From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Lou Myers (September 26, 1935 – February 19, 2013) was an American actor. He was typically typecast as a grumpy old man, but he appeared in many movies, stage plays television sitcoms, and dramas. He got his first break as an understudy in the Broadway play, The First Breeze of Summer as Reverend Mosley. He is perhaps best known as the feisty Mr. Vernon Gaines in the sitcom A Different World. Myers was also an accomplished pianist. Myers was born in Cabin Creek, West Virginia, the son of Dorothy Jeffries (née Brown). Myers died at the Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia after battling pneumonia for several months. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lou Myers (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.