Terry Carter of 'Battlestar Galactica' Dies at 95

Terry Carter, who broke barriers as a Black actor working in the early days of TV, died April 23 at his NYC home. He was 95.

The New York Times confirmed his death with his son, Miguel Carter DeCoste.

Born John Everett DeCoste on December 16, 1928, he graduated from NYC's Stuyvesant High in 1946. After a stint as a merchant marine and as a pianist, he went to college and studied law before moving into acting.

He made his Broadway debut 70 years ago with Eartha Kitt in "Mrs. Patterson." Four years later, he co-produced "A Streetcar Named Desire" off-Broadway with a predominantly Black cast.

His first work on TV was a 1955 episode of "Playwrights '56," and he soon after was hired as a regular cast member of "The Phil Silvers Show" (popularly called "Sergeant Bilko"). He appeared on over 90 episodes of the iconic series from 1955-1959 as Private Sugie Sugarman. He was the show's only Black actor, and became its longest-surviving alum.

When he appeared on an episode of "Combat!" in 1965, he became the only Black actor playing an enlisted man in the show's entire five-year run, in spite of the large number of people of color in the military at the time.

Most famously, Carter was Sergeant Broadhurst on the Dennis Weaver drama "McCloud" (1970-1977) and Colonel Tigh on the space opera "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-1979).

He reprised his role as Broadhurst in the TV movie "The Return of Sam McCloud" (1989) and his role as Tigh in both "Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming," a 1999 short, and the 2003 video "Galacticon."

Though rarely seen in feature films, Carter appeared in "Parrish" (1961), "Attraction" (1969), the Pam Grier blaxploitation classic "Foxy Brown" (1974), and in the phenomenally successful animal film "Benji" (1974).

Aside from his acting career, he was from 1965-1968 New England's first Black news anchor, at Boston's WBZ-TV. He later ran a company that made educational films. Among the films his company produced was "A Duke Named Ellington" (1988), which won several awards and was Emmy-nominated.

Carter is survived by his third wife, his two children, his stepdaughter, and his granddaughter.