The entertainment industry lost many stars in 2017, and the Battlestar Galactica star Richard Hatch was one of them. Hatch had his best years in the film industry between the 1970s and 1980s. However, Hatch remained active after his death and remained particularly loyal to the Galactica franchise, of which he wrote three novels.
Richard Hatch Wiki/Bio
Richard Lawrence Hatch was born on 21 May 1945 in Santa Monica, California. He was one of the 5 children of John Raymond Hatch and Elizabeth Hatch (née White). As a boy, Hatch began to play the classical piano. In high school, he was an active athlete who competed in the pole vault in the hope of becoming a professional.
But fate had other plans up its sleeve. Since he didn’t intend to become an actor because he regarded himself as an extremely shy boy, Hatch developed an affinity for acting after the tragic assassination of President Kennedy. He was a freshman at Harbor College in San Pedro at the time.
Hatch joined the Los Angeles Repertory Theater and traveled frequently to New York where he began his acting career on stage. He also performed on off-Broadway and in Chicago. Some of the plays he played were “Song of Walt Whitman” and “Young Rebels”.
Hatch then made the transition to the small screen, starting with the daytime series All My Children. After that, he had roles in Nakia, Barnaby Jones, Cannon, and more. Hatch also appeared in TV movies like Addie and the King of Hearts, The Hatfields and the McCoys, Deadman’s Curve, and others.
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Hatch quickly built up a reputation on a small scale. His first major television role came in The Streets of San Francisco, where he portrayed Inspector Dan Robbins, a role that lasted a season and earned him a Bravo Youth Magazine Award.
1978 was to be the year in which Hatch got his biggest chance so far, thanks to his starring role in the science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica, which developed a large following but was unfortunately canceled due to high production costs. For his role as Captain Apollo Hatch was nominated for a Golden Globe.
His later remarkable credits on the small screen would be Fantasy Island, T.J. Hooker, MacGyver, CHiPs, Dynasty, The Love Boat, Baywatch, and Murder She Wrote.
In the early 1980s, Hatch began appearing in motion pictures, including Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, Prisoners of the Lost Universe, Party Line, Last Platoon, and others.
Hatch led the revival of the Battlestar Galactica series and later wrote the fan movie Battlestar Galactica, in which he starred in the leading role: The Second Arrival (1999).
In 2003 Hatch portrayed a different character as rebel Tom Zarek in the reissued version of Battlestar Galactica. Though his activity has decreased significantly since the beginning of the new millennium, Hatch continued to make occasional appearances, such as in 2014 when he appeared in Prelude to Axanar.
Dead: Cause of Death
After a stroke from pancreatic cancer, Richard Hatch lost his life to this disease on February 7, 2017. He was admitted to a hospice in his home in Santa Clarita, California, and died with his only son Paul at his side. He was 71 years old.
Celebrities in Hollywood turned to social media to express their condolences. Among them were his colleagues from Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore, Edward J. Olmos, and the show’s composer, Bear McCreary.
Other non-BSG celebrities who followed suit included comedian George Takei, WWE star Mauro Ranallo and many others.
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Richard Hatch Married, Son
It is unclear whether Richard Hatch was ever married during his lifetime, but he had a son Paul Hatch (born 1967) whose mother is not really known to the media.
Besides his son, his brother John Hatch survived, who we suspect is the last in the Hatch family.
Gay
The actor Richard Hatch was not gay, but his namesake Richard Hatch from the reality series Survivor, with whom he was always confused, is gay. Richard Hatch once spoke to the media about his naming with the Survivor star slogan;
“We forget that there are other people with our name, and somehow we feel our name has been appropriated. Frankly, this is one of the strangest experiences I have ever had in my life and I have to deal with it”.
The legacy of Richard Hatch really lives on. RIP.
