Howard Rollins (October 17, 1950 – December 8, 1996) was an American television, film, and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime and Virgil Tibbs on In the Heat of the Night.

Filmography

• 2004Remembering Ragtime — Coalhouse Walker Jr. (archive footage)
• 1997Drunks — Joseph
• 1996Harambee! — Chimbuko
• Remember WENN — George Smith
• New York Undercover — Reverend Hundley
• 1994The Legacy of Malthus — Self (Population Institute, 1993) (archive footage)
• 1992With Murder in Mind — Samuel Carver
• 1990On the Block — Clay Beasley
• En el calor de la noche — Chief of Detectives Virgil Tibbs
• In the Heat of the Night — Virgil Tibbs
• 1986Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI — T.C. Russell
• 1986The Boy King — Rev. Martin Luther King Sr.
• 1986The Children of Times Square — Otis Travis
• Wildside
• 1984A Doctor's Story — Dr. Zack Williams
• 1984A Soldier's Story — Captain Davenport
• 1984He's Fired, She's Hired — Raoul
• 1984The House of Dies Drear — Walter Small
• 1984The House of God — Chuck Johnston
• 1983For Us, the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers — Medgar Evers
• American Playhouse — Medgar Evers
• 1982The Member of the Wedding — Honey Brown
• 1982The Neighborhood — Allen Campbell
• 1981Ragtime — Coalhouse Walker Jr.
• 1981Thornwell — Carson
• 1979My Old Man — Doctor
• Roots: The Next Generations — George Haley
• King — Andrew Young
• 1978The Trial of the Moke — James Smith
• Another World

Appearances as themselves (2)

• 1981Chytilová Versus Forman — Self
• Fridays — Self