RICHARD HERD

THE RETROCRUSH INTERVIEW

You might remember Richard Herd for his portrayal of John, the Supreme Commander from the classic NBC miniseries "V". He's also well known for playing George's boss on "Seinfield". Richard's starred in such classic films as The China Syndrome with Jane Fonda, The Onion Field, Summer Rental with John Candy, and the underrated F.I.S.T. with Sylvester Stallone. Recently, Richard took some time to speak with us.  In addition to being an accomplished actor Richard is also a wonderful painter. Recently, Richard took some time to speak with us.

Yes, Hercules in New York. His name in that movie was Arnold Strong. His voice was dubbed. It was re-released as Hercules goes Bananas.

The reason they changed was after he did a couple of successful films he became well known. It made him a Hollywood Star. That made Hercules in New York very valuable. They re-released it and made a killing.

Not really. He has such a good work ethic, he was disciplined, and had ambition. It’s the Horatio Alger story in America. The immigrant guy comes over, works hard and dutifully and becomes a success.

He gave the whole body building industry a huge shot in the arm. I think the Mr. Universe contest paid him $1,500 to $2,000 dollars at this time if you won. Once he got involved it went to 5, 10, 15 and $20,000 dollars. It made bodybuilding more respectable, he brought it to the forefront. It’s still possible in this country, if you have a good work ethic, discipline, and brains to achieve great success.

There are a lot of intelligent people in the acting and creative arts community. As an entertainer it’s difficult for people to take a political stance or come up on an issue. Sometimes it damages their popularity or a certain fan base because they’re not supposed to have attitudes and ideas.

A lot of people are bright and smart. It’s not always the best profession to have a political opinion in.

That was quite an experience. What’s amazing about it is they didn't have any expectation that it was going to be a huge success. Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda, and the producer worked very hard for many years to get that movie done. Most studios didn’t want to do the picture. They didn’t think it had any commercial value.

Yes, now it is. When Three Mile Island happened just weeks after that movie was released. Everyone wanted to see The China Syndrome. The timing was incredible.

I play the chairman of the board Evan McCormack who runs these atomic plants. It’s his job to deliver the goods. I don’t think he truly knew about the construction of it. That the x-rays were not taken of all of the rivet bases. The contractor just turned in the same x-ray for every rivet base.

It’s a shame because so many lives are endangered by it. You know what it is? It’s greed. People are pushed to get things done by a certain time. Oftentimes, they get it done because they don’t want to lose the contract. They don’t want to get a reputation as a company who can’t finish a job.

You see there again how everything is hushed up, you don’t want word to leak out, business as usual. There’s "The Insider" that Al Pacino did about the guy who blew the whistle on the tobacco industry. It’s repeated all the time.

And rather then being looked upon as people who did everybody in this country a service they’re looked on as squealers, informants, and people you don’t want to have anything to do with. Isn’t that amazing when they try to do something good, they try to save 100’s of thousands of lives. They get looked down upon, mistreated, and locked out.

That was a Joe Wambaugh picture, directed by Harold Becker and had many performers including John Savage who I think is a fine actor. I really got to know Joe. Ted Danson was the one in "The Onion Field" who was killed. He was John Savage’s partner.

I worked for 2½ seasons with Bill, Heather, Adrian Zmed, and Jimmy Darren on that. It was a big turn around for Bill. It was difficult after he did "Star Trek" for both he & Leonard Nimoy to be taken seriously in the industry. They’d call up and say, "We don’t want a guy with pointy ears or who gets beamed up." When he did "TJ Hooker" it brought him to the public in a very different way. It was a big visual change for him.

He and Leonard had 10 years of being strongly associated with "Star Trek". It didn’t help their careers when they came out of that show. Leonard starred in one of the episodes. I believe it was called, "Vengeance is Mine" and he directed the next episode. He ended up directing a Star Trek movie. That changed his life as well. So both Bill & Leonard had big life changes from that series.

You know 50% of our business is gone. It’s left the country; reality shows take up air time when they don’t do shows with actors, and game shows. All of these are very inexpensive to produce. Most of them are done with non–union people. It’s a very difficult time finding work opportunities.

People don’t know how bad it really is. People look upon actors like they’re all millionaires and have big homes with swimming pools. Believe me that is not the truth. The average salary of your journeyman actor is only $50,000 dollars a year. You’ve got 120,000 members and only 5,000 including all the series people and all of the movie stars make over $50,000 a year.

It’s tougher now because of people not stemming the tide of work leaving our country. A lot of the states have now created tax incentives, right to work states. They’re trying to get some of the business back into the country. I personally think it’s un-American to take money out of the country to produce a show. Then bring it back across the border and sell it. I just think it’s terrible.

That’s right you’re taking away jobs. I can understand the producers problems as well. I think it’s up to the Federal Government to enforce countervailing tariffs. I think it’s imperative that the governors of the states create tax incentives to bring work back to the country. We lost the whole aerospace industry out here. Now we’re about to lose the motion picture industry.

They’re building studios all over the world.

Not here in America. Most of your sci-fi shows are shot in Canada. They’re all shot up in Vancouver or Toronto. There are very few shot down here.

When they use Canadian actors or other actors throughout the world they don’t have to pay them residuals, pension, they don’t pay them health, and they buy out the contract.

They get around everything. Also the country or the state gives them tax incentives. You have to realize the dollar in Canada is worth $1.33.

When you’re a producer you have to go where it’s cheaper. We have to create more of a competitive climate. It’s the bottom line with every company. It’s not just the motion picture business. A lot of major industries: automotive, textiles, and steel have all left the country for cheaper labor.

I had a wonderful time working with Jane Badler, Marc Singer, Andy Prine, and especially working with Kenny Johnson who created that show.

We were all surprised and so was NBC. We did another mini-series a year after, that was big too. They didn’t know what to do. They thought we’ll go to a series. They made a big mistake there, but how are you suppose to know at the time?

They should have waited another year and done another mini-series, but it was so popular it seemed like the right idea. It just didn’t work. They’ve been threatening the last 20 years to redo it.

If they come up with a new sci-fi show they don’t want to see anybody who’s done "Star Trek". There was another show after "V" and none of the sci-fi shows wanted to see people who had been on "V".

Well, they just don’t want them. They don’t want them to be associated. You’d think if it’s a big hit people will watch these people because they watched them on "V" or they watched them on "Star Trek".

Years ago there were a small number of people that you dealt with and you got the job quickly or you didn’t. Today everything is done by committee. There are too many people involved in the casting, the plotting, and the producing.

Everybody gets on the bandwagon. They get on the money wagon. What happens is the journeyman actor gets kicked in the butt. They don’t want to pay him his money. The money it took him 10, 15, 20 years it takes to get a certain quote.

All they have to do is call the last production company and they’ll tell them. These producers cut their quotes in half. That’s purely based on greed.

I’ve been very fortunate and I’m very grateful. It’s been over 50 years.

If you throw it all together with the plays it’s probably over 300.

The nature of the business is that. You can come out of a series and never stop working or you can come out of a series cold & not work for a year or two. You can do a big movie that everybody’s got to see. That will carry you for four or five years.

You can do a movie like one of my favorite films "F.I.S.T." It was not seen by anybody. A lot of us were expecting to hopefully make the next step after that picture. If nobody sees the film then nothing happens.

It was a very well done picture. I thought Norman Jewison did a good job and the cast was splendid. It just wasn’t in the cards.

As an actor you shouldn’t have expectations. You can’t help it. Its like "China Syndrome" what happened was a freak thing. In the Beverly Hills circuit everyone wanted to bring that film home to show their friends.

When F.I.S.T. came along nobody wanted to bring that home to show their friends. With "Seinfield" they never thought it was going to be the huge success that it turned out to be. It was cancelled a couple of times. "Quantum Leap" was cancelled 5 times.

It had wonderful scripts, a fine actor, wonderful guys Scott, and Don Bellisario. They were good, hard working people. Even when it was cancelled it shouldn’t have been cancelled. Who knows? Whimsy? Quarterback Monday thoughts? Nobody has a crystal ball. If anybody could figure it out. They'd pay that person millions of dollars to forecast what would be a hit.

I had a red mustache, and tons of hair with John Candy, Rip Torn, and Richard Crenna. My wife Patricia Herd was in that. They cut her and John Larroquette out. She had a nice part. She’s a fine actress herself.

Oh yea, he was a really sweet, hard working guy. It was a shame that he passed away so young and to leave a family. We were directed by a wonderful man Carl Reiner.

There’s a lot of work I had in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, it was cut for whatever reason. They wanted to move the story along. Then I played against Steve Martin as his commanding officer General Tennyson in Sgt. Bilko. I also had a part in Coneheads with Dan Aykroyd at the end of the film when I married them, but that was cut.

You have to realize that most comedians are very serious people. All of the comics study each other. It’s a serious business. They’ll laugh at something good. Most of the comics I’ve been with they’ll watch something. They won’t laugh they’ll say," Gee that was funny". They study.

We had a good director Graeme Clifford who directed the movie Frances. The only difficulty with that was the title. People didn’t know what the movie was about.

Tony Hawk has gone on to do very well. He built this huge skateboarding industry and videos.

He was only 16 years old. He was one of the guys coming down the hill.

I liked him. I thought he was a fine actor.

I didn’t have any scenes with him, but we would play catch between takes. We had a couple of baseball mitts. He is a hard working guy who created Sundance. He took an interest in the environment. He’s done a lot of good things for our country.

Another guy I worked with twice was Rod Steiger in F.I.S.T. and The Honor Guard too which was also called Wolf Lake. I got to know him very well. He was helpful, a wonderful human being, and a marvelous actor.

Burt looked out for me and you know I’d do a western for him or I’d do this and I’d do that. There use to be a loyalty like that years ago in Hollywood amongst all the directors and the stars. Like Clint Eastwood. He’s had a lot of the same people work with him 10, 15, and 20 years.

Yes, but you have to realize most people in America know your face. The young people use to watch old movies. They don’t do it anymore. You have to realize that’s the climate and that’s the way things are and if you want to function in the industry you have to stop thinking that people should know you.

That’s been wonderful, but the convention circuit has all changed now. You have groups of people from "The Sopranos"; you have "Laverne & Shirley". A lot of them are no longer just sci-fi shows.

I’ve never gone to one specifically. Everybody has a specific feel for what they like in the sci-fi world. The conventions have been fine. Also work comes from them on occasion. There are a lot directors and producers. First time people who are younger trying to get a project off the ground. A lot of people ask for your advice.

Maybe I do two or three conventions a year. You have to realize that the popularity of certain shows wanes. If you don’t have a current show you’re not as marketable as you use to be.

I’m doing a lot of painting lately. I have a painting of L'Kor from Star Trek and John from "V". I kind of paint what I want. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few shows. My paintings now are in a lot of folk’s collections around the country and I have my own studio.

I have one of my collages at a very famous gallery out here. I did a collage on 9-11. They had 1200 entries and they chose 70. It's at the Viva Gallery in Sherman Oaks.

What current projects are you working on?

I was in an episode of the hit TV series "Ghost Whisperer". As far as movies I'm in a remake of the classic Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Checkers, Confessions of a Pit Fighter, and The Dog Days of Summer. I just did several NFL commercials for the Super Bowl that are currently running on the NFL cable network and the internet.

Which upcoming conventions are you attending?

My wife Pat & I are leaving for Europe soon. I'm going to be doing a convention out in Italy with Michael Dorn. I did a role that was close to me being his father on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". The role of L'Kor the Klingon. I'll be there May 12th, 13th, and 14th.

After that we'll be flying back to London. We're going to do the London Expo there on May 26th, 27th, and the 28th. I'll be there with a lot of the "Star Trek: Voyager" people.

I'm also doing the Chiller Theater convention June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the Secaucus -  Meadowlands of New Jersey.

There were actors that I looked up to. People like Claude Raines, Frederic March, and Vivien Leigh.

-Randy Waage
randy@retrocrush.com

Richard is cleaning out his sci-fi closet and is selling off the original prosthetic teeth he wore while portraying the Klingon L'Kor on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and the Silver Triangle Hat he wore (the above right picture) as Capt. Galaxy from "Quantum Leap". E-mail him at richard@richardherd.com with a reasonable offer and maybe you'll own a piece of television history.

Richard also has self portrait paintings as John from "V" and L'Kor from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" for sale. You can see photos of them if you scroll up a bit in this article. E-mail Richard or go to his website for more information.

Make sure to look for Richard in the upcoming films: "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "T.V. Virus", "Confessions of a Pit Fighter", "The Dog Days of Summer" and "Checkers" which will premiere at the California Film Festival.

Check out Richard's website at: www.richardherd.com