Michael O'Hare

Robert Michael O'Hare Jr. (May 6, 1952 – September 28, 2012) was an American actor who performed on stage and television. He was best known for playing the lead role of space station Commander Jeffrey Sinclair in the science fiction television series Babylon 5, a role he left after the first season due to serious mental health issues. Early life and education Robert Michael O'Hare Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Chicago Heights. His father, Robert Michael O’Hare Sr., was of Irish descent while his mother, Sally O’Hare (née Crisanti) was of Italian descent. He attended Chicago's Mendel Catholic Preparatory High School, where he played football, to defy his doctor who told him he would never be in athletics because of his asthma. He received several awards and scholarship offers based on his football ability and scholastic performance. Coming from a career military family, he considered joining the US Navy or having a career in professional football but attended Harvard University, where he studied English literature and played on the Harvard Crimson football team. He joined the university's drama groups and was a performer in “The Wrongway Inn”, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ production for 1972. That same year, he went for an “acting tryout” to the New York area, and was cast as Beef Saunders in Good News! at Goodspeed Musicals. He was a member of the Harvard Glee Club during its 1973 World Tour. He left Harvard in 1974 to study at the Juilliard School of Drama. He later took lessons from Sanford Meisner in the mid-1980s. Career O'Hare appeared in a number of theatrical productions on Broadway and in regional theaters, including an acclaimed revival of Shaw's Man and Superman with Philip Bosco; in the role of Col. Jessup in the original stage version of A Few Good Men; as Captain Solyony in Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Other notable roles included Alfred in a 1986 stage revival of Little Murders; Jake in A Lie of the Mind and John in Lips Together, Teeth Apart.