Clarence Gilyard Net Worth

Clarence Gilyard's Quotes

• I grew up as an Air Force brat. My family moved around a lot. I entered the U.S. Air Force Academy after high school, but left after a year. I couldn't afford to stay at Sterling College in Kansas, where I played wide receiver for the football team, so I went to work and eventually moved back to California.
• Why I got to do 13 straight years of network television and somebody else didn't, who knows?
• It took me 10 years, but I eventually graduated from college, too.
• [on his character in "Left Behind"]: I am blessed to be a part of the production and get to play this character. I'm not the best actor in the world, but even better, I get to help this character evolve. I think God wants me to be playing Bruce Barnes.
• [Of his journeyman career]: I had been trying to make it in show business without any real vision. I was getting some success because I was a type - I had a quality that producers were looking for. But I wasn't controlling my destiny.

Interesting Facts about Clarence Gilyard

1. Attended Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas, for some time. After his success as an actor, Clarence has given back to the college in many ways, one of which was paying for new tennis courts for the college.
2. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
3. Gilyard was born in Moses Lakes, Washington, but was raised on military bases in Hawaii, Texas, and Florida.
4. He began his acting career working in the children's theater.
5. After joining the cast of the play "Bleacher Burns," Clarence became the first black actor to play the role of the cheerleader. By coincidence, the real-life person on whom the cheerleader at Wrigley Field was based was indeed black.
6. Best known by the public for his roles as Conrad McMasters on Matlock (1986), and as James "Jimmy" Trivette on Walker, Texas Ranger (1993).
7. Three of the movies he has starred in have gone on to gross well over $150 million each in worldwide box office and DVD sales.
8. As a little boy, like co-star Nancy Stafford, he was a huge fan of The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Several years after that show went off the air, he beat out three other actors for the role of a private investigator on Andy Griffith's Matlock (1986), for the fourth season of the series, when he replaced Kene Holiday.
9. His son, Peter, was born on May 30, 2007.
10. Originally a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
11. Serves as a consultant of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Communications.
12. Like his father, he went to the Air Force Academy.
13. Graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California, in 1974.
14. His brother, Milton, is moderately developmentally disabled.
15. Before he was an actor, he worked with his housemate at a clothing store. He was promoted to manager.
16. His father, Clarence Sr., had converted his religion from Baptist to Lutheran, which Clarence Jr. practiced in California, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, everywhere.
17. Attended California State University, Long Beach, with a major in theater.
18. Went to the same high school as ex-Allies lead guitarist Randy Thomas and actor/singer Kirk Fogg.
19. Gilyard was a finalist for the role of Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
20. His acting mentor is the late Andy Griffith.