RIP Richard Lynch

Updated on June 21, 2012 By Ken Begg 21 Comments

One of the screen’s last great heavies, Richard Lynch, has passed away. Most famous for his slightly scarred visage, the result of a gruesome, drug-related fire in 1967 that badly burned 70% of his body, Mr. Lynch beat the odds and fully recovered from the nearly fatal incident.

A successful stage actor at that point, Mr. Lynch segued to film and television work in 1973 with a small role in the Gene Hackman and Al Pacino vehicle Scarecrow. He quickly became one of Hollywood’s favorite villains, with a long, long list of genre credits. He even starred in two horror related TV pilots, Good Against Evil (1977) and as the titular Vampire opposite E. G. Marshall in 1979. Sadly, neither went to series. He did garner a recurring role on the short lived sci-fi series The Phoenix.

That didn’t stop Mr. Lynch from finding steady employment, however. During the 1980s and ’90s he became one of the busiest actors in episodic TV, appearing in seemingly every network action show, and B-movies. Mr. Lynch’s work has been explored on these pages in reviews for Deathsport and The Forbidden Dance. He continued working up until his death on June 19th.

Hollywood doesn’t really allow for these sorts of character acting careers anymore. As such, it’s a loss as each such actor passes on, leaving behind them an ever diminishing pool.

Mr. Lynch was a veteran of the U.S. Marines, having served from 1956-1960.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, I don’t think there was a single TV series that ran for multiple seasons back in the late ’70s-’80s that he didn’t have a guest star spot.

    Fellow heavies Lance Legault and Charles Napier once in a blue moon did get to play a good guy. I don’t remember Lynch ever being cast as anything but a villian though. Did he ever play a good guy?

    Rest in Peace Mister Lynch 

  • The Rev.

    He’s not entirely evil in Werewolf, although he does end up letting the villain more or less do what he wants to get ahold of the werewolf in question, to further his own interests.  Compared to most of his roles, though, he’s practically a saint there.

    He’s one of those actors I was always happy to see pop up in a movie or show, since I knew at least one part would be entertaining.

    Rest well, sir.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks, Rev. I’m going to have to go back and watch WW again, the MST3K version is funny as hell.

    Yeah, aways enjoyed his work, they don’t make heavies like him anymore. He could make reading the phone book menacing.

    And I’d always assumed that his burns were from a war injury like Jack Palace, had no idea he burned himself while on a LSD trip- gee friggin’ whiz….

  • CumaeanSibyl

    I’m trying to persuade Charles to have a Richard Lynch movie festival this weekend, but a) I don’t think we know anyone here who likes bad movies and b) Netflix is giving me no love.

  • CumaeanSibyl

    In the Linda Blair vehicle “Nightforce” he plays an ex-mercenary or something (I don’t remember, it was a silly movie) who helps out Blair and her group of twenty-something high school buddies on a rescue mission.

  • The Rev.

    Werewolf, the two Japanese serials-turned-movies, and the Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders episodes are enough to redeem the SFC years of MST3K, although I like others ones from that run as well.

  • sandra

    I would watch pretty much anything if I saw Richard Lynch’s name in the cast.  Maybe after your Peter Lorre month, you could do a Richard Lynch one.  I honestly never noticed the scars.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes, they’re not especially prominent. They basically just rough up his skin. Still, they clearly lent him an ominous appearance.

  • Ericb

    I think it’s most visible in his nose area.

  • Sad news indeed. One of the last great character actors, and a champion heavy. What do we do now?

    Rest in Peace, Sir, you’ve earned it.

  • Marsden

    He tried to steal Airwolf!  and a billion other things.   I’m sorry to say I never remembered his name, but I always recognized him when he was in something.

  • zombiewhacker

    He played a good guy in Alligator 2 if I recall.  Check it out if you’re a Lynch fan.  Probably the best movie role he ever had.

  • zombiewhacker

    The irony is that, despite Lynch’s scars, he was on the best preserved actors I ever saw.  The dude never aged!  Where’s that picture from, Ken, what year?  I’d swear he looked the same at age 65 as he did at 35.

  • Gamera977

     Thanks! I’ll have to check out Nightforce and Alligator II, thanks for the heads up!

  • Ken_Begg

     I believe it’s from Trancers II, 1991…so 21 (!) years ago.

  • The Rev.

    Was he in Alligator 2?  Man, I don’t remember that at all.

    Of course, I remember very little about that movie, other than an Australian croc hunter (but this was before Steve Irwin), a huge prop croc floating around in the ocean toward the climax, and that it was a lot worse than the original.

  • Ken_Begg

    I remember the croc hunter as being Cajun, but I saw the movie a long time ago. That was Lynch, though, playing the film’s Quint, if I remember correctly.

  • Gamera977

    I was just looking over his entry in the IMDB and yes he’s listed. And it’s a looooonnnnnnggggggg list of movies and TV shows. I’m going to have to look some of them up!

  • sandra

    As to whether RL ever played a good guy, in a movie called Mil Mascaras vs the Aztec Mummy, he played the President of the United States !  Mind you, that doesn’t necessarily mean the character was a good guy ;-D.  One of my favorite RL movies was God Told Me To ( aka Demon).  I also wished Vampire had become a series:  every week, our heroes would track Anton Voytek down, only to have him get away, because they would wait until five minutes before sunset to enter his crypt.  But they’d get to stake a couple of hot vampire babes.

  • Gamera977

     I did see him listed as the US President with this movie when I was scanning over the IMDB and thought ‘say what!?!’ I’ll have to give ‘GTMT’ a look. Thanks Sandra!

  • The Rev.

    He might very well have been Cajun.  I haven’t seen it in many years, and I’m not inclined to watch it again to make sure, so I’ll go with your memory of it.