'Babylon 5' Star Michael O'Hare Dies at 60

1:59 PM PDT 9/29/2012 by Mike Barnes

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The actor cryptically exited the series after the first season but returned to wrap up his character's arc.

Michael O’Hare, who starred as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair on the first season of the sci-fi series Babylon 5, died Friday after suffering a heart attack five days earlier. He was 60.

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•Obituaries

“This is a terrible loss for all B5 fans, and everyone involved with the show wishes to convey their condolences to the O'Hare family,” series creator J. Michael Straczynski wrote on his Facebook page. “He was an amazing man.”

O'Hare left the show after the first season (Straczynski at the time called it a "mutual, amicable and friendly separation," with the star being ostensibly replaced by Bruce Boxleitner), but the actor came back for an episode in season two and back-to-back installments in season three to wrap up his character's storyline.

Babylon 5, from Warner Bros. Television, ran for four seasons on the short-lived Prime Time Entertainment Network and a final one on TNT from 1994-98.

On Broadway, the Chicago native appeared in the original 1989-91 production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men as Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson earned an Oscar nomination for playing the role in the 1992 film).

His résumé also includes the primetime series The Cosby Mysteries, Kate & Allie, Trapper John, M.D., The Equalizer, Law & Order, L.A. Law and Tales From the Darkside and the daytime soap One Life to Live.