CNN
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Clarence Gilyard Jr. is best known for playing computer hacker Theo.die hardand Naval Air Officer Marcus “Sundown” Williams.”top gun,” died at the age of 66.
His death was announced Monday in a statement from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
In a statement shared on Instagram, Dean Nancy Usher said, “It is with great sadness that I share this news.” I was deeply influenced by him, he had many extraordinary talents and was very well known at the university through his dedication to teaching and his professional achievements.”
Heather Addison, UNLV’s Film Commissioner, remembered Gilyard as “a beacon of light and strength for everyone around him at UNLV”.
She added: But we are truly the people who have been blessed over the years as his colleagues and students.Professor G, we love you.
No further details regarding his death have been released.
According to UNLV, Gilyard tried his hand at acting after studying drama at California State University. He got his first role in his 1981 television show, ‘Diff’rent Strokes’.
In 1986, Gilyard made his film debut in ‘Top Gun’, playing Sandown, one of the elite fighter pilots.
Two years later, he was cast in the thriller Die Hard as Theo, a computer expert who helps Hans Gruber’s terrorist organization.
He got his big break into primetime television in 1989 when he played the role of Conrad McMasters in the NBC legal drama Matlock, opposite Andy Griffiths. He then played Chuck Norris’ crime-fighting partner, Jimmy Trivett, in “Walker the Texas Ranger.”
Gilyard’s acting credits also include the films ‘The Karate Kid Part II’, ‘CHiPS’ and ‘Left Behind’.
Despite pursuing an acting career, Gilliard left acting in 2006 to begin teaching at UNLV and directing productions at the university’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre.
“I am good at teaching, and I am a professional, but the profession has to feed the classroom. It does,” he said. Las Vegas Review Journal 2017.
“I do my best work as an artist when I am on the fertile stage. is sapping their energy.”
However, he made a brief return to the screen in 2021 when he reunited with Bruce Willis and Devoreau White for a “Die Hard” Battery commercial.