base. Military lawyer, Captain Davenport—also a black man—is sent from Washington to conduct an investigation. Facing an uncooperative chain of command and fearful black troops, Davenport must battle with deceit and prejudice in order to find out exactly who really did kill the Master Sergeant.
The House of Dies Drear
Walter Small
A young black man and his family move into a home in rural Ohio and discover that during the Civil War it was used by a Dutch immigrant to smuggle runaway slaves to freedom. Soon they begin to suspect that the ghosts of slaves who passed through there are haunting the house.
A Doctor's Story
Dr. Zack Williams
A physician frustrates his family in his fight to prove that an elderly man is not senile.
The House of God
Chuck Johnston
Comedy about a couple of interns in a hospital named 'The House of God'.
For Us, the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers
This film is the true story of Medgar Evers, a successful insurance agent who moves to Jackson, Mississippi to direct the regional headquarters of the NAACP. Fighting segregation and racist politics, Evers becomes a leader in the black community.
The Member of the Wedding
Honey Brown
A 1982 made-for-television remake of the 1952 Fred Zinnemann film. Shown as a feature on "NBC Live Theater."
Ragtime
Coalhouse Walker Jr.
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
Thornwell
Carson
The story of James Thornwell, whose accusation that the U.S. Army used mind control drugs on him to force him to confess to stealing secret documents while stationed in Orleans, France, in 1961, led Congress to award him $625,000 in damages nearly 20 years later.
My Old Man
Doctor
An unlucky horse trainer, Frank Butler, wins big at the track and buys his 16-year old daughter a horse to salvage their relationship. When Frank is hurt prior to the opening race, Jo must go it alone.
The Trial of the Moke
James Smith
Henry Flipper is the first black West Point graduate. Assigned to serve at Fort Davis in Texas, Flipper becomes the object of a conspiracy by his fellow cadets to rid the base of its only black graduate.