Tom Bower, the American character actor known for The Waltons and Die Hard 2, died on May 30, 2024, at the age of 86. SAG-AFTRA’s memorial and contemporaneous reporting in The Independent both give that date. One institutional record, the Television Academy’s online biography, lists June 4, 2024 instead, and the discrepancy is explained below.
Which death date is correct
Three sources give different dates for Bower’s passing. The table shows how each one reads and how much weight it carries.
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| Source | Date given for death | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| SAG-AFTRA memorial, published June 7, 2024 | May 30, 2024 | Primary source for his union service; the date is stated in the memorial itself. |
| The Independent obituary, June 6, 2024 | May 30, 2024 | Corroborating contemporaneous report covering the death, age and role details. |
| Television Academy online biography | June 4, 2024 | Institutional profile whose date conflicts with the union memorial and contemporaneous reporting. |
Two of the three sources agree on May 30, and the union memorial is the more authoritative of the sources on the page, so May 30 is the date to use. The Television Academy entry is a discrepancy to note, not an equally established alternative. Readers who see June 4 in that profile should treat it as a single conflicting record.
How he died
The Independent reports that Bower’s sister-in-law, Mary Miller, told The Hollywood Reporter that he died in his sleep at home in Los Angeles. That account is reported speech relayed by The Independent, not a direct quotation from the Hollywood Reporter piece itself, and no cause of death is given in the sources used here.
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Early life and the road into acting
According to The Independent, Bower was born Ralph Thomas Bower in Denver on January 3, 1938. He moved to New York in 1956 to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Before he returned to acting full time, he worked as a private investigator in Boston, a detail that appears in few short obituaries and is useful context for the wide range of characters he later played.
Breakthrough roles in The Waltons and Die Hard 2
The Waltons
Bower first appeared in The Waltons in 1975 as pilot Rex Barker in the episode “The Wing Walker.” The next season he joined the regular cast as Dr. Curtis Willard. Legacy’s obituary recap supports these role descriptions and the broader career context around them.
Die Hard 2
In Die Hard 2 (1990), Bower played Marvin, an airport janitor who helps John McClane during the film’s airport siege. The role is one of the best-known screen credits in his filmography and is the one most readers will recognize from the film’s title.
Other film and television work
SAG-AFTRA describes Bower as a working actor with a half-century of film and television credits, a phrase the union uses to characterize his career length rather than a count it calculated. Among the titles it names are The Hills Have Eyes, Crazy Heart and Pollock, alongside The Waltons and Die Hard 2.
Union service and SAGindie
SAG National Board
SAG-AFTRA records that Bower served on the SAG National Board from 1995 to 2002. He also served on the Hollywood Board and on multiple committees. The union’s memorial credits him with that work in its own words: “He brought that same passion to union leadership and to advocating for his fellow members.” The statement is made by SAG-AFTRA as an organization; the memorial does not attribute it to a named individual.
SAGindie
SAG-AFTRA also credits Bower with co-creating what is now SAGindie, a union resource that guides independent filmmakers through the signatory process. For readers interested in how actors’ union resources reach independent productions, that program is the most direct link between his union work and the film world beyond his own roles.
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