Richard Lynch

Richard Hugh Lynch was an American actor born on February 12, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York, to Catholic parents of Irish descent. He died on June 19, 2012, in Yucca Valley, California, of a heart attack. Over the course of his career, Lynch accumulated more than 160 film and television performances, becoming widely recognized for portraying villains on screen. Before establishing himself in film and television, he appeared on Broadway between 1965 and 1977, with credits including The Lady from the Sea, Devils, and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel.

Lynch served four years in the United States Marine Corps before pursuing an acting career. In 1967, while in New York's Central Park and under the influence of drugs, he set himself on fire, burning more than 70 percent of his body. He spent a year in recovery and subsequently gave up drug use. Following his recovery, he trained at The Actors Studio and at the HB Studio. The scarring he sustained from the incident became a defining physical characteristic that contributed to his casting as antagonists throughout his career.

His early stage work included an off-Broadway production in 1970, when he co-starred with Robert De Niro, Sally Kirkland, and Diane Ladd in One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger, a play written by Shelley Winters. His Broadway career continued through the 1970s, and in 1977 he shared the stage with Al Pacino, a close friend, in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. In that production Lynch played a Vietnam veteran who used a wheelchair, and the performance earned him a Tony nomination in 1977.

Lynch's film debut came with Scarecrow in 1973, followed that same year by The Seven-Ups. Subsequent film credits included God Told Me To (1976), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Little Nikita (1988), Bad Dreams (1988), Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991), and Halloween (2007). His performance as the villain King Cromwell in The Sword and the Sorcerer earned him a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1982. He was also cast as the president of the United States in the 2007 film Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy. Lynch appeared alongside his brother Barry in the films Nightforce and Total Force, and his wife Lily starred with him in Breaking the Silence (1998). His son Christopher appeared with him in Trancers II, though Christopher died in 2005 from pneumonia.

On television, Lynch played Wolfe in the 1978 science fiction series Battlestar Galactica and returned to that universe in the sequel series Galactica 1980 as Commander Xaviar. He starred alongside Judson Scott in the short-lived 1982 science fiction series The Phoenix. His other television appearances included Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, T. J. Hooker, Blue Thunder, Airwolf, The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Vega$, Murder She Wrote, Charmed, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Over the years he also collaborated repeatedly with actor Don Calfa on the films Necronomicon (1993), Toughguy (1995), Corpses Are Forever (2003), and Lewisburg (2009).

Beyond acting, Lynch was a musician who played saxophone, guitar, piano, and flute. He held Irish citizenship through his Irish-born parents and visited Ireland frequently. Lynch married twice, first to Béatrix Lynch and later to Lily Lynch. He was survived by his brother Barry and two sisters, Carole Taylor and Cathy Jones.