The Untold Truth About Michael O'Hare

[Whitestar]

Several years ago, I attended a science fiction/fantasy convention with a friend of mine and one of the guests was Michael O'Hare. We were excited to meet him because we liked his work on B5, even though he at times appeared rather wooden due to not being accustomed to the limited rehearsals that television entails. Once there, we entered a small room that was set up like an auditorium and there was Michael O'Hare. Initially, I didn't recognized him because he had gotten so FAT!!! I later found out that it was because during the show, he was pumping his body with drugs and illegal substances and after he made his last appearance, he went sober. As a result, he gained so much weight which is expected after enduring such an ordeal. Anyway, he discussed about his experience on B5 and as an actor. Later when it came for the Q&A session, I stood up and asked him about his experience at Julliard School in New York City. He looked directly at me and his face lit up because he was glad that one fan asked him an non-B5 question. He said that one thing he learned at Julliard was how to be vunerable. Afterwards, he was signing autographs and I told him that I was very disappointed that he left the show and personalized his autograph to me and shook his hand.

About a month later, I went to Tate's Comics, a store that sells comics, books, magazines, model kits and just about everything you could think of in a sci-fi/fantasy convention. Anyway, I spoke with a guy named Paul who was one of the people in charge of the conventions and asked him about his thoughts on Michael O'Hare. He said that O'Hare is quite weird and elaborated that he was hitting on Andrea Thompson (Talia) who was married at the time to Jerry Doyle. Doyle was naturally pissed about it and said that he wanted O'Hare off the show. It seems that the departure of O'Hare was more than just show business politics when the network suits said that they didn't like him because they felt he was too wooden and lacked charisma. And now, I just came across a link that further confirms my conversation with Paul about O'Hare being a prick by a chap who calls himself djehuty:

While listening to yesterdays broadcast of the Jerry Doyle show (he played security chief Garibaldi) I was treated to some insights into the bizarre nature of O'Hare that confirm and surpass all the rumours I've heard about him. Such as:


"My first season of Babylon 5 working with Michael O'Hare, he's a whack-job a complete lunatic. He flies out from New York, he gets the gig, we're doing our rehearsels he says to me one day "Uh can you give me a ride out the the set?" yeah sure! "Wanna stop and have breakfeast?" yeah good! He gets in the car and he's playing with the buttons in my car trying to turn the radio off and I'm like what are you doing? And he goes "I don't want any sound" and I go well why dont you just ask me to turn it off? And he goes "I dont want to talk today!" And I say well why do you want to go to breakfeast and he goes "you talk, I'll listen!" so obviously we hurry through breakfeast, we go out to the set and I realise I'm dealing with a complete nut-job here.

After we finished that first Friday night we go to this bar in Santa Clarita and I'm off in one corner talking to this actress Pat Tallman..just chatting her up having drinks we just got done shooting. He comes over and sits between us and I go oh ok...he was number 1 on the call sheet, he was the lead. He was the guy that got all the media interviews..because he was the lead on the show, and the face and voice on Babylon 5. So he's chatting her up and I'm like "Oh..ok..I'll just talk to the bartender here..." and order 3 more drinks. He turns around, looks at the 3 drinks and says "What is that?" and I say "umm...I'm buying a round..", and he says "Dont try to control me!!" and I went "oh..o...k..." this guy is a complete lunatic!

Now outside of the fact that he sexually harrassed an 18 year old makeup artist and hair gal because he's talking about how its lonely to be on the road and well he did certain things at night with her in mind I thought thats a very nice thing to address to an 18 year old that was interning on a show, not making any money trying to work her way up in the union.

He punches a female actress on the set. He comes after me we have the big meeting. Finally I say to him "Michael is there an Indian behind every tree?" and he says "maybe..you and I will settle this May 26 after we wrap production" And at the end of all this I went back to the guys and said you know what? I don't need this crap..I dont need the money"

Eventually Jerry gives an ultimatum that if Michael is back then he's out I presume for season 2. I'm glad O'Hare left and we got to keep Garibaldi.


And here is the link:

Register at IMDb.com

Well, it's not surprising that Doyle found O'Hare to be a nut considering that he was heavily on drugs at the time. Still, it's no excuse for the way he behaved. That would explain why Doyle said that he refused to be in the same room with him and threatened to quit the show after learning that O'Hare would be making an appearance in the two-part episode, "War Without End". Then Straczynski came up with a clever way in which both actors would not have to meet in the same room by filming O'Hare's scene separately from Doyle's, which resulted in Sinclair saying goodbye to Garabaldi via video phone. At first, I gave O'Hare the benefit of the doubt but now that all the pieces are coming together, I'm glad that he left the show and Doyle stayed onboard. Apparently, other cast members had problems with O'Hare as well and it would explain why he hasn't been working in seven years. Now I hear that he's currently a trader at the stock market. It just goes to show you how much we don't know about people.

[Eric]

J. Michael Straczynski (along with other members of the B5cast and crew) has already spoken out about the rumors of Michael O'Hare's alleged drug use and refuted them unequivocally. In fact, he did so YEARS ago, and threatened to sue any person online who continued to spread such hurtful information. Your information is not only untrue but also grossly out of date.

Further, you are quoting an anonymous post on IMDB which purports to carry legitimate information with no substantive back-up. You have no way of knowing if what you have posted is actually true, OR the identity of the person who claims to have heard the radio show. Further, Jerry Doyle has a history of disparaging Michael O'Hare (he is the only member of the cast to do so), while Michael O'Hare has never publicly made a critical remark about Jerry Doyle. All you are doing is spreading vicious lies and unfounded rumors.

Lastly, if Jerry Doyle is so easy to work with, them why have so many of his B5 castmates left the show or refused to work with him? He was married to Andrea Thompson less than two years. He worked with Michael O'Hare less than a year. Is he really so reliable a source of information, even if he DID make those comments you posted (and there is no evidence that he did)?

[doroanne]

Originally Posted by Eric

J. Michael Straczynski (along with other members of the B5cast and crew) has already spoken out about the rumors of Michael O'Hare's alleged drug use and refuted them unequivocally. In fact, he did so YEARS ago, and threatened to sue any person online who continued to spread such hurtful information. Your information is not only untrue but also grossly out of date.

Further, you are quoting an anonymous post on IMDB which purports to carry legitimate information with no substantive back-up. You have no way of knowing if what you have posted is actually true, OR the identity of the person who claims to have heard the radio show. Further, Jerry Doyle has a history of disparaging Michael O'Hare (he is the only member of the cast to do so), while Michael O'Hare has never publicly made a critical remark about Jerry Doyle. All you are doing is spreading vicious lies and unfounded rumors.

Lastly, if Jerry Doyle is so easy to work with, them why have so many of his B5 castmates left the show or refused to work with him? He was married to Andrea Thompson less than two years. He worked with Michael O'Hare less than a year. Is he really so reliable a source of information, even if he DID make those comments you posted (and there is no evidence that he did)?

Thank you very much. If I wanted to read this kind of remarks I'd buy a copy of The Enquirer or The Star ... rumor and innuendo. "Lies and mendacity" from Tennessee Williams seems appropriate.

doroanne

[Interference]

Hmmmm. Disagreement? Hostility? This isn't Chrons, is it? I must have strayed somewhere else by mistake...

Michael O Hare played a good-ish part quite well. Disagreements happen in The Industry. Art suffers. Audiences suffer. In the end, it is what it is, it becomes what it becomes and we believe whatever we wish.

I just wish there was another series like it on our tellies today. I want my brain to be activated.

I have a terrible suspicion I'm talking gibberish, but I think I know what I meant to say and hope a bit of it came across.

[Snowdog]

Basically decent people can take a intense dislike to one another, for no obvious reason. Everything they do and say is then coloured by that dislike until they build up a false (but real to them) image of a person.

So Jerry Doyle could be speaking perfectly honestly (as he sees it) about O'Hare without it being in any way true. Everything you hear and read about someone should be taken with a pinch of salt unless there's plenty of supporting evidence.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by Eric

Further, you are quoting an anonymous post on IMDB which purports to carry legitimate information with no substantive back-up.

Whitestar, was all this from one of Jerry's podcasts, which should therefore be publicly available online, or was it overheard from a specific radio program?

[Whitestar]

Originally Posted by Eric

J. Michael Straczynski (along with other members of the B5cast and crew) has already spoken out about the rumors of Michael O'Hare's alleged drug use and refuted them unequivocally. In fact, he did so YEARS ago, and threatened to sue any person online who continued to spread such hurtful information. Your information is not only untrue but also grossly out of date.

Well, I'm not entirely certain that O'Hare used drugs, but if he did, then I would completely understand why Straczynski wanted to keep this a secret because it's bad PR.

Originally Posted by Eric

Further, you are quoting an anonymous post on IMDB which purports to carry legitimate information with no substantive back-up. You have no way of knowing if what you have posted is actually true, OR the identity of the person who claims to have heard the radio show.

As I stated before, I gave O'Hare the benefit of the doubt, but after putting the pieces together, it wasn't hard to figure out. But if I turn out to be wrong about this, then I will apologize accordingly.

Originally Posted by Eric

Further, Jerry Doyle has a history of disparaging Michael O'Hare (he is the only member of the cast to do so), while Michael O'Hare has never publicly made a critical remark about Jerry Doyle. All you are doing is spreading vicious lies and unfounded rumors.

At the convention, he praised every cast member, except Doyle and he seemed to do it deliberately, which raised some red flags. By not even mentioning his name clued me in as his way of giving him a critical remark.

Originally Posted by Eric

Lastly, if Jerry Doyle is so easy to work with, them why have so many of his B5 castmates left the show or refused to work with him? He was married to Andrea Thompson less than two years. He worked with Michael O'Hare less than a year. Is he really so reliable a source of information, even if he DID make those comments you posted (and there is no evidence that he did)?

And where did you hear about the other B5 castmembers who allegedly reported that Doyle was difficult to work for? For all I know, you could be lying.

[Whitestar]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

Whitestar, was all this from one of Jerry's podcasts, which should therefore be publicly available online, or was it overheard from a specific radio program?

It is my understanding that it was featured in Jerry Doyle's official website: http://www.jerrydoyle.com/askjerry.

[Eric]

HERE is what J. Michael Straczynski had to say about the unfortunate rumors:

"Michael O'Hare has been harmed enough by the loss, by the lies, bythe failure to meet a promised payment by CMC; Mark Hamill is out well over $20,000 from various areas, others have been hurt; to have certain individuals out there alleging drug abuse when none exists, trying to destroy someone's career on top of everything else to cover their own incompetence and deception, cannot and must not be tolerated."


The ENTIRE thread can be found here:

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:...ient=firefox-a

And here is the entirety of the relevant post made by JMS:

Date: 14 Aug 1995 20:37:50 -0400
Subject: Big Bang URGENT from jms

If I have seemed a bit easily annoyed lately, there is a reason for
it. Addressing that reason will require some assistance from some of you
reading this.

After, and during the Big Bang incident, word began to filter back to
me that Tom Christofferson was engaging in a smear campaign against many
of those involved in B5. This includes me, Claudia, Michael O'Hare and
others. This on top of never paying the balance of Michael's fee, not
paying Mark Hamill, not paying (I'm told) the photographers, or security,
or travel agents....

So I have been biding my time, waiting and collecting reports as they
have come back to me. Several have confirmed Tom's comments, in an attempt to discredit my comments about BB, that I had been "thrown out of the Writers Guild," plus other aspersions on my career. Other comments about Claudia's personal life have been logged.


Over the last few days, some more aspects of this have come to light
that have pushed this entire situation over the edge, to the point where
we are now going to have to take serious action, because people are being
hurt.

Here is a brief quote from a letter that arrived by mail from
someone reliable, and involved with the Visions convention. Two quick
prefaces: 1) Michael O'Hare had been contacted by Visions about doing a
convention for them; that discussion suddenly and mysteriously stopped a
little while ago, and 2) For those who were there, and know, at the Chicago Comic Con, when Michael O'Hare was stiffed for $5,000 by Tom Christofferson and Big Bang, I conducted the one and only fundraiser I've ever done, to make up the difference, and show what fandom was *really* about. It was a shining moment for all involved.


Now the quotes. (The source has asked for public anonymity for the
time being, even though we in-house know who this person is.)

"One of the things that REALLY disturbed me is the following
malicious rumor. Supposedly, the "real" reason JMS had to hold the
script auction at Chicago Comic Con was 9$?Bnot because Michael O'Hare
wasn't paid by CMC, but because "he has a bad cocaine habit" and therefore
"never has any money." Apparently JMS supports this particular abuse
by raising money to help him out. Normally, I'd ignore this sort of
thing, but people on the Visions convention staff believe it enough to
not want MOH coming to the convention this year."

Enough is enough. This is flatly and totally untrue, and is put out
only to try and disguise the truth, that CMC did not pay Michael th
balance of his fee. There has to be some excuse cooked up, and this is it, one whose side effect could be to help destroy someone's career, and ruin convention appearances.

Those involved in this slander -- and that is *exactly* what it is,
not to mention several other charges -- have had enough rope, and now we
intend to reel it in.

Over the next several days, I will be contacting legal counsel in
Illinois, including the DA's office, and coordinating with others who
have been harmed in this way to bring serious charges against those
involved. I think a $50 million lawsuit would be a good place to start.
We will also investigate the question of possible criminal charges to be
filed. We will seek to include Hamill's bad checks, and O'Hare's
situation, and others who have not been paid as well, to broaden out the
charges.

That to save face for their actions, certain individuals would be
willing to destroy someone's career, to spread false and malicious
rumors, against me, and Michael, and Claudia, and others, is something
that should rightfully inflame every person reading this.

Those behind this are *not* nice people. And they have had a
tendency to run their mouths. (Those at Visions who may have been
involved in spreading this malicious slander should also consider
themselves put on notice, and I suggest that they be forthcoming in this
matter to us to avoid legal entanglements.)

I know that many folks here have had conversations with Tom C.
in which he has laid out some of his lines. Some have felt, in their
messages to me, unsure about repeating what he said because it's like
snitching. It's not. What we are looking at are harmful lies that will
hurt people, have already hurt Michael, and have the potential to do so
in future. This must be addressed, severely, and firmly, and within the
parameters of a court of law.

If you have been privy to these or other baseless allegations, and
wish to help Michael and myself and others involved in Babylon 5 by
fighting this, please send me a private note containing your best
recollection of what you were told, and when, and if you are wiling to
restate this under oath. The more people we have who confirm some of the
hateful things being represented, the more surely this can be
prosecuted.

Michael O'Hare has been harmed enough by the loss, by the lies, by
the failure to meet a promised payment by CMC; Mark Hamill is out well
over $20,000 from various areas, others have been hurt; to have certain
individuals out there alleging drug abuse when none exists, trying to
destroy someone's career on top of everything else to cover their own
incompetence and deception, cannot and must not be tolerated.

Once again, I extend a request for help to everyone out there who
has had contact with Visions and CMC and Tom Christofferson, on behalf
of the fans, and B5 personnel, who have been harmed. If you can help us
to close this down, please do so.

jms

[Eric]

This quote is from a chat that Michael O'Hare participated in on SciFi.com. It caan be fpund at:

Dragon*Con '97: Michael O'Hare

Moderator: <FFCSkrull> to <Moderator>: What is it like to work with Jerry Dyle, Bruce Boxleightner,etc. & who is the practical jokester in the cast?

MichaelOHare: They're both good guys. I enjoy Bruce Boxleightner a lot, he'sa real professional and we had a good time working together. We had very good chemistry and it was a shame we couldn't do more scenes together.

MichaelOHare: Jerry Doyle is definitely the jokester on the set.

[I, Brian]

The thing is, JMS doesn't appear to be refuting allegations that Michael O'Hare took drugs - what he seems to be refuting is that JMS is taking money specifically to feed a person drug's habit.

Additionally, these specific allegations being refuted seem specific to an incident involving apparent non-payment of wages/royalties or similar - and therefore out of context from what Jerry Doyle was talking about.

[Whitestar]

Originally Posted by Eric

This quote is from a chat that Michael O'Hare participated in on SciFi.com. It caan be fpund at:

Dragon*Con '97: Michael O'Hare

Moderator: <FFCSkrull> to <Moderator>: What is it like to work with Jerry Dyle, Bruce Boxleightner,etc. & who is the practical jokester in the cast?

MichaelOHare: They're both good guys. I enjoy Bruce Boxleightner a lot, he'sa real professional and we had a good time working together. We had very good chemistry and it was a shame we couldn't do more scenes together.

MichaelOHare: Jerry Doyle is definitely the jokester on the set.

I've already read the aforementioned article written by JMS several years ago. It's understandable why he is being overprotective of O'Hare because he's his friend and it's bad publicity. And before you begin to accuse me of "spreading vicious lies and rumors", I would like to point out that I understand why you are feeling that way. You don't know me, so why should you believe me, right? If I were in your place I would most probably do the same. By the same token, I don't know you either and I have no intentions of duking it out with you on the forum because I'm a better person than that. In any case, what Doyle said about O'Hare is indeed true, but you don't have to take my word for it. I actually have the clip about Doyle on O'Hare for you to listen. If you would like to PM me I'll gladly email it to you. After listening to it, I'm sure you will change your opinion of O'Hare just like I did.