Veteran character actor Tom Bower, best known for his roles in The Waltons and Die Hard 2, has died. He was 86.
His passing was confirmed by his sister-in-law, Mary Miller, who told The Hollywood Reporter he died on Sunday, May 30, in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, California.
Born on January 3, 1938, in Denver, Colorado, Bower’s on-screen career began in the 1970s when he appeared in several classic television series. His early credits included The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, Lou Grant, Barnaby Jones, and, most notably, The Waltons, where he first played stunt pilot Rex Barker and then, more prominently, Dr. Curtis Willard, who married Mary Ellen (Judy Norton).
Bower was later written out of The Waltons when it was revealed his character was killed off-screen during World War II. However, the character returned in an 1981 episode, only he was played by a different actor, Scott Hylands.
In a 2022 interview, Bower claimed he was written out of the show after he asked for a small raise.
“I asked for a very small raise, so they sent me to Pearl Harbor,” he said with a laugh. “Then, when they decided to bring the character back, washed up on a shore somewhere — which I didn’t think was a great idea anyway — I asked for the same small raise… They just cast a different actor.”
Bob Odenkirk, Tom Bower in Lucky Hank; Sergei Bachlakov / ©AMC / Courtesy Everett Collection
Bower’s TV work continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the likes of Hill Street Blues, Murder, She Wrote, Misfits of Science, Miami Vice, China Beach, Love, Lies and Murder, The X-Files, and Roswell.
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On the big screen, he starred in films such as The Dain Curse (1978), The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Split Decisions (1988), and, perhaps most famously, Die Hard 2 (1990), where he played janitor Marvin, who helps John McClane (Bruce Willis) stop the terrorists at the airport.
More recently, Bower had small roles in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Criminal Minds, and Lucky Hank, where he played the father of Bob Odenkirk’s character. He also starred as Lou in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and had a part in the 2023 Netflix supernatural horror comedy We Have a Ghost.
He is survived by his children, Viv and Rob; his grandchildren, Nicole, Jonathan, Lucille and Henry; his brother, Bobby, and his sister, Shirley.
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