Howard Rollins

Howard Rollins, American actor (died 1996)

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Born: October 17, 1950
Died: December 8, 1996
Zodiac sign: Libra
Birth year: 1950

About Howard Rollins

Howard Ellsworth Rollins Jr. was an American stage, film and television actor. He 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, as civil rights activist Medgar Evers in PBS' American Playhouse production of For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story in 1983, Captain Davenport in the 1984 film A Soldier's Story, and as Virgil Tibbs on the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995). While on the series, Rollins recorded "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" for the 1991 In the Heat of the Night Christmas CD, Christmas Time's A Comin', produced by his co-stars Randall Franks and Alan Autry.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Howard Rollins was born

Howard Rollins was born in 1950. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1950

#1 song"Goodnight, Irene" – The Weavers
Top movieAll About Eve
Top TV showTexaco Star Theater
Best-selling bookThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentUSA beats England 1-0 in the FIFA World Cup
Top headlineKorean War begins as North Korea invades the South
Technology milestoneFirst credit card introduced (Diners Club)
Defining fadPoodle skirts
Notable inventionCredit card (Diners Club)
World population2.56 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
Also wonMinneapolis Lakers (NBA)
U.S. population151.3M

1950 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Howard Rollins's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1950	2026
Gas	$0.27	$3.45/gal
Average home	$8,450	$435,000
Average income	$5,200	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.75	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.46	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	151.3M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.