<Tr> <Th> Occupation </Th> <Td> Actor </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Years active </Th> <Td> 1970--1996 </Td> </Tr> <P> Howard Ellsworth Rollins Jr . (October 17, 1950--December 8, 1996) was an American stage, film and television actor . Howard Rollins was best known for his role as Andrew Young in 1978's King, George Haley in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, Coalhouse Walker Jr. in the 1981 film Ragtime, Captain Davenport in the 1984 film A Soldier's Story, and as Virgil Tibbs on the crime drama In the Heat of the Night . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

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