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Television Movies Entertainment

Battlestar Galactica Actor Richard Hatch Dies At 71 (tmz.com) 100

Posted by BeauHD from the rest-in-peace dept.
New submitter computerman413 writes: TMZ reports that Richard Hatch has passed away at 71 from pancreatic cancer. Hatch played Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica, and had a recurring role as terrorist Tom Zarek on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
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Battlestar Galactica Actor Richard Hatch Dies At 71 More

Battlestar Galactica Actor Richard Hatch Dies At 71

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  • Felgercarb!

    More seriously though, pancreatic cancer is one of the worst ways to go.

    I always respected his efforts to revive the BattleStar Galactica IP when there wasn't much interest in doing so. Reminds me of what I did with AoE 2.

    • Re:One word... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @10:12PM (#53823317)

      Man, this news makes me feel old.

    • Re:One word... (Score:4, Informative)

      by NormAtHome ( 99305 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @10:25PM (#53823365)

      A real bad way to go and apparently it's often not detected until it's too late; of entertainment people I know of who went that way Patrick Swayze, John Hurt, Steve Jobs, Alan Rickman, Pavarottti, Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster and the judge in My Cousin Vinnie), Pernell Roberts, Brock Peters, Frank Herbert and I'm sure there's more that I can't think of.

      A cousin of mine had terminal liver cancer and his son told me the last three months were bad (he didn't want to see any family after a certain point) he was in agony and it was long and drawn out, it's a terrible way to go and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

      • I actually think emphysema is worse. It's even longer and more drawn out and you end up not being able to do *anything*, often for years (source: I am a family doctor)

        Don't smoke kids! Just don't do it. It's a horrible thing

    • If its any solace, I think it's a bit humbling. I don't know why, but I was thinking about this guy earlier today (I didn't know he passed,) and how we was so passionate about the series, and indeed it was a good series to be passionate about. Sad to see him die, but he got to live his passion pretty much, and no bad cause of death can take that away.

  • I never thought CBS would go that far to keep Star Trek: Axanar from being made.

    On a serious note, it's a shame that Mr. Hatch was never able to get his Battlestar Galactica revival off the ground. While the 1970's version was corny, I enjoyed it when it aired.

    • Re:Damn you CBS studios... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @10:25PM (#53823367)

      I've always thought that Battlestar Galactica could have been an excellent series had it been rebooted in a slightly less radical way, as it's got a simple but compelling formula. Update the tech, eliminate some of the cheese, but keep the basic premise and characters largely intact. While I'm sure many people enjoyed the 2004 series, it sort of lost me when it decided on "cylons are identical to humans" (which might have been fine in limited doses, but I was a fan of actual robotic cylons), and then veered into bizarre quasi-religious territory. I finally quit watching when I realized that I disliked all the humans enough that I was subconsciously rooting for the Cylons to just kill them all and be done with it.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Stormy Dragon ( 800799 )

        The Battlestar Galactica reboot was important as it was one of the first mainstream media shows to deal with post 9/11 War on Terrorism from a critical perspective. That's why the Cylons looked the same as the humans, it was a metaphor for an enemy that is distributed among you and completely indistinguishable from you. The show how the growing paranoia and willingness to keep cutting ethical corners in the name of safety gradually ended up destroying the humans far more effectively than the actual threat

        • It only explored that metaphor (brilliantly) for half a season.

          Pilot: Crap
          Season 1: Good
          Season 2: Really Good
          New Caprica Terrorism Metaphor (first half of season 3): Great
          Rest of the Series: Total Crap

          Evidently there was no grand plan. Moore just made it up as he went along. Aside from one all-too-short stroke of genius, he completely flubbed the last half of the series. Which turned into "Days of Our Battlestar" over a Starbuck/Apollo love story that I didn't care one bit about. Apollo: Space Lawyer? Even

      • Glen Larson wrote a book back in the late 1970's: http://www.goodreads.com/book/... [goodreads.com] In this book, the Cylons were not machines but a living race. Elite or upper echelon Cylons underwent operations to get additional brains added to them (or something along those lines). And Baltar dies. (Thank the Gods, and I never really liked him in either series). Read the reviews from the link above. Well worth the read if you can get your hands on a copy. If the series is rebooted again, I would prefer that they

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rakarra ( 112805 )

          In this book, the Cylons were not machines but a living race. Elite or upper echelon Cylons underwent operations to get additional brains added to them (or something along those lines). And Baltar dies. (Thank the Gods, and I never really liked him in either series).

          I believe that's how the 1970s Battlestar Galactica movie went as well (the movie that was released to theaters before the TV show aired). I have definite memories of Baltar being killed by Cylons in that movie. In the TV Pilot, it was reshot so that Baltar is.. almost executed, but given a last minute reprieve so that he can star in the series as one of the primary villains.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Agreed on every count. For me, the "cylons as humans" thing was just a way of cheaping out. It also made the story really boring, because all of a sudden it was some sort of monster hunt where they spent tons of time fighting each other rather than exploring or fighting the enemy. The "New Caprica" stuff was simultaneously depressing and boring.

        Despite the depressing nature of the plot in the original, each episode still retained a great amount of optimism that they would survive and find Earth. In the

      • Go back and watch the original series. The quasi-religions stuff was pulled right from ToS with the people of light. They're effectively angels just as head-Baltar and head-6.

        • You do realize that Glen A. Larson is a Mormon, right? The religion in classic BSG is just warmed-over Mormonism mixed in with a bit of Egyptian imagery.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Trogre ( 513942 )

        Not sure if you're aware of this, but BSG has been LDS (ie Mormon) propaganda straight from day one.

      • >keep the basic premise and characters largely intact.

        What, the basic premise of fleeing robots bent on killing all humans... by visiting a series of planets populated by humans the robots aren't interested in killing?

        A universe in which humans evolved on the planet Kobol, then spread to the 13 colonies, 12 of which were obliterated and the 13th of which was Earth, lost and presumed haven for those fleeing, so there shouldn't have been any other human-populated worlds anyway?

        I think that would need a bit

  • OMG he was older than EJO (Score:3)

    by cloud.pt ( 3412475 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @10:30PM (#53823387)

    By 2 years at that.

    As someone said here, very sad to see another great personality part due to pancreatic cancer. From my standpoint, as a fan, I believe he had a successful artistic life where he displayed great ability performing multiple types (his villain comeback is proof). He did look (in the BSG shows, where I happened to see him perform) like he loved what he did for a living, and his mojo was notoriously contagious on stage. It even surpassed the fourth wall as I really did feel his character emotion in his most stressful or flamboyant moments, both as Cpt. Apollo and Tom Zarek.

    I hope his personal life was as filled with bliss as his professional one, and if they happen to be reading: my most sincere condolences to family and friends.

    Wherever you are Richard, you have reason to be proud.

  • He was 71. Ok, he had a nice long life. Then I do the math and it's 11 years away for me. I'm not ready to croak yet, and won't be in 11 years.

    jeez, getting old is not just painful but scary too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by stevew ( 4845 )

      I'm with you - same age. The only advantage I have is that I went to High School with Maren Jensen who played the Commander's daughter... needless to say was a big fan of the show.

      • Oh my... Maren Jenson.. When the original BSG was on, I had a serious letch for that gorgeous lady... She still looks FANTASTIC at 61.. Might say I still have a letch for her.....

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Guys, start working out and take it very fucking seriously and not skip days off - even just for 5k walks in the park. You don't have to become "Arnold" muscula or anything drastic, but you have to have physical activity to clear the mind and strengthen your body. My dad is 72 and he looks fit as a fiddle. Bald as a cueball and looks pretty old too but he chops down trees with a chainsaw, mows the lawns on a tractor, snowblows when the snow is deep...

      His only secret is doing things at his pace. Not someone

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ramze ( 640788 )

      Take heart. Life expectancy for men is closer to 76. Even then, with years of diet, exercise, and cutting out smoking and heavy alcohol, men can live well into their 80s and 90s with great quality of life. I know guys that are in their 60s whose fathers died in their early 70s and they take it as a given it'll happen to them as well, so it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy as they get depressed, get overweight, and just plain give up on healthy living.

      Barring cancer or predisposition to Alzheim

    • 82 is the inflection point, or it was a couple years ago when I dug into it.

      71 is young.

      less than 2% make it to age 90.

      I'm estimating 78-79 right now based on a mixture of fitness and the age my parents and grandparents died.

      • With two exceptions, all of my older relatives are living into their 90's. Even the ones with very poor lifestyles are pushing 80.

      • I don't know much about my dad's side of the family, but though my maternal grandparents died in their 70s, one of my aunts lived to 89, the other got just short of the century mark (97). My mom's still going strong at 82.

        • Only 0.02% americans live to age 100 so that's pretty good.

          (the oldest Americans are a small group, comprising just 0.02 percent of the population, or 55,000 people)

          That's hard data.

          Projections are that 25% of people who are age 20 will reach age 100. I don't really find that credible.

  • Passionate actor, advocate for sci-fi (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ramze ( 640788 ) on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @11:00PM (#53823481)

    I met Richard Hatch at DragonCon 2016. I'd seen him before at other events, but I actually had time to sit and talk with him among friends this past year, along with Gigi Edgley who had been working with him on a small film project, Diminuendo (catch the trailer on vimeo at https://vimeo.com/181168232 [vimeo.com] ). It was really refreshing to speak to an actor that was very kind and personable and genuinely interested in opening a dialogue with sci-fi fans about the sort of projects we were all mutually interested in.

    Without Hatch, the Battlestar Galactica remake would never have made it to the concept phase, much less to TV. He fought for its revival for decades, and it was his persistence that eventually made the moneymen cave and give the franchise another shot. Beyond that, he's actively campaigned for many sci-fi productions and fought for the genre from film festivals to big blockbuster movies. Time and again, the people who hold the purse at the studios don't understand the value of fantasy or sci-fi -- and it takes many years for everything for a project to come together. The right script has to have the right producer, director, funding, actors, writers, musical talent, special effects artists... hundreds of key people all coming together at the right time to make a project happen. Things are shelved for years for simple timing issues. Hatch is one of the few that made sure that certain properties like BSG were kept in the minds of decision-makers so that when things were right, the projects could go forward with speed.

    When he spoke with me, he talked about some of his most recent work that was circulating at film festivals and how he really appreciated the fan base that shows up to events as they support him and give evidence that these projects can really have legs. We're talking about a guy in his 70s who could easily just up and retire, but was so passionate about his craft and world-building, he toured with various artists to drum up excitement for their work. He still held workshops for budding actors, and he authored many BSG books. He could have taken offers for lots of movies, but he preferred to work on projects he was passionate about.

    I'd had the privilege of sitting not 10 ft from nearly the entire BSG cast at a prior DragonCon -- Hatch included. While all of the actors were very interesting and shared a lot of great info while being funny and entertaining, he and Edward James Olmos especially carried the room when they spoke and were very humble about being able to deliver rich performances about meaningful topics that resonate in today's socio-political landscapes.

    Whatever else you may think of Richard Hatch, know that he was a sci-fi fan at heart and he loved being a part of worlds and stories that he as an actor and writer and you all as fans helped build together.

  • I enjoyed his recent performance in Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar. I was really looking forward to him reprising his role for the real Axanar.

    RIP Richard Hatch

  • Shame the orignal battlestar galactica was great. And he acted well

  • Was the story (really) released by TMZ only?

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