Reginald VelJohnson (born Reginald Johnson; August 16, 1952) is an American actor. He is best known for playing police officer characters, such as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters, which ran from 1989 to 1998, and LAPD Sergeant Al Powell in the films Die Hard and Die Hard 2. Early life VelJohnson was born Reginald Johnson on August 16, 1952, in the Queens borough of New York City, the son of Eva, a nurse’s aid, and Dan, a hospital attendant. His father left the family, which included Reginald's brother Barry, when Johnson was 13 years old. Their mother subsequently married John Reilly. Johnson attended Benjamin N. Cardozo High School . He later obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater from New York University, where he had a chance to work with Joseph Papp's Black/Hispanic Shakespeare Company, in which Morgan Freeman and CCH Pounder were among his fellow actors. Early in his acting career, he changed his name from Reginald Johnson (his birth name) to Reginald VelJohnson. He later said he changed the spelling "because I wanted a name people would remember." Career VelJohnson is known for playing police officers in films and on television. His early career included a brief appearance in Ghostbusters (1984) as a municipal corrections officer, and an appearance in Crocodile Dundee (1986) as a limo driver. VelJohnson played alongside Tom Hanks, as Det. David Sutton, in Turner & Hooch (1989). He would also play an ambulance driver in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) in which he was credited by the stage name Ivory Ocean. VelJohnson had his breakthrough role as Sgt. Al Powell in the 1988 film Die Hard. VelJohnson was hired after Gene Hackman, originally hired to play the role, became unavailable, and producers decided to hire a relatively unknown actor for the part. He came from New York to California to film it for nine months, which was so long that he just ended up residing in California permanently thereafter. He also later reprised the character in the 1990 sequel Die Hard 2. VelJohnson again portrayed Sgt. Powell in the GameCube video game title, Die Hard: Vendetta, in 2002. In 1989, VelJohnson was cast as the memorable police officer and family patriarch Carl Winslow in the ABC (later CBS) sitcom Family Matters, alongside Jo Marie Payton, who played his wife Harriette Winslow. It was a spinoff of the popular show Perfect