Richard Hatch, who starred in the original television science fiction series 'Battlestar Galactica' and the mid-2000s reboot, died today of pancreatic cancer. He was 71. Hatch was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1979 for his performance as Captain Apollo in the iconic science fiction series.
"Battlestar Galactica was a milestone," Hatch once said. "It afforded me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams and fantasies. Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains — what more could a man want?"
The sad news of Hatch's death first spread on social media and sites like Bleeding Cool and TMZ, which reported that Hatch "went into hospice care a few weeks ago," as the metastatic form of cancer he suffered from progressed to death.
Richard Hatch was a good man, a gracious man, and a consummate professional. His passing is a heavy blow to the entire BSG family.
— Ronald D. Moore (@RonDMoore) February 7, 2017
Hatch had been battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Alec Peters, the writer/producer behind the Star Trek fan film Axanar, wrote on Facebook. Hatch had acted in and was a supporter of the project, playing a Klingon in Prelude to Axanar.
"Richard was in good spirits when I visited him 2 weeks ago. He knew his time was short, but was comforted by the fact that his son would be taken care of," wrote Peters.
On the original Battlestar Galactica, which ran for the 1978-79 season, Hatch played hotshot pilot Captain Apollo, with the role earning him a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a television series – drama. In the 2004-09 reboot, the actor returned to the franchise as Tom Zarek, an opportunistic political leader who often shook up the playing field as humanity tried to survive annihilation at the hands of the Cylons, a cybernetic race who rebelled against their creators.
Hatch also starred as police Inspector Dan Robbins opposite Karl Malden in the fifth and final season (1976-77) of the ABC drama The Streets of San Francisco. He effectively replaced Michael Douglas, who exited the show (Douglas' character Steve Keller left the force to become professor of criminology).
There's a wonderful interview with Hatch here from 2012, worth reading as we remember his legacy today. An unbelievably thorough Pinterest board of original BSG promo photos is here.
Adama (Lorne Greene) and his beautiful children: daughter Athena (Maren Jenson) and Apollo (Richard Hatch).
