Tuesday 22 September 2020

Actor Michael Hogan is seriously ill, costars and fans rallying around

Canadian actor Michael Hogan is seriously ill after suffering a fall which resulted in a brain injury, with his wife stepping up as a full-time carer. The accident happened back in February, but his family had kept the news secret until this week when they agreed to let it be made public and set up a Gofundme page to help make up for the family's loss of income.

Michael Hogan is best-known for playing the role of Colonel Saul Tigh on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, from the pilot mini-series in 2003 to the final episode in 2009. He was an initially divisive figure among fans, a drunkard and a has-been with a failed marriage who takes his inadequacies and rage out on subordinates, particularly Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) and is almost presented as the antagonist of the show in the opening episodes of Season 2, when he has to take command of Galactica when Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) is temporarily incapacitated. However, his characters underwent a major rehabilitation when he was among the colonists on New Caprica put under Cylon occupation at the end of Season 2. Tigh became an indefatigable resistance leader, ruthless in the pursuit of securing freedom and liberty for his people. Hogan's stellar performance - easily the equal of his much more famous co-stars Olmos and Mary McDonnell - sold the transformation and made him a firm fan favourite in later seasons, bolstered by a major character revelation in the final season of the show.

Hogan has also appeared in a veritable galaxy of other genre shows in a career spanning forty years: The Twilight Zone, War of the Worlds, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Millennium, The Outer Limits, Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, Warehouse 13, Dollhouse, Smallville, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Fargo, 12 Monkeys, The Man in the High Castle and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

He also had a small but highly impactful number of voice-over appearances in video games, playing Captain Armando-Owen Bailey in Mass Effect 2 and 3, Doc Mitchell in Fallout: New Vegas and General Tullius in Skyrim.

Many of Michael Hogan's friends, colleagues and convention buddies have rallied around him and his family at this time, including Katee Sackhoff, Jewel Staite, Bear McCreary, Mary McDonnell, Amanda Tapping, Tricia Helfer, Rekha Sharma, Aaron Douglas, Sam Witwer, Jane Espenson, Mark Meer, Michael Trucco and Edward James Olmos.

2 comments:

Brendan MD said...

I'm incredibly sad to hear this and I hope he recovers but isn't a gofundme a tad ridiculous?

I know he's not an A list actor and pulling in millions but from a lifetime of solid acting work he must make a decent amount in residuals. More than most people make monthly id think.

Adam Whitehead said...

He's Canadian so has better healthcare, but I think the main issue is that he and his wife (who is now his full-time carer) can no longer work at all, and residuals are often pretty thin. For BSG (given he's in almost every episode) it's probably pretty solid, but everything else is going to be fairly small.