He won a Tony Award for the original 1975 Broadway production and recreated the role in the 1978 film version which also starred Diana Ross (no relation), Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Nipsey Russell, and Lena Horne.

While in junior high, Ross, who was big for his age, would dress up and strut into the Owl Club and The Palace Theatre's Midnight Rambles to see great acts such as Duke Ellington.

His first film was The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, a baseball movie starring James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor.

According to Rialto Report interview with adult actor Michael Lawrence, Ross "...was a big swinger and used to throw a lot of orgies at his house.

[3] Ross was honoured by Dayton's Wayman Chapel AME Church, the Miami Valley Fisk University Alumni Club and by WROU-FM as a Black History Month Achiever.