Very sadly left us....he died aged 71.

I was shocked at this news.

He was one of my sci-fi HEROES I grew up watching him on Tv as the brilliant original 'Apollo' on the 1978/79 Battlestar Galactica series.

Campy at times to be sure but it was GREAT Fun, the chemistry between him and Dirk Benedict was a joy to behold each week.

Great Spaceships...the VIPERS were COOL lookin, Great Robots...The CYCLONS and fun actors & actresses portraying characters which even to this day are enjoyed, even the beautiful (I had a crush on her since seeing her in SINBAD & THE EYE of the TIGER, LIVE & LET DIE & Somewhere in TIME) Jane Seymour guest starred in a number of episodes.

One episode I will always remember was a 2 parter in which a group of villians (held on one of the Prison Ships...yup even then there were still BAD HUMANS) were recruited to work alongside some of the Galactica crew (including our fun duo of APOLLO & STARBUCK) to take a trip to an OUTPOST upon an ICE PLANET which had a secret weapon installed by the Cylons which needed destroying before they could pass it...I won't tell you if they did or not

Richard Hatch was a joy & what is truly nice is that from ALL accounts he was a jolly damn nice fellow, with time for everyone!

Now that's the kind of actor or actress I can be a FAN of.

Richard later went on to portray the brilliant role of TOM ZAREK in the rebooted 2000's series of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA which MANY have called the GREATEST science fiction show EVER created, it's a very close call, it really is THAT GOOD, it took what was I will admit a somewhat campy, jokey science fiction series and made it VERY SERIOUS with HIGH STAKES, GREAT ACTING and SPECIAL EFFECTS that could be done properly (although I did like seeing the older model effects) this later series had serious POLITICAL issues running throughout it, it was seriously well scripted and very well done and Richard playing a very different character to that in the original series was AWESOME.

Rest well Sir for I for one will miss you.