At the peak of his career Villard was given featured supporting roles in big-budget studio fare, such as Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge, and My Girl (with Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis).

Toward the end of his life, Villard became one of the few actors in Hollywood in the early 1990s who chose to be open about his homosexuality, and the challenge of living with HIV and AIDS.

In February 1994, Villard made an unprecedented appearance on Entertainment Tonight, acknowledging to "...more than 13 million viewers that he was gay, that he had AIDS, and that he needed some help."

According to a POZ magazine[5] profile in December of that year Villard said, "An awful lot of people suddenly wouldn't let me in the door for auditions.

The Tom Villard Foundation was a Silver Lake community-based effort which engaged local businesses to provide free goods and services for community members living with AIDS.