Carl Gordon

Carl Gordon was an American actor who came to the profession later in life and worked as a character actor on stage, film, and television. Raised in Brooklyn after being born in Goochland, Virginia, he studied at Gene Frankel's Theatre and Film Workshop and began landing parts in 1967 with a national tour of Happy Ending and Day of Absence, two one-act plays by Douglas Turner Ward. He later performed in 30 productions by the Negro Ensemble Company. On Broadway he appeared in Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2003), and he played Doaker in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson in 1990. His film work included Gordon's War and John Sayles's The Brother from Another Planet. On television he became best known as Andrew, the irascible father of the title character on the Fox series Roc, and he also appeared in ER, Law & Order, and a 2002 JAG episode.