Veteran scene-stealer Clarence Gilyard Jr., who starred in the 1980s action films “Top Gun” and “Die Hard,” has died after a struggle with an unidentified illness. Age-wise, he was 66.
The University of Nevada in Las Vegas, where the actor had been employed as a film and theater professor at the UNLV College of Fine Arts, announced the actor’s demise.
Did Clarence Gilyard play in Top Gun?
Gilyard, who was born in Moses Lake, Washington, in 1955, had his film debut in “Top Gun” (1986).
Who did Clarence Gilyard play in Top Gun?
Gilyard portrayed an elite fighter pilot named Marcus “Sundown” Williams.
In “Die Hard,” opposite Bruce Willis as detective John McClane, the actor would go on to play Theo, Hans Gruber’s eccentric computer hacker who takes control of the Nakatomi Plaza’s security codes (1988).
When Gilyard co-starred with Willis in a 2020 Advance Auto Parts commercial promoting the company’s DieHard vehicle batteries, he played Theo once more. Theo led McClane on an action-packed expedition to find a new battery for his dead automobile in the two-minute commercial.
