About Clarence Gilyard
Clarence Darnell Gilyard Jr. (December 24, 1955 – November 23, 2022) was an American actor and educator. On television, he played private investigator Conrad McMasters on the legal drama series Matlock (1986–95) and Texas Ranger Jimmy Trivette on Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2001). Gilyard also had supporting roles in the 1980s action films Top Gun, as Radar Intercept Officer "Sundown", and Die Hard, as terrorist computer expert Theo. Gilyard was an associate professor of acting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 2006 until his death in 2022. == 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.
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