Ted Ross - wikipedia Ted Ross For the football player, see Ted Ross ( American football ). Ted Ross Ross ( bottom right ) in the cast of Sirota 's Court Theodore Ross Roberts ( 1934 - 06 - 30 ) June 30, 1934 Zanesville, Ohio, U.S. September 3, 2002 ( 2002 - 09 - 03 ) ( aged 68 ) Dayton, Ohio, U.S. Occupation Actor Years active 1968 -- 1991 Theodore Ross Roberts ( June 30, 1934 -- September 3, 2002 ), known as Ted Ross, was an American actor who was probably best known for his role as the Lion in The Wiz, an all - African American reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz. He won a Tony Award for the original 1975 Broadway production, and went on to recreate the role in the 1978 film version which also starred Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Nipsey Russell. Ross went on to appear in films including the role of Bitterman in the classic Arthur, and on the television sitcoms The Jeffersons, Benson, The Cosby Show, and its spin - off A Different World. His final role was in the 1991 movie The Fisher King. Contents 1 Biography 2 Death and honours 3 Broadway and stage 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links Biography Ross was born in Zanesville, Ohio, but his mother, Elizabeth Russell, a nightclub singer in the 1920s and 1930s, moved the family to Dayton when young Ross was seven. He loved the clubs on West Fifth Street -- Dayton 's answer to Harlem in the first half of the 20th century. While in junior high, Ross, who was big for his age, would dress up and strut into the Owl Club and The Palace Theater 's Midnight Rambles to see great acts such as Duke Ellington. His nightclub exploits as a teenager were not very popular at home. He dropped out of Roosevelt High in 1950 and enlisted in the United States Air Force. Two years later at age eighteen, Ross entered an amateur night contest at the Top Hat bar on Germantown Street. Home on furlough, he sang a cover of Judy Garland 's `` Over the Rainbow '', won $5 that night and found his calling. After leaving the military, Ross worked his way from Great Falls, Montana, to a strip bar in Los Angeles as a singer and MC. There he landed his first stage role in Oscar Brown Jr. 's `` Bigtime Buck White ''. The musical began as a workshop in Watts and moved to New York City in 1968. He starred in The Wiz and other Broadway productions, such as Purlie, Ai n't Misbehavin, and Raisin in the Sun. His first film was The Bingo Long Traveling All - Stars & Motor Kings, a baseball movie starring James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor. Films that followed included Ragtime, Amityville II, Police Academy, Stealing Home, and The Fisher King. One of the roles he is most fondly remembered for is that of Bitterman, Arthur Bach 's long suffering chauffeur in the 1981 Dudley Moore hit, Arthur. In 1990, Ross played Troy Maxson in a Cincinnati production of August Wilson 's Fences. It was the first time his family saw him perform on stage since the contest in 1952. He came home for good in 1997 and opened Your Place, a jazz club on West Third Street. Occasionally, Ross sat in and sang in his club, and performed as part of the Dayton Art Institutes 's Just Jazz series. Death and honours He was honored by Dayton 's Wayman Chapel AME Church, the Miami Valley Fisk University Alumni Club and by WROU - FM as a Black History Month Achiever. He suffered a stroke in 1998, and died from complications four years later at Good Samaritan Hospital, aged 68. Broadway and stage Buck White ( 1969 ) Purlie ( 1970 ) ( 1972 ) Raisin ( 1973 ) The Wiz ( 1975 ) Filmography The Bingo Long Traveling All - Stars & Motor Kings ( 1976 ) - Sallison ' Sallie ' Potter, Owner of Ebony Aces Minstrel Man ( 1977 ) - Charlie Bates, Minstrel Singer The Wiz ( 1978 ) - Lion / Fleetwood Coupe de Ville Arthur ( 1981 ) - Bitterman Ragtime ( 1981 ) - Black Lawyer Fighting Back ( 1982 ) - Commissioner Amityville II : The Possession ( 1982 ) - Mr. Booth, the Lawyer Police Academy ( 1984 ) - Captain Reed Arthur 2 : On the Rocks ( 1988 ) - Bitterman Stealing Home ( 1988 ) - Bud Scott The Fisher King ( 1991 ) - Limo Bum ( final film role ) References Jump up ^ Ted Ross on IMDb External links Biography portal Ted Ross at Find a Grave Ted Ross at the Internet Broadway Database Ted Ross at The African American Registry Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical Ted Ross ( 1975 ) George Rose ( 1976 ) Ken Bichel / Michael Mark / John Miller / Joseph Saulter ( 1977 ) Kevin Kline ( 1978 ) Ken Jennings ( 1979 ) Bob Gunton ( 1980 ) Tony Azito ( 1981 ) Cleavant Derricks ( 1982 ) Charles Coles ( 1983 ) Martin Vidnovic ( 1984 ) René Auberjonois ( 1985 ) Michael Rupert ( 1986 ) Michael Maguire ( 1987 ) Robert Westenberg ( 1988 ) Michael Jeter ( 1990 ) Bruce Adler ( 1991 ) Scott Waara ( 1992 ) Mark Michael Hutchinson ( 1993 ) Jarrod Emick ( 1994 ) Wilson Jermaine Heredia ( 1996 ) Joel Grey ( 1997 ) Gregg Edelman ( 1998 ) Roger Bart ( 1999 ) Stephen Spinella ( 2000 ) Gary Beach ( 2001 ) Shuler Hensley ( 2002 ) Dick Latessa ( 2003 ) Raúl Esparza ( 2004 ) Denis O'Hare ( 2005 ) Jim Dale ( 2006 ) Gavin Lee ( 2007 ) Boyd Gaines ( 2008 ) Gregory Jbara ( 2009 ) Christopher Fitzgerald ( 2010 ) John Larroquette ( 2011 ) Michael McGrath ( 2012 ) Bertie Carvel ( 2013 ) James Monroe Iglehart ( 2014 ) Christian Borle ( 2015 ) Christopher Fitzgerald ( 2016 ) Gavin Creel ( 2017 ) Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical ( 1947 -- 1975 ) David Wayne ( 1947 ) Myron McCormick ( 1950 ) Russell Nype ( 1951 ) Yul Brynner ( 1952 ) Hiram Sherman ( 1953 ) Harry Belafonte ( 1954 ) Cyril Ritchard ( 1955 ) Russ Brown ( 1956 ) Sydney Chaplin ( 1957 ) David Burns ( 1958 ) Russell Nype ( 1959 ) Tom Bosley ( 1960 ) Dick Van Dyke ( 1961 ) Charles Nelson Reilly ( 1962 ) David Burns ( 1963 ) Jack Cassidy ( 1964 ) Victor Spinetti ( 1965 ) Frankie Michaels ( 1966 ) Joel Grey ( 1967 ) Hiram Sherman ( 1968 ) Ron Holgate ( 1969 ) René Auberjonois ( 1970 ) Keene Curtis ( 1971 ) Larry Blyden ( 1972 ) George S. Irving ( 1973 ) Tommy Tune ( 1974 ) Ted Ross ( 1975 ) Complete list ( 1947 -- 1975 ) ( 1976 -- 2000 ) ( 2001 -- 2025 ) VIAF : 33694310 LCCN : n94101030 GND : 135996333 MusicBrainz : f9710583 - 4d42 - 4138 - b877 - 244caca68956 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ted_Ross&oldid=806197540 '' Categories : 1934 births 2002 deaths American male film actors American male musical theatre actors American male stage actors Disease - related deaths in Ohio Drama Desk Award winners People from Zanesville, Ohio Male actors from Dayton, Ohio Tony Award winners African - American male actors American male television actors Hidden categories : Pages to import images to Wikidata Articles with hCards All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016 Find a Grave template with ID same as Wikidata Articles with IBDb links Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Asturianu Deutsch Español فارسی Français Italiano 日本 語 Polski Edit links This page was last edited on 20 October 2017, at 11 : 01. 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Question: who played the cowardly lion in the wiz
Answer: Theodore Ross Roberts