Jessie Lawrence Ferguson

Jessie Lawrence Ferguson spent the early days of his childhood in the Bronx before his family uprooted and moved to Illinois. From there, he took his time to break into the film industry. It wasn't until his late 20s that Ferguson made his screen debut. He first appeared in an episode of "Starsky and Hutch" (ABC 1975-79). From there, he stayed busy throughout the 1980s, first appearing movies like "The Onion Field" (1979) and "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh" (1979). He had small roles in a variety of cult classics, including "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (1984), John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" (1987), and Sam Raimi's "Darkman" (1990). While Ferguson never landed a consistent TV gig, he did appear on in a few episodes of notable series, such as "St. Elsewhere" (NBC 1982-88) and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (Syndicated 1987-1994). His breakout role was as the complicated cop Officer Coffey in John Singleton's Academy Award-nominated classic "Boyz n the Hood" (1991). His career never took off after "Boyz n the Hood," but he spent the next few decades raising a family before passing away unexpectedly at the age of 77 in April 2019.