Clarence Gilyard Die: Actor Clarence Gilyard, well remembered for his roles as Theo the hacker in “Die Hard” and Marcus “Sundown” Williams, a navy flying lieutenant in “Top Gun,” has passed away at the age of 66.
Clarence Gilyard Die Hard And ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Star, Dead At 66!
On Monday, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he was an associate professor in the College of Fine Arts, released a statement confirming his death. “It is with tremendous grief that I offer this news,” Dean Nancy Uscher stated in the Instagram post. All who knew him, especially his students, found great motivation in him.
Since he devoted so much time and energy to his teaching and career, he gained widespread recognition on campus and was lauded for his outstanding gifts. Heather Addison, the chair of the UNLV film department, recalled Gilyard as a “beacon of light and strength for everyone around him at UNLV.”
“Whenever we asked him how he was, he would gladly declare that he was Blessed!” Yet we, his longtime colleagues and students, are the lucky ones. Professor G, you will be sorely missed. Details of his demise are sketchy at best. Clarence Gilyard Die Hard And ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Star, Dead At 66!
Gilyard, who reportedly graduated from California State University with a degree in Theatre Arts, decided to try acting. In 1981, he started on “Diff’rent Strokes,” where he played a recurring character. Gilyard made his acting debut in the 1986 picture “Top Gun,” in which he played Sundown, one of the top fighter pilots.
Two years later, in the action film “Die Hard,” he played Theo, a computer expert who assists Hans Gruber’s terrorist outfit. In 1989, he was cast as Andy Griffith’s on-screen partner Conrad McMasters on the NBC legal drama “Matlock.” Soon after, he was cast as Chuck Norris’s sidekick Jimmy Trivette on “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
Besides “The Karate Kid Part II,” “CHiPS,” and “Left Behind,” Gilyard has been in several other films. Despite his extensive playing resume, Gilyard left performing in 2006 to teach at UNLV and oversee performances at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre.
I was born to be a teacher. Also, I’m a trained expert, but academia needs the field’s expertise. ‘I’m in touch with people’s lives in the twenty-first century, and that’s what gives my characters energy,’ he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2017.
For me, the most creative environments foster experimentation and risk-taking. That’s jargon for being original and resourceful. Even if I can’t follow what they’re saying, being among so many millennials has given me a burst of enthusiasm. Clarence Gilyard Die Hard And ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Star, Dead At 66!
But in 2021, he made a brief comeback when he appeared in a “Die Hard” battery advertisement alongside Bruce Willis and De’voreaux White. If you find this interesting, please forward it to your friends. Visit Newswatchlist.com for the most up-to-date and recent celebrity news.