From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Lou Leabengula Myers (born September 26, 1945) is an American actor. Myers is typically typecast as a grumpy old man, but he has 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 probably best known as the feisty Mr. Vernon Gaines in the sitcom A Different World. Myers is also an accomplished pianist. Myers was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of Dorothy Jeffries (née Brown). Description above from the Wikipedia article Lou Myers (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.