{"id":142761,"date":"2022-11-29T09:45:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T09:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/die-hard-actor-unlv-professor-clarence-gilyard-dies\/"},"modified":"2022-11-29T09:45:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T09:45:06","slug":"die-hard-actor-unlv-professor-clarence-gilyard-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/die-hard-actor-unlv-professor-clarence-gilyard-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Die Hard’ actor, UNLV professor Clarence Gilyard dies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Clarence Gilyard, a film and TV star who cherished his role as a UNLV theater professor, has died. He was 66. UNLV’s College of Fine Arts announced Gilyard’s death in a news release Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Gilyard had been suffering from a long illness. No further details are yet available.<\/p>\n

Gilyard was a UNLV Department of Film professor since 2006. By then, he was a well-established television, film and theater professional for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Gilyard was famous for his role as computer-terror expert Theo in the 1988 thriller \u201cDie Hard.\u201d For 13 years, he was on prime time, network TV on \u201cMatlock,\u201d portraying Andy Griffith’s private investigator, Conrad McMasters; then as Jimmy Trivette on \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger,\u201d opposite Chuck Norris.<\/p>\n

Gilyard had actually put his career on pause for a time to focus on teaching at UNLV.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy manager-agent is not happy that I’m not working, but the university is just too much fun. And once you start a semester and meet those students, it’s like doing a TV series,\u201d Gilyard said in 2010. \u201cYou’re plugged into them. How can you leave them once you see in their eyes that they’re depending on you? They have aspirations for their own growth for those 15 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNLV College of Fine Arts Dean Nancy Uscher said she felt \u201cprofound sadness\u201d in announcing Gilyard’s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis students were deeply inspired by him, as were all who knew him. He had many extraordinary talents and was extremely well-known in the university through his dedication to teaching and his professional accomplishments, \u201dUscher said in a statement. \u201cHis generosity of spirit was boundless \u2014 he was always ready to contribute to projects and performances however possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said UNLV film chair Heather Addison, \u201cWhenever we asked him how he was, he would cheerfully declare that he was ‘Blessed!’ But we are truly the ones who were blessed to be his colleagues and students for so many years. \u201d<\/p>\n

Gilyard revived his role as Theo for a two-minute, Die Hard battery commercial that aired during Super Bowl LV in February 2o21.<\/p>\n

The project reunited Gilyard and \u201cDie Hard\u201d co-star Bruce Willis as New York City Police Detective John McClane. Gilyard even mused about resuming the \u201cDie Hard\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got back involved, I thought, ‘This, I should do.’\u201d he said in December 2020. \u201cThe scale, the toys, the focus, the collaboration all feels like a return to the mainstream of Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n