Las Vegas Weekly

Showing die-hard admiration for a ‘Die Hard’ villain

UNLV professor Clarence Gilyard played Theo in 1988 film Die Hard.

Somehow over the years I’d managed to see the third and fourth Die Hard movies, but never more than a handful of snippets on TV of the classic 1988 original. So I headed over to Rave Motion Pictures at Town Square on Thursday night to see the movie on the big screen, as part of Rave’s Not Really a Holiday Film series (upcoming films include Edward Scissorhands and Lethal Weapon). Although the theater was overrun by Twilight fans gearing up for the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn, Part 1, there was a decent turnout for Die Hard, which is encouraging for the potential continuation of Rave’s classic-movies showcase.

The lights went down, the movie started (and then restarted a few minutes later to fix a technical problem creating green static on the screen), and when actor Clarence Gilyard’s name came up in the opening credits, cheers erupted from one section of the theater. I whispered to my confused moviegoing companion (my sister) that Gilyard is a professor in UNLV’s theatre and film departments, and a group of his students must have decided to attend the screening. Every time Gilyard’s character, sarcastic henchman/hacker Theo, did something cool or uttered a memorable line, the same section cheered again. And sure enough, after the movie I spotted both Gilyard and Francisco Menendez, the head of UNLV’s film department, surrounded by a crowd of appreciative supporters.

It’s too bad no one told Rave management that Gilyard was coming, because he probably could have hosted a great Q&A session after the screening. Theo is one of the movie’s most entertaining villains (all of whom work for main bad guy Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman), and Gilyard’s performance is witty and fun. No doubt Gilyard’s students at UNLV (where he’s been a professor since 2006) get to hear stories of his Hollywood days (including lengthy stints on Matlock and Walker, Texas Ranger) frequently, but the crowd of Die Hard die-hards who paid to see the movie on a Thursday night probably would have loved to hear from him as well. Maybe Rave can schedule a repeat engagement.