YOST, David Harold

YOST

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/31/2016 at 14:10:40

Biography ~ David Harold Yost
Graceland University

David H. Yost was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on January 7, 1971, the son of David and Cheryl Yost. He was a gymnast at Amador Valley High School [Pleasanton, California] and won many national competitions, mostly notably in Iowa and Montana. David graduated from Amador in 1987, then enrolled at Graceland, majoring in communications, theatere and speech. David was active in student theatre productions, performing one of the lead roles in Larry Shue's The Nerd, and was a member of Graceland's Forensics team. David graduated in 1991 with a B.A. degree.

Hoping to become an actor, David moved to California where he earned national recognition with his portrayal of Billy Cranston, the computer-literate Blue Power Ranger on Fox Television children's series Mighty Morpin Power Rangers. After reading about an open casting call for the series in a Hollywood trade magazine, David was among 3,000 people who tried out for the series and eventually had eight callbacks before landing the role three months after arriving in Los Angeles. The series premiered in August of 1993. He starred in more than 200 episodes of the programs first four season, the only cast member to appear in every single episode of the original series; his character never changing his colors or passing his power coins to successors like the rest of the original cast.

David's most high-profile work was his appearance in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), earning over $30 million at the box office. The film served as a non-canonical alternate opening for the third season. After the show ended and Power Rangers Zeo began in the fourth season, David stayed on as Billy, but Billy's role within the show changed. Instead of his previous role as a Power Ranger, he became a technical advisor to the others. When asked about the change in a 2010 interview, David was evasive about how he'd personally felt about this but said he understood why the production team did it; he stated that Haim Saban was interested in the cast turnover of Super Sentai and believed that this was part of it. David left the show toward the end of the Power Rangers Zeo season. His character's final episode employed footage from previous episodes and voice work from an uncredited actor to conceal the fact that David was not present during the taping. A tribute to his character was seen in the closing credits of this episode. In a 2010 interview, David revealed that he left because he could no longer handle harassment by members of the production crew who targeted him over his sexual orientation.

David starred as Josh White in the film Scene of the Crime (1996). He portrayed a Playboy photographer in the television film After Diff'rent Strokes: When the Laughter Stopped (2000). He was an associate producer for another television film, The Mary Kay Letourneau Story (2000). He first tried producing in 2001, working on the series Alien Hunter and Temptation Island. He worked as the director of production for Sci-Fi Lab, headed by the Sci-Fi Channel. He then became the manager of licensing for Geneon Universal Entertainment, where he sold television shows and films to such networks as Showtime, Starz, Encore, and Cartoon Network.

In 2002, David performed in a play called Fallen Guardian Angels in Los Angeles for AIDS Project Los Angeles. The play was about six actors dealing with HIV in various situations. The proceeds went to benefit The Children's Hospitals AIDS Center. The entire production raised over $25,000 and David himself raised $5,000 for the hospital, as well as receiving good reviews from LA Weekly Theater. In 2004, he worked as a field producer for the English documentary series You Are What You Eat. He appeared at the Anime Festival Orlando in Florida in August 2010. He has participated in the NOH8 Campaign. He appeared at Power Morphicon 2012 and 2014 in Pasadena, California along with his former co-stars. David appeared alongside his friend and former Power Rangers co-star, Amy Jo Johnson in one of Johnson's Stageit webcast shows in 2014.

As of 2015, David remains on the convention circuit.

SOURCES:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Yost

Goehner, David. “The Graceland College Book of Knowledge: From A To Z.” p. 447. Herald House. Independence MO. 1997.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2016

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