He made a number of TV appearances in the late '70s before debuting onscreen in a prominent role in Ragtime (1981), for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Like many black actors, he found few rewarding roles were subsequently offered to him despite his success, and it was three years before he appeared in his second film, A Soldier's Story (1984). Meanwhile, he did much work on TV, and later became a regular on the series In the Heat of the Night; his film work has been minimal.