Press Pause: For Actor Carl Gordon From TV Show “Roc”

Carl Gordon, who played the proud and proudly-Black patriarch on the TV sitcom “Roc,” has died.

He passed at his home in Jetersville, Va..

His character on that 1990s sitcom, a show about a working class family set in Baltimore, was likeable and grandfatherly. He always had something funny and interesting to say, bringing his unique, wry outlook to whatever topic was up for discussion.

The 78-year-old television and Broadway actor had battled non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, which was the cause of his death.

According to the New York Times, Gordon only began acting in his mid-life after growing tired of a number of rote jobs — sheet metal work and merchandise stocking — that he felt had dulled his creative instincts.

Before “Roc,” he starred in several Broadway plays including August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Thanks for entertaining and inspiring us, Carl Gordon.

Rest in Peace.