\u201cDon\u2019t waste your time on anything that doesn\u2019t thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere in the cosmos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerard starred in NBC\u2019s campy \u201cBuck Rogers in the 25th Century,\u201d which ran for two seasons from 1979 to 1981. A theatrical film based on the series also delighted youngsters and their parents alike. It was Rogers\u2019 second turn on TV after a show in the 1950s, a radio series and a 1939 film serial.<\/p>\n
The story was based on Philip Francis Nowlan\u2019s serialized 1928 pulp novella \u201cArmageddon 2419 A.D.\u201d Nowlan\u2019s character was named Anthony Rogers. The name was changed when the story began running in newspapers as a comic strip.<\/p>\n
Get Starting Point<\/p>\n
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life has been an amazing journey,\u201d Gerard wrote in his social media post. \u201cThe 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
As the TV story goes, Rogers was a 20th century NASA pilot who was placed in frozen animation when his ship was hit by a meteor storm. He pops awake 500 years later in the year 2491. He gazes upon a futuristic, domed Earth with all its threats, including aliens, space pilots and the evil Draconians.<\/p>\n
He had helpers: The robot sidekick Twiki and a beautiful space pilot Wilma Deering, played by Erin Gray.<\/p>\n
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Gerard worked steadily in TV commercials. He was featured in a number of other TV shows and movies, including starring roles in the 1982 TV movie \u201cHear No Evil\u201d as Dragon and the short-lived \u201cSidekicks\u201d in 1986.<\/p>\n
In 1992, he hosted the reality series \u201cCode 3,\u201d following firefighters responding to emergency calls around the U.S. There were many guest appearances in the 1990s, including on \u201cDays of Our Lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerard and Gray were together again in 2007 for the TV film \u201cNuclear Hurricane.\u201d They also returned to the Buck Rogers universe as Rogers\u2019 parents in the pilot episode of James Cawley\u2019s \u201cBuck Rogers Begins\u201d internet video series in 2009.<\/p>\n
Gerard spoke openly about addictions to drugs, alcohol and compulsive overeating. He was the subject of a one-hour documentary, \u201cAction Hero Makeover,\u201d in 2007 after his weight ballooned to 350 pounds.<\/p>\n
Done by Adrienne Crow, then a longtime companion, for the Discovery Health Channel, the film documented his progress after gastric bypass surgery.<\/p>\n
Gerard was married and divorced four times before Janet. He had a son, actor Gilbert Vincent Gerard, with model and actor Connie Sellecca. Their divorce included a bitter custody battle for \u201cGib,\u201d who was born in 1981. Sellecca was granted main custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy journey has taken me from Arkansas to New York to Los Angeles, and finally, to my home in North Georgia with my amazing wife, Janet, of 18 years,\u201d Gerard wrote in the post put on Facebook after his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a great ride, but inevitably one that comes to a close as mine has.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t waste your time on anything that doesn\u2019t thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,1505],"class_list":{"0":"post-355617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-television"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}