Sad news hit yesterday morning (June 20th, 2012) that genre and character actor Richard Lynch had passed away at the age of 72. Details have yet to come in as to cause of death, but the NY Times has stated that Mr. Lynch’s representative, Mike Baronas, said that a friend found Mr. Lynch on the kitchen floor, and that “from what I currently understand, no investigation into the cause of his death will be made.”
His last film role was in Rob Zombie’s forthcoming LORDS OF SALEM. Rob Zombie had this to say about Mr. Lynch on his facebook page when he broke the news yesterday morning: “I woke up this morning to the news that our friend Richard Lynch has passed away. Richard was great to work with and really gave it his all. I will never forget the way he scared the crap out of the kid actors in ‘Halloween’. As soon as I said action! He dove in his role of Principle Chambers at top volume. He will be missed.”
His work was prolific to say the least. This is his bio from his official IMDB page:
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 Berghof 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, he 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 Shelley Winters‘ “One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger”. He made his film debut in the 1973 film classic Scarecrow (1973), winner of the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival. His performance in Scarecrow (1973) 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 (1973), The Seven-Ups (1973), Open Season (1974), The Formula (1980), Little Nikita (1988), Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Bad Dreams (1988), Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (2002) and William Peter Blatty‘s The Ninth Configuration (1980). His performance as the evil “King Cromwell”, in the successful fantasy film The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), 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 (1980) (TV), Sizzle (1981) (TV), Vampire (1979) (TV) and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987)’s two-part episode “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Gambit: Part 1 (#7.4)” (1993) / “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Gambit: Part 2 (#7.5)” (1993). 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.
