According to Celebrity Net Worth, Clarence Gilyard’s estimated net worth at the time of his passing was $5 million.
In 1986’s Top Gun, Gilyard made his acting debut as Lt. (JG) Marcus “Sundown” Williams, an F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer.
He played a soldier in The Karate Kid Part II in 1986. He played Theo, a criminal computer whiz and the last surviving lousy guy in the 1988 action movie Die Hard.
Additionally, he played Reverend Bruce Barnes in Left Behind: The Movie and Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.
From 1989 through 1993, he co-starred with Andy Griffith in Matlock as Conrad McMasters, Ben Matlock’s private eye.
He took over for Kene Holliday, who was fired due to his drug and alcohol abuse. Gilyard started appearing in practically every episode of Matlock in season 3.
Production was transferred from Los Angeles to Wilmington, North Carolina, when the show switched networks for its seventh season, going from N.B.C. to ABC.
Gilyard agreed to Andy Griffith’s recommendation to relocate there, which he did before leaving to work on a pilot for another CBS series the following year.
He started a second, long-running co-starring role with Chuck Norris on Walker, Texas Ranger, in 1993. James “Jimmy” Trivette, a fellow Texas Ranger and Walker’s closest buddy, was portrayed by Gilyard.
Near the end of the show, the character of Norris marries his longtime partner, an assistant district attorney, and Gilyard receives a girlfriend. Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire, a 2005 television film, had a cameo from Gilyard.
After taking some time off to educate, Gilyard resumed acting in 2012, primarily in unaffiliated productions. He appeared in the spiritual movie A Matter of Faith in 2014.
In the Neil Simon Festival production of Driving Miss Daisy, Gilyard played Hoak Colburn on stage at the University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall on January 17, 2016, with Sheree J. Wilson, a former Walker, Texas Ranger co-star.
