Richard Hatch (actor)

Infobox actor
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name = Richard Hatch

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caption = Richard Hatch at Gatecon 2005
birthname = Richard Lawrence Hatch
birthdate = birth date and age|1945|5|21
location = Santa Monica, California, United States
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homepage = http://richardhatch.com/
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Richard Hatch (b. May 21, 1945, in Santa Monica, California) is an American actor. He is best known for his role of Captain Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica television series, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination. He began his theatrical career with the Los Angeles Repertory Theater. He starred off-Broadway in several plays and musicals and won the Obie Award for his work in "PS Your Cat Is Dead" in Chicago. He also had recurring roles in the soap operas "Dynasty", "All My Children" and "Santa Barbara". He is currently in a recurring role as Tom Zarek in the second version of "Battlestar Galactica".

Before "Battlestar Galactica", he replaced Michael Douglas in "The Streets of San Francisco" and won Germany's Bravo Youth Magazine Award for the role. He has also starred in such movies as "The Hatfields and The McCoys" with Jack Palance, "Addie and The Kings Of Hearts" with Jason Robards, "Last Of The Belles" with Susan Sarandon, and the cult classic "Deadman's Curve" where he portrayed Jan Berry of the musical group Jan and Dean. In 1975 Hatch starred with Doug Chapin in "Best Friends". Hatch can also be heard in numerous television commercials and other voice-overs.

Hatch wrote, co-directed and executive-produced a "Battlestar Galactica" trailer, called that won acclaim at science-fiction conventions. He produced the trailer to pressure Universal into creating a new series of "Battlestar Galactica" that would have been a direct continuation of the original series. Original actors John Colicos (Baltar), Terry Carter (Col. Tigh) and Jack Stauffer (Bojay) appeared in the trailer along with Hatch himself. It is presumed that the actors would have appeared in the series itself. Hatch also believed that he could persuade Dirk Benedict to return and play Starbuck.

He also co-authored a series of novels based on continuing the voyage of the "Battlestar Galactica" with his character (Captain Apollo) replacing Adama as Commander of the "Galactica".

However, "Battlestar Galactica" returned to television screens as a re-imagining, rather than the sequel for which Hatch had campaigned. Initially, Hatch was bitterly disappointed by this turn of events and was highly critical of the prospective new series on his web site. However, Hatch developed a respect for Ronald D. Moore, the new series' producer, when he appeared as a featured guest at Galacticon (the "Battlestar Galactica" 25th anniversary convention, hosted by Hatch) and answered questions posed by a very hostile audience. In 2003, Hatch was offered and accepted a recurring role in the new "Battlestar Galactica" series. He plays Tom Zarek, a terrorist turned politician, who spent twenty years in prison for blowing up a government building. In an irony probably intended by the show's producers, Hatch/Zarek spends most of his first episode in heated debate with Captain Apollo, the role that Hatch had played in the original series. He has appeared in several further episodes of the series as a guest star.

Hatch is in pre-production of his own space opera, "The Great War of Magellan", and has written a comic book series and role-playing game in support of this. He is presently working a novel trilogy for "The Great War of Magellan" with his "Battlestar Galactica" co-author, Brad Linaweaver.

When not acting, Richard lectures and conducts workshops on acting, self-expression, and communication throughout the world.

Battlestar Galactica Bibliography

# "" (1 August 1997)
# "" (1 September 1998)
# "Resurrection" (1 July 2001)
# "" (1 July 2002)
# "Paradis" (1 July 2003)
# "Destiny" (29 June 2004)
# "" (25 November 2005)

External links

* [http://richardhatch.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.geekson.com/archives/archiveepisodes/2007/episode040907.htm Interview with Richard Hatch] on GeeksOn!
* [http://www.galacticruise.com/ Richard Hatch's Galacticruise]
* [http://www.greatwarofmagellan.com/ Richard Hatch's Great War of Magellan]
* [http://www.badmouth.net/interview-richard-hatch/ Interview: Richard Hatch]
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* [http://www.sliceofscifi.com/archives/slice_of_sci-fi_022.html Interview with Richard Hatch] on Slice of SciFi
* [http://sidewalkstv.com/webclips/h/richardhatch.html Richard Hatch Interview] on "Sidewalks Entertainment"
* [http://www.iscifi.tv/podcast/category/episodes/richard-hatch/ Live interview ] From MountainCon II and www.i-sci-fi.com