Otis E. Young (July 4, 1932 â€" October 12, 2001) was an actor and
writer. He co-starred in a television Western, The Outcasts
(1968â€"1969), with Don Murray. Young was the second African-American
actor to co-star in a television Western, the first being Raymond St
Jacques who co-starred on the final season of Rawhide in 1965, as
cattle driver Simon Blake. Young played another memorable role as Jack
Nicholson's shore-patrol partner in the 1973 comedy-drama film The
Last Detail, and his later film credits included the low budget horror
films The Capture of Bigfoot (1979) and Blood Beach (1981).Young was
born in Providence, Rhode Island, one of 14 children. He joined the
U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 17 and served in the Korean War. He
then enrolled in acting classes at New York University School of
Education where his classmate was the young Louis Gossett, Jr.He
trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and worked off-Broadway as an
actor and writer in the early 1960s. He appeared on Broadway in James
Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie, with such notables as Diana Sands,
and Al Freeman, Jr. His first movie appearance was in Murder in
Mississippi (1965).In 1983 Young earned his bachelor's degree from L.
I. F. E. Bible College in Los Angeles and became an ordained pastor,
eventually serving as senior pastor of Elim Foursquare Gospel Church
in Rochester, New York, from 1986â€"1988. He taught acting classes at
School Without Walls, a college-like alternative public high school in
Rochester, from 1987 through 1991. In 1989 he joined the faculty at
Monroe Community College in Rochester; he remained there as a
Professor of Communications and head of the Drama Department until his
retirement in 1999.
writer. He co-starred in a television Western, The Outcasts
(1968â€"1969), with Don Murray. Young was the second African-American
actor to co-star in a television Western, the first being Raymond St
Jacques who co-starred on the final season of Rawhide in 1965, as
cattle driver Simon Blake. Young played another memorable role as Jack
Nicholson's shore-patrol partner in the 1973 comedy-drama film The
Last Detail, and his later film credits included the low budget horror
films The Capture of Bigfoot (1979) and Blood Beach (1981).Young was
born in Providence, Rhode Island, one of 14 children. He joined the
U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 17 and served in the Korean War. He
then enrolled in acting classes at New York University School of
Education where his classmate was the young Louis Gossett, Jr.He
trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and worked off-Broadway as an
actor and writer in the early 1960s. He appeared on Broadway in James
Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie, with such notables as Diana Sands,
and Al Freeman, Jr. His first movie appearance was in Murder in
Mississippi (1965).In 1983 Young earned his bachelor's degree from L.
I. F. E. Bible College in Los Angeles and became an ordained pastor,
eventually serving as senior pastor of Elim Foursquare Gospel Church
in Rochester, New York, from 1986â€"1988. He taught acting classes at
School Without Walls, a college-like alternative public high school in
Rochester, from 1987 through 1991. In 1989 he joined the faculty at
Monroe Community College in Rochester; he remained there as a
Professor of Communications and head of the Drama Department until his
retirement in 1999.
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