Veteran character actor Richard Herd died May 26, 2020 as a result of cancer in his Los Angeles home at the age of 87.
Appearing in over 150 film and television productions, Herd is best known for his roles the sitcom “Seinfeld” and a number of shows in the “Star Trek” franchise.
Herd made his screen debut in 1970 as a television presenter in “Hercules in New York”. His over 150 roles during his career include “All the President’s Men”, “The Streets of San Francisco”, “The China Syndrome”, the mini series “Ike: The War Years”, “M*A*S*H”, “Dallas”, the mini series “V” and “V: The Final Battle”, Captain Dennis Sheridan in 36 episodes of “T. J. Hooker”, “Knight Rider”, “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles”, “Knott’s Landing”, “Murder, She Wrote”, Tom Paris’ father the admiral in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, the Klingon L’Kor in “Star Trek: Voyager”, “Quantum Leap”, “SeaQuest 2032”, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, “JAG”, “CSI: Miami”, admiral Paris in the pilot of “Star Trek: Renegades”, and “Hawaii Five-O”. The role of Mr. Frances in “Turning Tables” had been announced prior to his death.
Herd was a three time vice-president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Richard Thomas Herd Jr was born September 26, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts the son of a railroad engineer. His father died when Richard was very young. He had bone marrow cancer as a child which affected his legs but surgery saved them from becoming deformed. His introduction to the arts first came in the form of the drums but later moved to the stage.
A knee injury during basic training kept Herd from serving in the military, but spent some time with the Army Signal Corps working on training films.
Herd is survived by his third wife of 40 years Patricia and children – Erica, Rick, and Alicia.
By Uja3000 at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5563279