Gil Gerard
Encyclopedia
Gilbert C. "Gil" Gerard is an American
actor
. He is most famous for his role as Captain William "Buck" Rogers
in the 1979-1981 television series
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
.
to a college instructor mother and a salesman father. While attending Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys
, he was involved in acting. He worked at a Kroger
grocery store in his teens. In 1960, he attended Maryknoll Seminary, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
and played the title role in an all male production of The Music Man
. He attended the University of Central Arkansas
but dropped out before graduation.
. Gerard's employers said they would name him the firm's vice president if he went for his master's degree
, so he quit rather than tell everyone that he did not have a college degree.
He then went to New York
where he studied drama
by day and drove a taxicab
at night. Gerard picked up a fare who showed a lively interest in the problems of unknown, unemployed actors. Before he left the cab, he told Gerard to report in a few days to the set of Love Story
, which was being filmed on location in New York. When Gerard arrived on the Love Story set, he was hired as an extra. Later that day, he was singled out for a "bit" role, but this eventually wound up on the cutting room floor
.
During the next few years, he did most of his acting in television commercials
, some four hundred of them, including a stint as spokesman for the Ford Motor Company
. After small roles in the gay-themed film Some of My Best Friends Are...
(1971), and the thriller Man on a Swing (1974), Gerard then gained a prominent role in the daytime soap opera The Doctors for two years. Gerard also formed his own production company in partnership with a writer-producer, co-authored a screenplay called Hooch (1977) and filmed it as a starring vehicle for himself. With Hooch completed, he was summoned to California
to co-star with Yvette Mimieux
in Ransom for Alice! and to play Lee Grant
's youthful lover in Universal's Airport '77
. A guest shot in Little House on the Prairie
impressed producer-star Michael Landon
, who cast him in the leading role in the 1978 TV movie
Killing Stone. Gerard then landed his best known role, as Captain William "Buck" Rogers
in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
which ran from 1979 to 1981, with the feature-length pilot episode being released theatrically some months prior to the series airing. After this, he was featured in a number of other TV shows and movies, including starring roles in the short-lived series Sidekicks
(1986) and E.A.R.T.H. Force
(1990).
Gerard appeared on the show Action Hero Makeover on the Discovery Health Channel
, which documented his year-long progress after undergoing life-saving mini-gastric bypass surgery
in October 2005. According to the show, he had been struggling with his weight for 40 years, losing weight only to gain it back. By the time of the program's production, his weight had risen to over 350 lb (158.8 kg) and had many life-threatening health problems including a severe problem with type 2 diabetes
. Within five days of the surgery he had lost 20 lb (9.1 kg), within three months he had lost 80 lb (36.3 kg), and within ten months he has lost a total of 145 lb (65.8 kg).
Gerard and his Buck Rogers co-star Erin Gray
reunited in 2007 for the TV film Nuclear Hurricane, and also returned to the Buck Rogers universe by playing the characters' parents in the pilot episode of James Cawley's Buck Rogers Begins Internet video series in 2009.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He is most famous for his role as Captain William "Buck" Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....
in the 1979-1981 television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979–1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series aired....
.
Early life
Gerard was born in Little Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
to a college instructor mother and a salesman father. While attending Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys
Catholic High School for Boys (Little Rock)
Catholic High School for Boys is a private Catholic high school located in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. It is an all-male institution, and has an all-female sister school, Mount St...
, he was involved in acting. He worked at a Kroger
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
grocery store in his teens. In 1960, he attended Maryknoll Seminary, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn is an affluent village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the village population was 26,999.-Geography:...
and played the title role in an all male production of The Music Man
The Music Man
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with...
. He attended the University of Central Arkansas
University of Central Arkansas
The University of Central Arkansas is a state-run institution located in the city of Conway, the seat of Faulkner County, north of Little Rock and is the fourth largest university by enrollment in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and the third largest college system in the state. The school is most...
but dropped out before graduation.
Career
Gerard landed a job as an industrial chemist, and within a few years he became regional manager of a large chemical company headed by governor Winthrop RockefellerWinthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...
. Gerard's employers said they would name him the firm's vice president if he went for his master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
, so he quit rather than tell everyone that he did not have a college degree.
He then went to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
where he studied drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
by day and drove a taxicab
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
at night. Gerard picked up a fare who showed a lively interest in the problems of unknown, unemployed actors. Before he left the cab, he told Gerard to report in a few days to the set of Love Story
Love Story (1970 film)
Love Story is a 1970 romantic drama film written by Erich Segal and based on his novel Love Story. It was directed by Arthur Hiller. The film, well known as a tragedy, is considered one of the most romantic of all time by the American Film Institute , and was followed by a sequel, Oliver's Story...
, which was being filmed on location in New York. When Gerard arrived on the Love Story set, he was hired as an extra. Later that day, he was singled out for a "bit" role, but this eventually wound up on the cutting room floor
Cutting room floor
The term cutting room floor is used in the film industry as a figure of speech referring to unused footage not included in the finished film. In fact offcuts of film are retained in a special cutting room bin and numbered during the editing process in case they are required later...
.
During the next few years, he did most of his acting in television commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
, some four hundred of them, including a stint as spokesman for the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
. After small roles in the gay-themed film Some of My Best Friends Are...
Some of My Best Friends Are...
Some of My Best Friends Are... is a 1971 drama film written and directed by Mervyn Nelson.-Plot:On Christmas Eve 1971 in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, a group of gay men and women meet at the Blue Jay Bar to talk about their lives and relationships....
(1971), and the thriller Man on a Swing (1974), Gerard then gained a prominent role in the daytime soap opera The Doctors for two years. Gerard also formed his own production company in partnership with a writer-producer, co-authored a screenplay called Hooch (1977) and filmed it as a starring vehicle for himself. With Hooch completed, he was summoned to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to co-star with Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Carmen Mimieux is a retired American movie and television actress.-Early life and career:Yvette Mimieux was born in Los Angeles, California, to a French father and Mexican mother, Carmen Montemayor...
in Ransom for Alice! and to play Lee Grant
Lee Grant
Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. She was blacklisted for 12 years from film work beginning in the mid-1950s, but worked in the theatre, and would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Carp in the...
's youthful lover in Universal's Airport '77
Airport '77
Airport '77 is a 1977 disaster film and second sequel in the Airport franchise.The film stars a number of veteran actors, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland. Like its predecessors, Airport '77 was a box office hit earning US$30 million and...
. A guest shot in Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
impressed producer-star Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
, who cast him in the leading role in the 1978 TV movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
Killing Stone. Gerard then landed his best known role, as Captain William "Buck" Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....
in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979–1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series aired....
which ran from 1979 to 1981, with the feature-length pilot episode being released theatrically some months prior to the series airing. After this, he was featured in a number of other TV shows and movies, including starring roles in the short-lived series Sidekicks
Sidekicks (TV series)
Sidekicks is a 1986-1987 Disney Channel martial arts TV series, a spin-off of the original Walt Disney one-time special, The Last Electric Knight. The series starred Ernie Reyes, Jr. as Ernie Lee, the Last Electric Knight, and Gil Gerard as Sergeant Jake Rizzo...
(1986) and E.A.R.T.H. Force
E.A.R.T.H. Force
E.A.R.T.H. Force is an American action adventure television series starring Gil Gerard. The series aired 3 episodes on CBS from September 16, 1990, to September 29, 1990, before being canceled due to low ratings...
(1990).
Gerard appeared on the show Action Hero Makeover on the Discovery Health Channel
Discovery Health Channel
Discovery Health Channel is a website owned by Discovery Communications, created for people interested in health and wellness. Until December 31, 2010, it was a U.S. cable television specialty channel dedicated to television programming that highlights various aspects of health and wellness...
, which documented his year-long progress after undergoing life-saving mini-gastric bypass surgery
Gastric bypass surgery
Gastric bypass procedures are any of a group of similar operations that first divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch and then re-arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches to stay connected to it. Surgeons have developed several different ways...
in October 2005. According to the show, he had been struggling with his weight for 40 years, losing weight only to gain it back. By the time of the program's production, his weight had risen to over 350 lb (158.8 kg) and had many life-threatening health problems including a severe problem with type 2 diabetes
Diabetes mellitus type 2
Diabetes mellitus type 2formerly non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or adult-onset diabetesis a metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. Diabetes is often initially managed by increasing exercise and...
. Within five days of the surgery he had lost 20 lb (9.1 kg), within three months he had lost 80 lb (36.3 kg), and within ten months he has lost a total of 145 lb (65.8 kg).
Gerard and his Buck Rogers co-star Erin Gray
Erin Gray
Erin Gray is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles as Kate Summers in the situation comedy Silver Spoons and as Colonel Wilma Deering in the science fiction television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century....
reunited in 2007 for the TV film Nuclear Hurricane, and also returned to the Buck Rogers universe by playing the characters' parents in the pilot episode of James Cawley's Buck Rogers Begins Internet video series in 2009.