Celebrity Biographies
Richard Hatch
Those who were children in the 80s will remember the hilarious phrase “Apollo, you have one on your tail”, which Lieutenant Starbuck told his partner in various episodes when they faced the evil Cylons, aboard the ‘vipers’, galactic fighters. that were reminiscent of the X-Wing, in “Galactica, combat star”, the pinnacle of television kitsch. The actor who played Captain Apollo, Richard Hatch, has died at the age of 71 as a result of pancreatic cancer, according to his son Paul.
Born in Santa Monica (California) on May 21, 1945, Richard Lawrence Hatch began his journey with plays on the Off-Broadway circuit, and later with small roles in the most cutting-edge series of the 70s, such as Kung Fu .
He began to stand out as a substitute for Michael Douglas , who got all fuss after winning the Oscar as a producer with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , for which he tried to renegotiate his contract as the interpreter of the young Steve Keller, in the series Las streets of San Francisco . As they refused to pay him what he asked for, the son of Kirk Douglas sent the producers away, who in the fifth season sent his character to “teach classes at the university”, and replaced him with Inspector Dan Robbins, a role that it ended up Hatch. However, the public did not like him, so the series was canceled in 1977.
A new opportunity would come to him when Universal Studios decided to take advantage of the success of Star Wars , launching the Galactica television series: Battlestar . The producer of the first, Fox, would go so far as to sue those responsible for this production, alleging that they had stolen 34 Star Wars ideas , although the trial was dismissed. His character as the heroic Apollo would change his life, as he became a worldwide celebrity.
However, when the series ended, he barely got new roles, except in minor films such as The Curse of the Dragon Queen , or The Ghost, Silent Death . He decided to devote his time to writing, eventually publishing five novels in the Galactica universe . When Ronald D. Moore reimagined the series, with more elaborate scripts and a decent budget, in 2004, Hatch was cast as a supporting role, playing Tom Zarek, a political leader.