What The Cast Of Family Matters Is Up To These Days

Before "Family Matters," Reginald VelJohnson had already made a name for himself playing police officers in Hollywood movies like "Ghostbusters" and "Turner & Hooch," and most notably as Sgt. Al Powell in "Die Hard." As the LAPD patrolman who believes John McClane's innocence and assists him in thwarting Hans Gruber's terrorist plans, VelJohnson is a huge part of the movie's heart. After "Family Matters," VelJohnson continued to let himself be endearingly typecast, guest starring on several popular TV crime dramas, including "Monk," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Bones," and "Diagnosis: Murder." He even reprised his role as Sgt. Al Powell for a Christmas episode of "Chuck." 

In recent years, VelJohnson has held recurring TV roles on "I'm in the Band," "Tron: Uprising," "Hart of Dixie," "3Below: Tales of Arcadia," and "Lazor Wulf." He's also gotten more opportunities to revisit his iconic characters, reprising the role of Sgt. Al Powell in the video games "Die Hard: Vendetta" and "Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza," as well as the Funny or Die short "A Die Hard Christmas Party with Reginald VelJohnson." In 2021, he returned as David Sutton on the Disney+ "Turner & Hooch" series, the only member of the original cast to make an appearance.

In short, Reginald VelJohnson's career has kept on rolling since the end of "Family Matters," though fans briefly worried it wouldn't — in 2017, he was forced to publicly confirm via Twitter that he was not dead after an internet hoax announced that he had suffered a fatal cardiac arrest.