Film and TV actor Clarence Gilyard – who was known for his supporting roles in the films Top Gun and Die Hard and for starring in the TV show Walker, Texas Ranger – has died, according to the university where he taught. He was 66 years old.
Gilyard was reportedly ill for a long time, but no further details were immediately available when the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) College of Fine Arts announced his death in a press release Monday afternoon.
Fans of Tom Cruise’s 1986 blockbuster Top Gun saw Gilyard portray a pilot named Sundown in what was his film debut. He was also the clever terrorist Theo in Bruce Willis’ 1988 film Die Hard, a role he reprized in a 2021 Super Bowl commercial. And in 1989 he began regularly portraying private investigator Conrad McMasters in the prime-time TV lawyer drama Matlock starring Andy Griffith.
Gilyard left in 1993 after 85 appearances on Matlock and starred as the sidekick to the titular character Chuck Norris in the TV crime drama Walker, Texas Ranger. He portrayed the character of Jimmy Trivette throughout the show’s eight seasons – and even directed one of its 196 episodes – before its 2001 conclusion.
UNLV brought Gilyard to its theater faculty as an associate professor in 2006. He treasured his role as an instructor there and prioritized it in pursuit of more on-screen credits, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
According to the Review-Journal, Gilyard described his love of teaching in 2010.
“My manager-agent is not happy that I’m not working, but college is just too much fun,” Gilyard said at the time. “And once you start a semester and meet these students, it’s like doing a TV series.
“You are plugged into them. How can you leave them once you see in their eyes that they are counting on you? They have aspirations for their own growth during these 15 weeks.
The dean of the school’s college of fine arts, Nancy Uscher, said in a statement Monday that Gilyard “deeply inspired” her students.
“His generosity of spirit was boundless – he was always ready to contribute to projects and performances as much as possible,” Uscher’s statement added.
The film critic Courtney Howard said tweeted Monday night that Gilyard’s work “solidified his place in film history,” but his college career had the same consequence, having “countless real-life impact.”
Before embarking on his acting career, Gilyard was born in Moses Lake, Washington, and grew up in a military family that lived in air bases across the United States before settling in California. He then attended the United States Air Force Academy for a year and eventually earned his bachelor’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Gilyard was the father of six children. He divorced Catherine Dutko and in 2001 married his wife, Elena Gilyard.