Character Analysis
Not to be confused with the bald dude who cleans bathtubs, Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller is an African-American sailor from the South Bronx, another crewmember on the boat carrying Willard up the river. At one point, he guns down a Vietnamese woman who he thinks is trying to attack them, but it turns out she was just trying to protect a puppy. Clean's the prototypical young, jumpy soldier.
Young is the operative word here. He's just a kid. As the boat voyages through smoke from a smoke grenade thrown by Lance, Clean gets shot and killed while listening to a tape from home with his mother telling him not to get shot.
MR. CLEAN'S MOM: ...do the right thing. Stay out of the way of the bullets. And bring your heiny home all in one piece. Because we love you. Love, Mama.
As young as Clean is, Laurence Fishburne (yep, a.k.a. Morpheus) was actually playing up. He never told Coppola that he was only 14 when he was cast in the film.