Skip to main content
Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Clarence Gilyard Jr., an actor known for his roles in hit ’80s movies like Top Gun and Die Hard, has died. He was 66.
Gilyard was also a film and theater professor at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which confirmed his death on Monday afternoon (Nov. 28), according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The outlet reports that Gilyard had been “suffering from a long illness,” but a cause of death was not immediately available.
The UNLV Department of Theater Facebook page shared the Las Vegas Review-Journal article yesterday, adding, “The Department of Theatre has lost it dear colleague, Clarence Gilyard. Rest In Peace.”
Gilyard was born in Moses Lake, Washington in 1955 and later moved to California, where he attended high school, according to Deadline. He attended California State University and graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts, and settled in L.A. in the ’70s to start his acting career.
Gilyard enjoyed a decades-long career in film in television, booking his first role in 1981 as Frank Simpson in Diff’rent Strokes. He went on to appear in 20 episodes of CHiPS, in which he played Officer Benjamin Webster, and booked his first feature film role in 1986’s Top Gun, in which he played Sundown.
After Top Gun, Gilyard appeared in films like The Karate Kid Part II and Die Hard, in which he played Theo, a computer hacker. Not long after Die Hard, he starred in the crime drama series Matlock as Conrad McMasters, a role he played for 85 episodes.
When his time on Matlock came to an end, Gilyard stepped into another regular TV role as James Trivette on Walker, Texas Ranger, which he starred on from 1993 to 2001, appearing in nearly 200 episodes over the years.
In recent years, Gilyard — who joined the UNLV faculty in 2006 — appeared in a Top Gun short and a Die Hard short. His final role was in 2021’s Legacy of a Spy, in which he played Bill Pope.
