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Gil Gerard, the actor who became a childhood hero to many for his lead performances in the 1979 movie \u201cBuck Rogers in the 25th Century\u201d and its subsequent TV incarnation, died early Tuesday, his wife announced on social media. He was 82. <\/p>\n
\u201cEarly this morning Gil \u2014 my soulmate \u2014 lost his fight with a rare and viciously aggressive form of cancer,\u201d Janet Gerard wrote<\/a> Tuesday evening on Facebook. \u201cFrom the moment when we knew something was wrong to his death this morning was only days.\u201d <\/p>\n She was by Gerard\u2019s side when he died in hospice care, she added as she placed another post \u2014 a pre-written message from the actor to his family, friends and fans \u2014 on her husband\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are reading this, then Janet has posted it as I asked her to,\u201d the actor wrote<\/a>. \u201cMy life has been an amazing journey. The opportunities I\u2019ve had, the people I\u2019ve met and the love I have given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n The post was followed by myriad comments in which fans spontaneously recalled Gerard\u2019s work as Buck Rogers and shared the influence he had on their lives. <\/p>\n \u201cYour time as Buck Rogers was way too short but it has stayed with me in my childhood memories for 45+ years,\u201d one man wrote<\/a>. \u201cYour hero was brave, macho, but also kind, compassionate, and fair. I feel as if that was representative of the man you truly were. Thank you for being the kind of \u2018make believe\u2019 hero that we should all want to be in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n Another fan replied<\/a>, \u201c[H]aving met him, I can say he was all that. On and off the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n Wrote another, \u201cLike many here, I grew up watching Gil as Buck Rogers. He was cool\u2026 and he was funny\u2026 and he was nice. I was happy to find him here after all these years\u2026 still cool\u2026 still funny\u2026 still nice. It was a highlight when he \u2018liked\u2019 one of my comments. We\u2019ll keep an eye out for you\u2026 500 years into the future!\u201d<\/p>\n Gerard discussed the allure of \u201cBuck Rogers\u201d with The Times in 2010<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWith our show, the reason people liked it was the humor and the fact that it was colorful and upbeat and it had heroes in it,\u201d he said, chatting at a comic convention in Anaheim. \u201cIt was family entertainment. I think it\u2019s great to deal with more serious issues, but you can do it with humor \u2014 look at what \u2018All in the Family\u2019 dealt with<\/a>. You can be serious without being relentlessly dark and heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n He also had wishes for the future direction of sci-fi projects, which at the time he observed were \u201cvery dark, almost hopeless.\u201d And, he said, \u201cwet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave you noticed how much rain they get in the future now? Everything is rainy and muddy. I don\u2019t understand, either, how come everybody is so dirty when there\u2019s so<\/i> much water around everywhere,\u201d Gerard observed with what seemed to be a healthy sense of humor. \u201cLook at \u2018Waterworld\u2019<\/a> \u2014 they live in a place with no land<\/i> and everyone\u2019s covered in dirt. I don\u2019t get it. You think they\u2019d fall overboard and get clean once<\/i> in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilbert Cyril Gerard was born Jan. 23, 1943, in Little Rock, Ark., and trekked to New York City in 1969 to give acting a shot, studying at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. <\/p>\n He drove a taxi to pay the bills and, according to his website, one day a fare told him to show up on the set of the movie \u201cLove Story.\u201d Ten weeks of work on the film followed and his career took off. At first Gerard appeared primarily in commercials, representing companies including Ford, Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble until he landed the role of former POW Dr. Alan Stewart on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Doctors.\u201d He put on the white coat and stethoscope for more than 300 episodes of that daytime drama from 1973 to 1976. <\/p>\n Then an agent lured him to the West Coast, where auditions got him noticed by NBC. NBC\u2019s interest led to his casting in the title role in Universal Pictures\u2019 \u201cBuck Rogers in the 25th Century,\u201d starring alongside Erin Gray as Col. Wilma Deering<\/a> and Pamela Hensley as Princess Ardala. <\/p>\n As William \u201cBuck\u201d Rogers, Gerard played a 20th century astronaut who had come out of suspended animation 500 years in the future, only to discover a planet in ruins. In 1979 dollars, the film earned more than $21 million worldwide, or about $100 million when adjusted for inflation. <\/p>\n His career outside of \u201cBuck Rogers\u201d included appearances on mainstream shows abundant in that era \u2014 \u201cBaretta,\u201d \u201cHawaii 5-0,\u201d \u201cCHiPs\u201d and \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d among them \u2014 as well as more obscure TV movies with delightful titles: \u201cReptisaurus,\u201d \u201cNuclear Hurricane\u201d and \u201cBone Eater.\u201d \u201cSidekicks\u201d in the mid-1980s, a couple of years after the release of the Oscar-nominated 1984 movie \u201cThe Karate Kid,\u201d saw him playing a cop who becomes the guardian of a pre-teen martial-arts expert. A stint on the short-lived 1990 series \u201cE.A.R.T.H Force\u201d earned him some light snark<\/a> from The Times\u2019 then-critic Howard Rosenberg. <\/p>\n But Gerard also appeared in successful mainstream films including \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling and \u201cThe Big Easy\u201d with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin.<\/p>\n Gerard was married and divorced<\/a> four times before exchanging vows with Janet Gerard in the 2010s. Among his wives was model and actor Connie Sellecca, whom he was married to from 1979 until their divorce was finalized in 1987. They had one child, a son.<\/p>\n In addition to addictions to alcohol and drugs, the actor battled his weight starting in the 1980s, with the once-trim leading man eventually seeing his health suffer as he topped 300 pounds, according to a 1990 interview with People<\/a>. He later chronicled his 2005 mini gastric-bypass surgery in the 2007 Discovery Health special \u201cAction Hero Makeover<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n