GIL GERARD, 'BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY' STAR

Today, The Grandma has been watching Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, one of her favourite TV series interpreted by Gil Gerard, who was born on a day like today in 1943.

Gil Gerard (born January 23, 1943) is an American actor, whose roles include Captain William "Buck" Rogers in the 1979-81 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. 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 September 1979 and April 1981 on NBC, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film before the series aired.

The film and series were developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, based on the character Buck Rogers created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan that had previously been featured in comic strips, novellas, a serial film, and on television and radio.

More information: The Hollywood Reporter

Gerard was born January 23, 1943, in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a college instructor mother and a salesman father.

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 graduated from Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys, and later attended the University of Central Arkansas but dropped out before graduation.

Gerard travelled to New York City, 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 part, but he was not included in the finished film.

During the next few years, he did most of his acting in television commercials, almost 400, 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 gained a prominent role in the daytime soap opera The Doctors for two years. 

Gerard 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 travelled to California to co-star with Yvette Mimieux in Ransom for Alice! (1977) and to play Lee Grant's youthful lover in Universal's Airport '77 (1977). He appeared in a 1977 episode of Hawaii Five-O (The Ninth Step) as Marty Cobb, a former cop and recovering alcoholic. A guest appearance 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 1979-81, with the feature-length pilot episode being released theatrically some months prior to the first broadcast of the series. After this, he was featured in a number of other TV shows and movies, including starring roles in the 1982 TV movie Hear No Evil as Dragon, the short-lived series Sidekicks (1986) and E.A.R.T.H. Force (1990).

In 1992, Gerard hosted the reality TV series Code 3, which followed firefighters from different areas of the US as they responded to emergency calls. The show ran on the Fox TV Network until the following year. For the remainder of the 1990s, Gerard made guest appearances on various TV shows, including Fish Police, Brotherly Love, The Big Easy, Days of Our Lives and Pacific Blue.

In January 2007, Gerard was the subject of the one-hour documentary Action Hero Makeover, which was written, produced and directed by his then-longtime companion, Adrienne Crow for the Discovery Health Channel. The film documented his year-long progress after undergoing life-saving mini-gastric bypass surgery in October 2005.

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.

Gerard guest-starred as Admiral Jack Sheehan in Kitumba, the January 1, 2014, episode of the fan web series Star Trek: Phase II.

More information: Pop Culture Retrorama

Then I got the offer to play Buck Rogers,
but I turned it down thinking it was a cartoon character.
Well I was wrong, it wasn't at all.
So I read the script and decided I liked the character,
it had a good concept.

Gil Gerard