| Roscoe Orman | |
| Birth Name: | Roscoe Hunter Orman |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1944 |
| Birth Place: | The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Education: | High School of Art and Design |
| Years Active: | 1962–present |
| Notable Works: | Sesame Street |
| Domestic Partner: | Sharon Orman (1970–2010) |
| Children: | 4 |
Roscoe Hunter Orman (born June 11, 1944) is an American actor, writer, artist and child advocate, best known for playing Gordon Robinson, one of the central human characters on Sesame Street.[1]
While a student at New York City's High School of Art and Design, Orman made his theatrical debut in the 1962 topical revue "If We Grow Up." He was an early member of the Free Southern Theater in New Orleans for two years in the mid-1960s and a founding member of Robert Macbeth's New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, NY, where he both acted in and directed several plays by NLT's playwright-in-residence, Ed Bullins. His many other stage appearances have included roles in "Julius Caesar" and "Coriolanus" at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, the Broadway production of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Fences", Manhattan Theatre Club's stagings of Richard Wesley's "The Sirens", "The Last Street Play", and "The Talented Tenth", and Matt Robinson's one-man play The Confessions of Stepin Fetchit at the American Place Theatre. Orman is the recipient of two Audelco Theatre Awards and a five-time nominee.
He made his feature film debut in the title role of Universal Studios' 1974 drama Willie Dynamite and has since appeared in F/X, Striking Distance, New Jersey Drive, , Twilight's Last Gleaming, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Holiday Rush, and You Can't Take My Daughter. His television credits include work on All My Children, Kojak, Sanford and Son, Cosby, Sex and the City, The Wire, Law & Order, and Law & Order: SVU. He appeared in the Garry Trudeau/Amazon streaming production Alpha House and the HBO mini-series The Night Of.
Orman joined the Sesame Street cast in 1974, becoming the third actor to play Gordon (after Matt Robinson, 1969–72, and Hal Miller, 1972–74).
In June 2006, Orman's memoir, Sesame Street Dad: Evolution of An Actor, was released. In September 2007, his children's book Ricky and Mobo was released.
On October 8, 2008, he became the Chief Storyteller of AudibleKids.com (a service of Audible.com), a website for parents, teachers, and children to connect with one another and download and listen to audiobooks on iPods, MP3 players, and computers. In this role, Orman narrates audiobooks and communicates with children, parents and teachers online and at events. His new role was announced at a community event at The Educational Alliance Boys & Girls Club in New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office commended Orman's life work and willingness to embrace new technology to help encourage children to read books, by naming October 8, 2008, AudibleKids Day in New York City.
In 2016, his contract with Sesame Street was not renewed, as part of Sesame Workshop's retooling of the series, but the organization said that Orman would continue to represent it at public events.[2] [3] He returned to play Gordon in Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration along with a couple of YouTube videos released in 2018, a 2019 CNN town hall, Coming Together: Standing Up To Racism alongside former Sesame Street cast member Sonia Manzano, and a TV special released the same year, "The Power of We", also about racism. Roscoe Orman also returned as Gordon in a Season 54 episode, thus becoming the first original human cast member to rejoin Sesame Street since Season 46.
Orman has five children with his former partner Sharon Orman, and is the grandfather of eight. His son Miles Orman played Gordon and Susan's adopted son Miles Robinson on Sesame Street from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.[4] He and his wife, Kimberley LaMarque Orman, reside in New Jersey.[5]
| Filmography | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1973 | Willie Dynamite | Willie | ||
| 1974–2016; 2023 | Sesame Street | Gordon Robinson | 254 episodes | |
| 1975 | Sanford and Son | Al Robinson | Episode: "Bank on This" | |
| 1976 | All My Children | Tyrone | ||
| 1977 | Kojak | Lieutenant Connors | Episode: "The Condemned" | |
| Insight | Body Guard | Episode: "Leroy" | ||
| 1978 | Christmas Eve on Sesame Street | Gordon Robinson | Television film | |
| 1979 | Julius Caesar | Marcus Brutus | Direct-to-video | |
| Coriolanus | Adrian | |||
| 1983 | Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Gordon Robinson | Television film | |
| 1985 | Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird | |||
| 1986 | F/X | Captain Wallenger | ||
| 1989 | A Man Called Hawk | Malcolm | Episode: "Hear No Evil" | |
| Hard Time on Planet Earth | Captain Ralston | Episode: "Stranger in a Strange Land" | ||
| 1991 | Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake | Gordon Robinson | Television film | |
| 1993 | Striking Distance | Sid, Eddie Eiler's Partner | ||
| Sesame Street Stays Up Late! | Gordon Robinson | Television film | ||
| 1995 | New Jersey Drive | Judge | ||
| 1996 | Elmo Saves Christmas | Gordon Robinson | Direct-to-video | |
| 1997 | Drive by: A Love Story | Pops | Short film | |
| 1998 | Elmopalooza! | Gordon Robinson | Television film | |
| 1999 | The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland | Gordon Robinson | ||
| Cosby | Mr. Mason | Episode: "Book 'Em, Griff O" | ||
| 2000 | Lifeline | Narrator (voice) | Episode: "D.C. Children's Hospital" | |
| 2001–2004 | Law & Order | Mr. Cameron, Trial Judge Alan Kiley | 2 episodes | |
| 2002 | Sex and the City | Train Waiter | Episode: "The Big Journey" | |
| 2006 | 30 Days | Jo Jo | ||
| 2007 | Coney Island | Boss | Short film | |
| 2008 | The Wire | Officer Oscar Requer | 2 episodes | |
| Compliments of the Serpent | Mike Stanton | Short | ||
| 2008–2013 | Jerome Howard, Bryant Davis | 2 episodes | ||
| 2011 | Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life | Dr. Grady | ||
| 2012–2013 | Little Children, Big Challenges | Gordon Robinson | 2 episodes | |
| 2013 | Alpha House | Randall | Episode: "Hippo Issues" | |
| 2016 | The Night Of | Jury Foreman | Episode: "The Call of the Wild" | |
| 2018 | Blue Bloods | Ethan Goodwin | Episode: "Second Chances" | |
| All These Small Moments | Dr. Rogers | |||
| New Amsterdam | Rodger Conway | Episode: "Three Dots" | ||
| 2019 | Holiday Rush | Reginald Miller | ||
| 2020 | You Can't Take My Daughter | McDevitt | Television film |
| Year | Title | Role(s) | Venue(s) | Notes | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Bud, Not Buddy | Jimmy, etc. | Kennedy Center | [6] | ||
| 2014 | Fetch Clay, Make Man | Stepin Fetchit | Round House Theatre | [7] | ||
| 2014 | The Fabulous Miss Marie | Bill | New Federal Theatre | [8] | ||
| 2012 | Jitney | Jim | Theatre Morgan | [9] | ||
| 2010 | The Last Fall | Neville | Crossroads Theatre | [10] | ||
| 2010 | Driving Miss Daisy | Hoke | Fulton Theatre (PA) | [11] |