I figure we’re all here for a reason. My thing is to make people laugh. I always feel when I’m on a film set that I’m fulfilling my destiny.

San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, February 1988

Tom Villard first appeared on The Golden Girls in 1986 in the season 2 “Vacation” episode. The Girls (minus Sophia, who stays at home wooing the gardener, Mr. Mitsumo) take a trip to the Caribbean and find that the resort is not exactly as “absolutely gorgeous” as it looked in the brochure. To top it all off, they have to share their bathroom with three strange men. Villard plays Rick, who we first see comically flossing his teeth while sitting on the edge of the bathtub. The two groups argue over the space, and Rick tells them, “Oh, yeah? You think we’re happy having to gargle next to Grandma Moses and the Mosettes?” Villard’s memorable voice matches his goofy character, and he stands out even in the fairly small role. In fact, it’s interesting that he had such a small role considering he’d already starred on the sitcom We Got It Made in 1983 on NBC. The situation comedy about two bachelors who hire an attractive woman as their housekeeper was short-lived, but Villard was a highlight. He got more film work, including roles in Heartbreak Ridge, directed by Clint Eastwood, and the title role in The Trouble with Dick, which won a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1987.

In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch profile from 1988 titled “Tom Villard Really Had It Made,” Villard said that he went to Hollywood “partly because of a lousy love affair. My heart was shredded.” I was struck by this quote because no further details were offered, and the article goes on to describe various odd jobs and bit parts that Villard had before landing the role in We Got It Made. Villard was gay but played it straight, as it were, throughout almost all of his career. To be absolutely clear this is not a criticism of Villard whatsoever. It was difficult, if not impossible, for actors to be out in the 1980s during the Reagan administration, to say nothing of the fact that roles for queer characters were basically non-existent or extremely coded (think Coco in the pilot episode). Journalists didn’t think to qualify statements about someone’s love life and Villard didn’t elaborate, for good reason. Coming out publicly was an especially huge risk in an era of ceaseless, hateful attacks from politicians and fundamentalists. It was also the height of the AIDS epidemic, and the stigma faced by gay men was particularly high then. So for someone like Villard, who was born in Hawaii and grew up in the suburbs of Rochester, New York, the ability to achieve success in Hollywood was a dream come true.

Villard next appeared on the last season of The Golden Girls in the “Rose: Portrait of a Woman” episode. This time he had a larger part as Randy “Mr. Ditch” Becker, a former student of Dorothy’s. Randy hires Dorothy as a motivational trainer for his video game company after running into her at the career fair. This episode is probably best known for Dorothy telling a “Joe Mama” joke, but Villard is lovely in the role alongside Bea Arthur. His career had also been on the upswing, with more recognizable roles in the horror film Popcorn and every nineties kid’s favorite tear jerker, My Girl. Like Betty White, his personality also lent itself to the game show circuit, and he was a frequent guest on $100,000 Pyramid, Match Game, Super Password, and others.

In 1992, the same year he returned to The Golden Girls, Villard learned he had AIDS when he was diagnosed with a Kaposi’s sarcoma on his nose. For a little while he was unsure how to proceed with a career that’s dependent on being visible, but by 1994 he decided to embrace “be[ing] an actor with a purple nose” and returned to acting.^[1] Appearing on Entertainment Tonight in February of 1994, he courageously “went public with his illness…[saying] he thought it was important to try to continue working and not try to hide his illness or his homosexuality.”^[2] This made him one of a few actors at the time to be open both about being gay and living with AIDS. AIDS was the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44 in 1994 and, although it had become more accepted thanks to medical advances, the activism of groups like ACT UP, and pop culture portrayals such as the “72 Hours” episode, there was still significant stigma and homophobia attached to the disease. After going on Entertainment Tonight, Villard was able to get more work, though, most notably as a Bajoran on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In terms of how people with AIDS are perceived in this country right now, as lepers, it was really important for me to get out there. I’ve been in your living room for 15 years. This is something that can happen to everybody, so be careful and have a little compassion.^[3]

Sadly, Villard died of AIDS-related pneumonia on November 14, 1994, just five days short of his 41st birthday. I couldn’t help but notice that, even as obituaries written about him noted his decision to be open about being gay and living with AIDS, many still wrote that he was survived by his “companion” Scott Chambliss. Much has changed in the nearly 30 years since Villard’s death. Gay marriage was legalized in 2015 with Obergefell v. Hodges, and PrEP medications that significantly reduce the risk of getting HIV are widely available. Villard’s panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, above, is both a beautiful tribute to his life and work and a reminder of how to continue moving forward as LGBTQ+ rights are still precarious in many places. I happened to find the card below on ebay that he signed in 1990, so “be brave, be kind” must have been a motto of his. It certainly fits.

In the process of writing this post I loved getting more acquainted with Villard’s work beyond his appearances on The Golden Girls along with reading various articles about him. His open and gregarious nature really shines through in press interviews that he gave over the years. For instance, he loved to tell a story about his first professional job acting with the New York Shakespeare festival where his role involved carrying Meryl Streep across the stage in a French Court chair. Another thing that always comes across is Villard’s unfailing optimism and just the general sense of joie de vivre that he had for being able to do what he loved. His bravery in coming out and speaking up about having AIDS also cannot be overstated as it paved the way for others to do so. I thought I would close this portrait of Tom Villard with an excerpt from an interview he gave to the Town Talk newspaper of Alexandria, Louisiana, of all places. The paper featured him on the cover of its Channels TV guide supplement.

If I wrote a poem tomorrow, I think it would be something about being older and wiser. It would be about a journey from a small town to the big city and all the changes that go on. I would look back…and think about this life and how happy I am now.

---

¹ “Actor refuses to hide from effects of Kaposi’s sarcoma skin tumors,” Jane E. Allen, Associated Press, September 4, 1994.
² “Actor Tom Villard took AIDS battle before the public,” The Indianaoplis News, Nov, 16, 1994.
³ “Tom Villard, HIV-positive TV, film actor,” Jane E. Allen, Associated Press, November 17, 1994.
Note: I believe this quote to be from his appearance on Entertainment Tonight as it only seems to be mentioned in his obituary.