Richard Herd

Richard Herd was an American actor who played Owen Paris in the sixth and seventh seasons of and L'Kor in the sixth season episodes and .
Herd is perhaps best known for his role as the Visitor Supreme Commander John in (1983) and (1984). He is also known for starring opposite William Shatner in , for playing Admiral Noyce on seaQuest DSV, and for his recurring role as Mr. Wilhelm on . At one point, Herd was the 3rd National Vice-President of the . 
He was a member of the , a musical group that writes and performs songs about Star Trek. Other members include Vaughn Armstrong, Casey Biggs, Steve Rankin, William Jones, and Ronald B. Moore. Herd played the gut box bass, kazoo, and sang some of the back-up vocals.
Herd died of cancer-related causes at his home in Los Angeles on May 26, 2020. 
== Early life and career ==
Herd was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He began acting in high school and participated in a two-year apprenticeship-acting program with the Boston Summer Stock Theater. After graduating from high school, Herd enlisted in the Army, serving for less than a year in 1953 and receiving a discharge as a private.
He made his film debut playing an athletics coach in (1970), which also marked the film debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His breakthrough role came in (1976, with Stephen Collins, Nicholas Coster, Paul Lambert, Gene Dynarski, and F. Murray Abraham). Incidentally, Herd previously appeared with Abraham in an episode of Kojak the previous year.
Herd's subsequent film credits include (1978, with Kevin Conway), (1979, with Donald Hotton), and (1979, with John Savage in the lead role and Phillip Richard Allen, K Callan, Ronny Cox, John de Lancie, Christopher Lloyd, and Michael Pataki and edited by John W. Wheeler).
Herd and Christopher Lloyd again worked together in (1970, with Marianna Hill and Craig Wasson). That same year, Herd was seen as Brigadier General Foley in 
, with Lilyan Chauvin, Alan Oppenheimer, and Keone Young. 
Between 1975 and 1982, Herd guest-starred on such television series as (with Andrew Robinson), Eight Is Enough (with James Cromwell), and (with David Ogden Stiers). He also had a recurring role on , during which time he worked with Michael Bell, Joanna Cassidy, Susan Howard, Leigh J. McCloskey, William Windom, and Morgan Woodward.
Herd played General of the Army Omar Bradley in the 1979 TV miniseries Ike, a role previously played by Karl Malden (an actor for whom Herd is often mistaken) in the film Patton. (Jonathan Banks, Whit Bissell, William Boyett, K Callan, Laurence Luckinbill, and William Schallert also had roles in Ike.) Herd played another historical general, Leslie Groves, in the 1980 TV movie Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb, which also featured Kim Darby, Stephen Macht, and Robert Pine.
One of Herd's best-known roles is that of Police Captain Dennis Sheridan, whom he played for three seasons on T. J. Hooker, which starred William Shatner in the title role. James Darren was a regular on this series as well. Some of the directors Herd worked with on this series included Corey Allen, Cliff Bole, Winrich Kolbe, Leonard Nimoy (who also made a guest appearance on the show), and even Shatner himself.
== V and other genre projects ==
Outside of Star Trek, Herd is also well known for his role in NBC's , in which he played John, the Visitors' Supreme Commander. He reprised this role in the 1984 sequel, V: The Final Battle. Both of these projects starred guest actors Michael Durrell and Andrew Prine. V: The Final Battle starred Next Generation and Voyager guest star Mark L. Taylor and Next Generation/Deep Space Nine guest star Dick Miller.
After his role on V, Herd made appearances on several well-known science fiction shows, including with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. He made several appearances as Admiral Noyce on alongside other Trek guest stars such as Stephanie Beacham, Rosalind Ingledew, and Marco Sanchez. Herd even reunited with his T. J. Hooker co-star William Shatner in the "Hide and Seek" episode of seaQuest DSV. Some of Herd's other genre roles include guest spots on (starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman) and (with Willie Garson). 
Herd also played Chairman in (1985, starring Tim Thomerson). In 1996, Herd co-starred with LeVar Burton and Malcolm McDowell in the HBO sci-fi movie Yesterday's Target. In the 1998 TV movie I Married a Monster, Herd worked with Vaughn Armstrong and Tim de Zarn. Herd had a supporting role in , written by and co-starring Walter Koenig. This film's cast also included Erick Avari, Gary Graham, J.G. Hertzler, Andrew Koenig, Judy Levitt, Lisa LoCicero, Courtney Peldon, Jeff Rector, Alan Ruck, and Next Generation regular Marina Sirtis.
== Other works ==
In addition to the above, Herd had supporting roles in such films as (1983, with Graham Jarvis, Richard Libertini, Tony Plana, and Wallace Shawn), (1985, starring Karen Austin and John Larroquette), (1987, with Bill Erwin, Larry A. Hankin, Michael McKean, and William Windom), and (1989, with Art Chudabala, Ed Lauter, and starring Christian Slater). Some of his later films include (1996, with Pamela Segall), (1997, with Bob Gunton, Anne Haney, and Leon Rippy), and (2005, starring Doug Jones, with Tim Russ and Time Winters).
On television, Herd portrayed Calvin Kleeger in two 1984 episodes of , on which Robert Foxworth was a regular. Foxworth also directed Herd's first episode. In between airings of his two Falcon Crest episodes, Herd was seen on , which starred Brian Keith and Daniel Hugh Kelly in the title roles. Herd returned to the series in 1985, in an episode with Charles Rocket. That same year, Herd appeared on , starring Dwight Schultz.
Herd is well-known for his recurring role as Mr. Wilhelm on . His character was the absent-minded boss of George Costanza, played by fellow Voyager alum Jason Alexander. Herd appeared in eleven episodes of Seinfeld between 1995 and 1998 and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance on the show. Among the other performers he worked with during his time on the show were Ian Abercrombie, Lee Arenberg, Thomas Dekker, Richard Fancy, Teri Hatcher, Harvey Jason, Patrick Kerr, Brian McNamara, Phil Morris, Leon Russom, Armin Shimerman, Brenda Strong, and Heidi Swedberg.
His other television credits during the 1990s includes two back-to-back episodes of (with Liam Sullivan and Kenneth Tigar) and an appearance on China Beach (starring Jeff Kober, Robert Picardo and Concetta Tomei, in an episode with Robert Knepper), as well as guest-starring roles on (playing the husband of Sally Kellerman in an episode with Gregory Sierra), (with Marshall R. Teague and Noble Willingham), and (with Scott Jaeck and William Utay). He also made recurring appearances on (working with Edward Laurence Albert, Chad Allen, Elinor Donahue, Georgann Johnson, Nick Ramus, and Gail Strickland) and (with Manu Intiraymi, Chip Mayer, and Jeremy Roberts).
Herd was among the many Star Trek veterans who participated in the 2003 short film Roddenberry on Patrol, which parodies Gene Roddenberry's creation of Star Trek. This film was directed and produced by Tim Russ, who also appeared in the movie along with Robert Beltran, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Robert O'Reilly, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, and George Takei. 
Herd was later seen on such television shows as (with Melinda Clarke and Alan Dale), (with Teri Hatcher and Mark Moses), and (with Charles Napier). He also had recurring roles on Everwood (on which Stephanie Niznik was a regular) and (which starred Gordon Clapp).
== Appearances as Owen Paris ==
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== External links ==
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* – former official site
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