Michael O'Hare

Robert Michael O'Hare Jr. (May 6, 1952  –

September 28, 2012) was an American actor who
Michael O'Hare
performed on stage and television. He was best known
for playing the lead role of space station Commander
Jeffrey Sinclair in the science fiction television series
Babylon 5, a role he left after the first season due to
serious mental health issues.

O'Hare as Jeffrey Sinclair in Babylon 5

Contents Born Robert Michael O'Hare Jr.

May 6, 1952

Early life and education

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Career
Died September 28, 2012
Illness and death (aged 60)

Broadway New York City, New York,

References U.S.

External links Education Harvard University

Juilliard School

Early life and education Occupation Actor

Years active 1972–2000
Robert Michael O'Hare Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois Spouse(s) Ruth O'Hare ​(m. 1998⁠–⁠2012)​
and grew up in Chicago Heights. His parents were of
Irish and Italian descent. He attended Chicago's Mendel Catholic Preparatory High School,[1][2]
where he played football, to defy his doctor who told him he would never be in athletics because of
his asthma.[3][4][5] He received several awards and scholarship offers based on his football ability
and scholastic performance.[6][7][8][9][10]

He considered joining the navy or having a career in professional football, but attended Harvard
University, where he studied English literature[6] and played on the Harvard Crimson football
team.[11][12][13] He joined the university’s drama groups[14] and was a performer in “The
Wrongway Inn”,[15][16] the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ production for 1972.[17][18] That same year,
he went for an “acting tryout” to the New York area, and was cast as Beef Saunders in Good News!
at Goodspeed Musicals.[19] He was a member of the Harvard Glee Club during its 1973 World
Tour.[20][21] He left Harvard in 1974 to study at the Juilliard School of Drama. He later took
lessons from Sanford Meisner in the mid-1980s.[22][23]

Career
O'Hare appeared in a number of theatrical productions on Broadway and in regional theaters,
including an acclaimed revival of Shaw's Man and Superman[24] with Philip Bosco; in the role of
Col. Jessup in the original stage version of A Few Good Men;[25] as Captain Solyony in Chekhov’s
Three Sisters.[26] Other notable roles included Alfred in a 1986 stage revival of Little
Murders;[22][27] Jake in A Lie of the Mind[28][29] and John in Lips Together, Teeth Apart.[30][31]
He was the first white actor nominated by the African-American theater community of New York
for the AUDELCO Award for Best Actor, for his performance as Captain Jaap van Tonder[32] in
Michael Picardie's play Shades of Brown, about apartheid in South Africa.[33][34]

He co-starred in the biographical TV movie Marciano[35] and an unsold TV pilot Keefer with
William Conrad in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, he appeared mainly as guest on a range of
television shows, including Trapper John, M.D.; T.J. Hooker; Kate & Allie; The Equalizer; Tales
from the Darkside; and Rage of Angels: The Story Continues.[36]

He was the lead character in Michael Lengsfield’s CINE-award-winning short film Short Term
Bonds in 1988,[37][38][39] screened at the 1989 Sundance festival.

In 1992, he was cast in the lead role of Commander Jeffrey Sinclair in the science fiction television
series Babylon 5. He appeared in the pilot and throughout the show's first season in 1994. He left
the cast for mental health reasons that were not disclosed at the time but made guest appearances
in the second and third seasons.

Subsequently, he had one guest role on The Cosby Mysteries and appeared twice on Law & Order,
the last time in 2000. He did some voiceover work for commercials and read a radio adaptation of
the science fiction novella Think Like a Dinosaur for Seeing Ear Theater.[40][41]

After 2000, he retired from acting and rarely made public appearances.

Illness and death

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski revealed after O'Hare's death, that the actor had suffered
from severe mental illness.[42][43][44] During the filming of the first season of Babylon 5, O'Hare
began having paranoid delusions, and halfway through, his hallucinations worsened. It became
increasingly difficult for O'Hare to continue working, his behavior was becoming increasingly
erratic, and he was often at odds with his colleagues. Straczynski offered to suspend production for
several months to accommodate treatment; however O'Hare feared that such a hiatus would put
the series at risk, and he didn't want to jeopardize others' jobs. Straczynski agreed to keep O'Hare's
condition secret to protect his career, and O'Hare agreed to complete the first season, but would be
written out of the second season so that he could seek treatment. His departure from the cast was
announced without explanation, except that it was mutual and amicable.[45][46]

His treatments were only partially successful. He reappeared in a cameo appearance early in
season two ("The Coming of Shadows") and returned in season three for a two-part episode ("War
Without End") which closed his character's story arc. At that time, Straczynski promised O'Hare to
keep his condition secret "to my grave". O'Hare told him to instead "keep the secret to my grave",
arguing that fans deserved to eventually learn the real reason for his departure, and that his
experience could raise awareness and understanding for people suffering from mental illness. He
made no further appearances on Babylon 5, but continued to support the show and appeared at
conventions and signing events until his retirement from public appearances in 2000.

On September 28, 2012, Straczynski posted that O'Hare had suffered a heart attack in New York
City five days earlier, and had remained in a coma until his death that day.[47] Eight months later,
Straczynski revealed the circumstances of O'Hare's departure from Babylon 5 at a presentation
about the series at the Phoenix Comicon.[42][44]

Broadway
Players (1978)
Man and Superman (1979)
 A Few Good Men (1989)
The Crucible (1991)

References
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External links
Michael O'Hare (https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/71920) at the Internet Broadway
Database
Michael O'Hare (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641365/) at IMDb 

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