Biography

Left his role on Matlock (1986), after its seventh season, to co-star opposite Chuck Norris in Walker, Texas Ranger (1993).

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.

Working toward a Master's Degree in Acting at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

A Western enthusiast, compared to his future Matlock (1986) co-star, Nancy Stafford, Gilyard grew up watching the following shows: The Rifleman (1958), Gunsmoke (1955), Bonanza (1959), Laramie (1959), Wagon Train (1957), The Virginian (1962), Rawhide (1959), The Big Valley (1965) and The High Chaparral (1967).

He is an associate professor of theater at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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.