Movies provide us with one of the greatest escapes from life. Once we enter a theater, all of our problems fade away for about two hours, and we enter a fictional space where we witness some of the best storylines ever written for a production.

Think about when you saw the 1986 film Top Gun for the first time. The action, drama, and thrill it provided moviegoers with made it a classic.

What made you want to see that movie? Was it the plot or the rising superstar Tom Cruise?

Or perhaps it was Clarence Gilyard as LTJG Marcus "Sundown" Williams—Chipper's radar intercept officer and later Maverick's at the end of training? The actor was all over television, appearing on Diff'rent Strokes, 227, Facts of Life, and more. He even co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 1984 sitcom The Duck Factory.

However, Gilyard had yet to make his movie debut until Top Gun came along. Not only did his first appearance on the big screen happen to be a classic movie, but it also boosted his young career, which he moved to Los Angeles to start in 1979.

In the movie, we see a more dramatic side to the actor, helping him show how versatile he can be. Remember when he told Maverick, "What do you mean, it doesn't look good? It doesn't get to look any better than that"?

Top Gun was one of the most talked about movies released in the mid-Eighties and was the highest-grossing domestic film of 1986. The budget was $15 million, but brought in $357.3 million at the box office.

This was a very iconic movie debut for Gilyard.