Tom Bower, ‘Die Hard 2’ and ‘The Waltons’ actor, dead at 86

Tom Bower, an actor who had a five-10 years career in Hollywood in movies these types of as “Die Tough 2” and “Nixon” and the Television demonstrate “The Waltons,” died final month, his family reported on Thursday.

He was 86.

His sister Mary Miller instructed The Hollywood Reporter that Bower died in his snooze at residence in Los Angeles, Calif., on May well 30.

Bower was nonetheless showing up in videos and television series suitable up until finally 2023, when he did a 3-episode visitor location on AMC’s “Lucky Hank” as Bob Odenkirk’s father Henry Sr.

A single unforgettable part was as the janitor Marvin in 1990’s “Die Tough 2,” in which he allows Bruce Willis’ John McClane battle terrorists at Dulles International Airport.

He also played the president’s father Frank in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” starring Anthony Hopkins as Difficult Dick.

And Bower took on a wide range of character roles by way of the decades in other movies, like “Beverly Hills Cop 2,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “Pollock” and “Hearts in Atlantis.” 

On television, the actor appeared in 26 episodes of the healthful collection “The Waltons” as Dr. Curtis Willard. 

The actor later claimed he was penned off the display — his character was substantially killed for the duration of the assault on Pearl Harbor — when he requested for more revenue.

“I asked for a really modest raise, so they sent me to Pearl Harbor,” he mentioned in 2022. “Then, when they made the decision to provide the character back, washed up on a shore someplace — which I did not consider was a good notion in any case — I requested for the identical little increase. … They just forged a distinctive actor.”

Bower had guest spots on other well-known Tv set reveals this sort of as “The X-Documents,” “The West Wing,” “Monk,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Criminal Minds.” 

Bower was born in Denver in 1938, and later on moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in the 1950s.

Early on he labored as a non-public investigator in Boston, and gave acting lessons to a youthful Al Pacino.