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This subject has been distinguished as part of the real world and should not be taken as part of the fictional universe of the Left Behind franchise.


Clarence Alfred Gilyard Jr. (December 24, 1955 – November 28, 2022) was an American university professor, actor, and author. He played Bruce Barnes in the first two Left Behind films of the original trilogy, Left Behind: The Movie and its follow-up Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Gilyard was born into a military family in Moses Lake, Washington, on Christmas Eve, in 1955, the son of Barbara and Clarence Alfred Gilyard Sr., a U.S. Air Force officer. Gilyard was the second of six children. His family was originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, but Gilyard grew up on Air Force bases in Hawaii, Texas, and Florida. Raised primarily as a Lutheran, he became Catholic in the 1990s.

During his young adulthood, Gilyard lived in the San Bernardino suburb of Rialto, California, and attended Eisenhower High School. He was an excellent student, graduating in 1974, and afterward spent a year as an Air Force Academy cadet before leaving the service to attend Sterling College. In college, he played football, and became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He also received a tennis scholarship, but dropped out of school before completing his studies.

While living with his parents during his college years, Gilyard was preoccupied with women, alcohol, and occasionally, drugs. His parents urged him to move out, so he relocated to Long Beach, California, with a friend. He attended California State University, Long Beach, majoring in acting, and worked as a waiter while seeking acting opportunities. He completed his bachelor's degree at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Gilyard worked with a housemate at a clothing store, where he was promoted to manager. He left this to work briefly selling industrial chemicals. In 2003, Gilyard returned to school, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in theatre performance at Southern Methodist University.

In 1979, Gilyard moved to Los Angeles to become an actor. Among other work, a role in the play Bleacher Bums made him what one magazine called "the first black actor to play a cheerleader", before he segued into television roles. As a character actor, Gilyard made guest appearances on TV shows such as Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, 227, Simon & Simon, and Riptide. In 1982–1983, Gilyard was cast in the final season of the NBC TV series CHiPs as Officer Benjamin Webster, opposite Erik Estrada. He co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 1984 NBC sitcom The Duck Factory. He appeared in a commercial for McDonald's in 1987.[citation needed]

Gilyard's movie debut in 1986 was as an F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer, LT.(JG) Marcus "Sundown" Williams, in Top Gun. He was also a military man in the 1986 film The Karate Kid Part II. He appeared in the 1988 action film Die Hard as Theo, a criminal computer expert. He also appeared as Reverend Bruce Barnes in Left Behind: The Movie and its sequel, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.

Gilyard came back to series television for the first time in five years, only this time, it proved to be a successful move when he portrayed that of a young private eye, Conrad McMasters, on the drama series, Matlock, from 1989 to 1993, when he replaced Kene Holliday that same season, due to his arrest with his drug/alcohol abuse. Gilyard, who had been a fan of Griffith's, having been a four-year-old boy at the time, had beaten out three other actors for the role, when a screen-test came. He also had the distinct chemistry with his series lead, Andy Griffith, for four years, both on-screen and off, when Griffith was very difficult to work with himself. Unlike many actors, with the exception of both Holliday & Daniel Roebuck (whom he replaced Gilyard in 1993), he had almost appeared in every Matlock episode for his three seasons he stayed on the show. After the show had moved from NBC to ABC for the series' seventh season, he was about to work on a pilot for another series on CBS, hence, most of Gilyard's appearances have been reduced on Matlock.

In 1993, his dream would also come true as he would earn yet another co-starring role opposite Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger James "Jimmy" Trivette on Walker, Texas Ranger, which was a much better hit. Being the western man that he is, it was another role that he would take as he enjoyed performing stunts and dangerous work on and off the set, at the same time that his new relationship with Norris would be best pals, mirroring away from the set. In a 2005 interview with A&E Biography, he said that Norris' Walker character was a cult-classic Western hero, from when he was growing up, other westerns that both he & his series' star had watched, during their era, which obviously became their second fathers. He would continue playing the same role until 2001, making Gilyard one of the top stars in Hollywood, having to co-star with two legends, 12 seasons altogether in two separate roles.

Gilyard was married twice and had six children. His first marriage, to Catherine Dutko in 1989, ended in divorce, and he married his second wife, Elena Castillo, in 2001. He served as the consultant of the communications committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Death[]

After a long illness, Gilyard died at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 28, 2022, at the age of 66.

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