Howard Rollins

Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr. was an American stage, film and television actor. Howard Rollins was best known for his role as Andrew Young in 1978s King, George Haley in the 1979 movie Roots, Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in the 1981 film Ragtime, Captain Davenport in the 1984 film A Soldiers Story, and as Virgil Tibbs on the crime drama for NBCCBS, In the Heat of the Night.

Rollins was the youngest of four children born to Ruth and Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Sr. in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother was a domestic worker while his father was a steelworker. Rollins, Sr. died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1980. Upon his high school graduation, Rollins studied theater at Towson University.

Source: Wikipedia