Richard Hugh Lynch (born February 12, 1936 or 1940) is an American actor who has starred in many films and television shows. Lynch is remembered for playing heavies in films and television. He has done much work in science fiction including appearing on Battlestar Galactica (as Wolfe) and its sequel series Galactica 1980 (as Commander Xavier). He has also appeared on such shows as Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, Charmed and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Lynch won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1982 for The Sword and the Sorcerer.
Lynch was born in Brooklyn, New York. He served in the United States Marine Corps. Lynch was once a drug user and in 1967 he nearly killed himself during a bad "trip" with LSD, when he doused himself with gasoline and put a match to it.
In addition to acting, he is also a talented musician, playing the saxophone, guitar, piano, and the flute. He is of Irish descent and is a frequent visitor to Ireland. His brother Barry Lynch is also an actor. They both starred in the films Nightforce and Total Force. Richard's wife Lily, starred with him in the 1998 film Breaking the Silence and son Christopher Lynch starred with him in the science fiction film Trancers II.
With his strong, gaunt, face, the blond Lynch has been effective in portraying cool figures with evil intent in horror films and action pictures.
Richard Lynch was born on the 12th of February 1940 in Brooklyn, NY. He is one of seven children. Before starting a career as an actor, he joined the Marine Corps in 1958. He served for 4 years where he made Corporal, and did a tour of the Mid East with the Sixth Fleet. Mr. Lynch began his training with Herbert Bergoff and Uta Hagen at H.B. Studios in New York's Greenwich Village, and later went on to train extensively with Lee Strasberg at Carnegie Hall. In 1970 be became a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and spent years in the NY theater community playing in dozens of on- and off-Broadway productions. The more notable plays were: The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, The Lion in Winter, The Devils, The Lady from the Sea, Action, Live Like Pigs, Richard III, Offi on a Tangerine, A View from the Bridge, The Man with The Flower In His Mouth and Shelly Winters' One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger. He made his film debut in the 1973 film classic Scarecrow, winner of the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival. His performance in Scarecrow launched his film career and brought him to Hollywood, where he has worked in film and television for over twenty years. His more prominent film work has been in: Scarecrow, The Seven Ups, Open Season, The Formula, Little Nikita, Invasion U.S.A., Bad Dreams, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration. His performance as the evil King Cromwell, in the successful fantasy film The Sword and The Sorcerer, won him the Saturn Award for Best Actor from the Academy of Science Fiction and Fantasy. He also starred in numerous T.V. shows and Movies of the Week, such as Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story, Sizzle, Vampire and Star Trek: The Next Generation's two-part episode "Gambit I / Gambit II." His work in a variety of indy films has won him a high profile internationally. He has also worked in China, Where he played in the first joint production between the Screen Actors' Guild and the People's Republic of China, The Korean Project. In his spare time, Richard enjoys fishing, the arts, architecture, music, and poetry. He is also fluent in several languages including German, and Italian.
