Forever Buck Rogers: Remembering Gil Gerard, the Man Who Took Us to the 25th Century
Story By Mitchell Smith
Hello everybody. Today I’m taking a look Gil Gerard. Gerard was born in 1943 in Little Rock, AK and passed away 12/16/25. Gerard had a number of rolls from 1971-2016 in movies and TV. Gerard hit gold when he landed his roll as Captain William “Buck” Rogers. Before Gerard hit it big he moved to the big city where he studied drama by day and drove taxi at night to make ends meet. Gerard started doing many commercials that included a stint as the spokesman for Ford Motor Co.
As a guest appearance on “Little House on the Prairie”, Micheal Landon was impressed by Gerard’s performance and offered him a part in tv movie “Killing Stone” and would cast him as the lead roll. Although Gerard would have many rolls over 6 decades Buck Rogers was the one that stuck out. I remember as a young kid watching Buck Rogers. It was a great show and helped pave the way for the space genre that would explode over the next several decades with movies like “Star Wars”and shows like “Battlestar Galactica”. “Buck Rogers”is the first space series I can remember watching.
As a 5-6 year old I can’t remember if I understood much of the dialogue, but the futurist uniforms, space ships, and of course the lovable robot Twiki made me fall in love with Buck Rogers and the idea of space travel. Gerard played a perfect Captain from what I can remember. The show also produced a toy line that is somewhat rare and I wished I would have had them as a kid. Overall Gerard who will forever be Buck Rogers for me did have a nice career and will be forever remembered. RIP Mr Gil Gerard.
