Richard Gilliland

Richard Morris Gilliland (January 23, 1950 – March 18, 2021) was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, television, and film. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Richard Velton Gilliland and Betty Gene née Morris Gilliland, he grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, where he attended Shawnee Mission South High School and graduated in 1968. His early involvement in plays and musicals laid the groundwork for a professional career in performance.

Gilliland pursued formal training in drama at the University of Kansas for two years before transferring to the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago. He left the program during his final year to join the Chicago Free Street Theater. In Chicago, he became part of the cast of Godspell, beginning as a disciple and eventually taking on the leading role. His work with that production brought him to Broadway in 1972, where he appeared in Godspell before relocating to Los Angeles in 1973.

His television career began in the 1970s and included appearances on The Waltons, Thirtysomething, Party of Five, and Little Women. His most prominent television role came on the CBS series Designing Women, where he played J. D. Shackelford, the boyfriend of Annie Potts' character Mary Jo Shively, from 1986 to 1992. It was on that series that he met actress Jean Smart, who played Charlene. The two married in 1987 and had two sons: Connor Douglas, born in 1989, and Forrest, adopted from China in May 2009.

Gilliland also held recurring roles on several other television series, including the part of Ellis Kapp on The Unit and Captain Stan Cotter during season five of 24, a season in which his wife Jean Smart portrayed First Lady Martha Logan. He additionally appeared as recurring character Jeffrey Speidel, a serial killer, on the NBC series Matlock. Gilliland died in Los Angeles on March 18, 2021, following a short illness, at the age of 71.