Richard Hatch has Passed Away

Richard was a friend of mine. We worked together in the mid-80's on a low-budget movie called Party Line, co-starring Leif Garrett, Richard Roundtree and Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly.

Richard and I always shared a funny moment from the movie. One of the locations, his character's home in the movie, was his actual house in the Hollywood Hills. The problem was that I didn't like the look. I was the production designer of the movie, so I redesigned the inside of his home.

Above, Richard walking to his real home and real set.

Above, my redesign of Richard's home for the movie.

He liked what we did so much that he asked us to leave it the way we redesigned it. He preferred living in my design than his old house. One of the set decorations we placed next to his front door (I wish I had a photo of it) was a plant to make one of the shots more interesting. This was a VERY low budget shoot, so my prop budget was almost non-existent. I didn't have a plant that filled in the area, so we created one. We wired branches and leaves together from any plant we could find in the area and put it next to the door. When we left and he didn't want us to remove anything, so I didn't think twice about it.

(Above. My art crew. I'm on the left trying to look cool.)

Richard was so proud of his new place. But he was upset when the plant next to his door started to wilt. He didn't want to tell me that he was killing a plant we left behind for him. He tried to water it more, he tried various fertilizers, but nothing helped. He was embarrassed about it. He finally called a horticulturist over to try and save the plant.

Richard came to the set one morning laughing. He pulled me to the side and said, "Mark, I have to admit something to you." He told me what he had gone through. Then he told me how embarrassed he was when the horticulturist looked at the plant and said, "Richard, not only are these leaves from 5 different plants, they are all wired together. It's just cuttings."

Over the years I would see him at comic conventions and we would catch up. We talked about working together again, but never had the chance. He got a chance to meet my sons a few times and he was always so nice to them. I'm so glad they had the opportunity to get to know him.

At least after all these years, I can sort-of say I co-starred with Richard. I'm actually in a few scenes in Party Line. I'm a patron in a bar where he looks for Shawn Weatherly's character, the woman below in the hot red dress. I'm the letch who always stares at her. My moment of fame for anyone who can look away from the beautiful Shawn. I'll miss you Richard.

(Above, Richard Hatch and Shawn Weatherly rehearsing a scene.)