'A Different World' Star Lou Myer Dead at 77

Best known as the restaurant owner Mr. Gaines on A Different World, we pour out a bit of blue milk for actor/singer Lou Myers.

Myers passed away yesterday after a bout with an illness. The 76-year-old Chesapeake, West Virginia native had returned to the state and lived in the Charleston, W. VA area.

If you were around and watching a TV from 1988-1993, you witnessed how big of an influence Lou Myers had within the Black college community. As Mr. Gaines, Myers appeared as the affable, stern, yet always on time owner and manager of The Pit—a hangout on Hillman College campus. He also appeared in some 44 film and TV roles. In addition to his work in front of the camera, he also appeared on the stage in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and King Hedley IV, for which he won the NAACP Best Actor award in a stage production.

His work as a singer and performer in his own cabaret show (which probably aided in some episodes with Velma that can't be aired) in New York and Los Angeles, as well as Berlin, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Myers was also chairman of Global Business Incubation that helped urban small businesses, and chairman of the Lou Myers Scenario Motion Picture Institute/Theatre.

Props: Hip Hop Wired / Shadow And Act