Moses Gunn; Noted Film, Stage Actor

Moses Gunn, whose redoubtable dramatic presence made him a stage and film favorite for nearly four decades, is dead.

Gunn portrayed a series of “excluded” characters--men forced to find an identity outside the system primarily because of their color or socioeconomic condition. He was 64 when he died Thursday night at his home in Guilford, Conn.

A spokesman for his publicist, Dale C. Olson & Associates Inc. of Los Angeles, said Gunn died of complications from asthma.

A much-honored actor, Gunn was known for his Shakespearean performances at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Lincoln Center and the New York Shakespeare Festival, most notably in “Measure for Measure,” “Titus Andronicus” and “Romeo and Juliet.” He was equally comfortable in the idioms of Elizabethan England and modern-day South Africa.

When not portraying “Othello,” he was Boseman in “Boseman and Lena,” a study of rage and frustration among the residents of a South African shantytown.

His awards were equally as diverse, ranging from an Obie for best actor in an off-Broadway performance in “First Breeze of Summer” in 1975 to an NAACP Image Award as best supporting actor for his portrayal of Booker T. Washington in the film “Ragtime” in 1982.

He won another Image for the play “Fool for Love” at the Los Angeles Theater Center.

He also was nominated for a Tony for “Poison Tree” and an Emmy for “Roots,” in which he played Kintango.

Born in St. Louis and educated at the University of Kansas, Gunn broke into films in 1964 with “Nothing but a Man.”

Over the years his two-dozen picture credits included “The Great White Hope,” “Shaft,” “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” “The Iceman Cometh,” “Amityville II: The Possession,” “Firestarter” and “Indian Summer.”

On television he was seen in “N.Y.P.D. Blue,” “Quincy,” “Maude,” “The Cosby Show” and “Tales From the Crypt.” Survivors include his wife, Gwendolyn, and two children. Donations in his name to the Actors Fund of America are suggested.