David Yost

David Harold Yost (; born January 7, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for portraying Billy Cranston in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always and Power Rangers Cosmic Fury.

Early life Yost was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Career Yost moved to California with hopes of becoming an actor, which took in over $60 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, Yost 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, Yost 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 believes that this was part of it. Yost 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 Yost was not present during the taping. A tribute to his character was seen in the closing credits of this episode.

While it was originally believed that he had left the series due to insufficient pay, Yost later revealed in a 2010 interview that he left because he could no longer handle harassment by members of the production crew who targeted him over his sexual orientation. According to Yost, he was often called a "faggot", and the producers frequently questioned other cast members in private about his sexuality. Yost left late in the fourth season after a week of contemplation and thoughts of suicide instead of continuing work another six months into the second film. He stated that the co-workers involved with writing, filming, and producing the show considered him "not worthy" to be where he was and that he "could not be a superhero" because of his homosexuality.

Scott Page-Pagter, a producer of the show starting with Power Rangers Zeo, responded through TMZ that Yost actually left over a pay bonus being dropped but did not elaborate further or dispute any of Yost's claims about the outside reasons for leaving the show. Saban Entertainment made no official statement regarding the subject. After Yost left the show, he attempted to change his sexual orientation with conversion therapy for two years. Eventually, he had a nervous breakdown that resulted in his psychiatric hospitalization for five weeks. After he checked out, he moved to Mexico for a year and eventually accepted his sexuality. He has participated in the NOH8 Campaign. He appeared at Power Morphicon 2012 and 2014 in Pasadena, California along with his former co-stars. Yost 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, Yost remains on the convention circuit.

In 2016, Yost became co-owner of Affirmative Clothing along with Harlingen, Texas entrepreneurs Mason and Cris Andrade. Named after one of Billy's catch phrases, Affirmative has apparel with designs mostly inspired by Power Rangers, which Yost and the Andrade brothers first sold on conventions they attended.

In 2017, he starred in the short film The Order alongside other former Power Rangers co-stars.

In May 2018, shortly after Hasbro acquired the Power Rangers franchise, Yost (via Twitter) expressed his desire to help produce a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers reunion film for Netflix. In September 2022, it was announced that Yost was returning to the Power Rangers franchise for a 30th-anniversary special, accompanied by original Black Ranger actor Walter Emanuel Jones as well as former co-stars Steve Cardenas, Johnny Yong Bosch, Karan Ashley, and Catherine Sutherland. The special titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was released on April 19, 2023.

Filmography Film

Television