http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Actor-Matthew-Cowles-Passes-Away-20140524

holy crap, he was just on AMC last year

Oh no. How sad. I didn't know he was ill.

As a fan of his, I am so, so devastated by this news. He was fantastic as Billy Clyde Tuggle. Absolutely the best. May God be with him and his loved ones right now, and always.

Edited May 24, 201411 yr by Khan

Billy Clyde

Poor Christine Baranski.

I'm so glad he got to play Billy Clyde one last time. He was older and a little out of it, true, but he was still on good form, one of the more memorable parts of the reboot.

holy crap, he was just on AMC last year

Well, in spite of everything else I might have said about AMC 2.0, I am nevertheless glad that we got to see Billy Clyde alive one last time (and working for the Lort, lol).

Edited May 24, 201411 yr by Khan

So sad

I wasn't around for his first stint but he legitimately frightened me in the 90s when he came back and was after Donna and then Tad and Dixie.

What a surprise! He was such a good actor and terribly underrated. I, too, am glad we got to see him and Billy Clyde one last time..

Edited May 24, 201411 yr by Wizzerkat

Damn.

I only really knew him from past clips until AMC 2.0, where he was wildly eccentric and a lot of fun. A true gem of stage and screen, clearly. I'm sorry we couldn't see more of Billy Clyde Tuggle before he passed.

Edited May 24, 201411 yr by Vee

Oh, no...so sad to read this! I wonder if this was sudden or after an illness?

I didn't see the Bily Clyde character the first time around but saw him in 2.0 version and I thought he was a hoot! Something about the way his character and followers acted out had a 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' type of feel to it. I'm grateful I got to enjoy the character as well as the man who portrayed him.

Yeah, poor Christine Baranski, my condolences to his family.

I know some people didn't care for Billy Clyde's very specific brand of weirdness on the new show, but I felt it was so appropriate - any time we checked in with him, especially with him and his 'girls' in Center City, it seemed right out of Agnes's old book, and I believe she actually wrote some of those bits. You could've beamed some of those slapstick scenes in from the early '80s. And someone - maybe her, maybe the HWs, but I'm leaning towards Agnes - made the point of writing the sequence of events where Dixie left him a letter forgiving him.

To me the use of Billy Clyde felt old-fashioned and off-kilter, yet so very right - especially the way they emphasized his desire to be taken seriously as a man of wealth and taste in high society, to be like his 'idol' Palmer, right down to buying the manor and fantasizing about arriving at the gala with Opal comparing him to her late husband. That kind of consuming human need to better oneself, to get out from under, being used as a character throughline comes out of the old Nixon, Lemay, Bell, etc. playbooks. Billy Clyde in 2013 was no different. And Matthew Cowles played it with great glee. His other material, where he was revealed to be Celia's father, was cut for apparent rewrites or perhaps delays, but I'm sure they would have found more for him to do.

I forgot to mention Christine Baranski before as I thought it went without saying, but obviously my sympathies are with her.

Edited May 24, 201411 yr by Vee

Absolutely awful for Christine Baranski, my thoughts are with her and their family.

Very, very sad to hear about this.

It truly is a blessing we got to see Matthew Cowles as Billy Clyde Tuggle for that brief time on AMC 2.0.

My heart goes out to Ms. Baranski, Who will always be Jewell Maniscalco to me.

Very sad. I feel horrible for Christine. My sympathies to her and their kids.