Bruce Hyde passes away

Kevin_Riley

“Have no fear, O’Riley’s here, and one Irishman is worth ten thousand of you!”

– Kevin Riley to Spock, “The Naked Time”

TrekMovie is saddened to report that Bruce Hyde, who played Lieutenant Kevin Riley so memorably on two episodes of The Original Series, died of throat cancer on October 13 at 74.

Hyde had been a professor at St. Cloud University in Minnesota since 1990 and taught in the Department of Communication Studies until retiring last spring.

He had a budding career in the 1960’s, appearing in shows like “Dr. Kildare” and “The Beverly Hillbillies”, as well as a production of “Canterbury Tales” on Broadway. It is for his two appearances on “Star Trek”, of course, that Hyde will be remembered the most.

His role as the charming (and very prideful) Kevin Riley in “The Naked Time” and “The Conscience of the King”, left an indelible mark on the series and the character became a fan favorite, sometimes reappearing in novels and comics.

Hyde’s performance in “The Naked Time”, where Riley, afflicted with the intoxicating Psi 2000 virus, locks himself away in Engineering and regales the ship’s complement with his rendition of “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen”, is one of the iconic moments of the series’ first season.

Hyde, who made occasional appearances on the convention circuit, spoke of his experiences making the episode two years ago:

He is survived by his wife, two stepchildren, and a granddaughter.

More information can be found here.

Please join me in a toast for Bruce Hyde and his alter ego Kevin Riley. And if you don’t want to, well….there won’t be any ice cream for YOU tonight.

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He was great as Riley!

RIP

Sad news, I always liked Riley…

Coincidently “The Naked Time” is on Me-tv tomorrow. Let’s all watch and sing along with “Kathleen” in his honor. RIP Mr Hyde. You will be remembered.

Hyde was just great in those shows, playing two very different sides of what turned out to be a very likable character. With so many of the principals gone now, why Kevin Thomas Riley didn’t make any more appearances in TOS is something we’ll probably never know.

I had the honor of meeting Mr. Hyde last summer when I was out campaigning door-to-door for county commissioner here in Minnesota.

I knocked on the door of a nice home on the Mississippi River, near St. Cloud and a lady answered. So I chatted with her for a bit and she told me her & her husband’s name. “There was a Bruce Hyde on Star Trek!” I said.

She laughed a little and said “That’s the guy. You want to meet him?”

“Absolutely!”

She led me out behind the house where Bruce was doing some gardening and I got to chat with him for a bit, got his autograph, etc. Super nice people!

His wife was clearly amused that I knew of her husband from a little bit part he played nearly 50 years ago.

Sad news indeed.
Rest In Peace Mister Hyde, and thank you very much .

2015 has been a dark period for Star Trek. Leonard Nimoy, Grace Lee Whitney, now Bruce Hyde.

Let’s hope 2016 will be a fair sight prettier.

I hope you know the gratitude you earned from a scruffy bunch of nerds.

RIP.

Death is inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less sad for those left behind. R.I.P. Mr Hyde. I have greatly appreciated Riley (and especially his Kathleen rendition) over the years.

RIP, Lt. Riley.

Why was he not in more Treks and not in any movies?

He was great as Riley, whom I felt was the first season equivalent to Chekov. I just watched Naked Time this past Tuesday and he stole that episode. Bruce Hyde will be missed by Star Trek fans worldwide.

No Dance Tonight.

RIP

rip

for a guest star he brought so much to the character
i am sure he will be entertaining them all in the afterlife

I would loved to have seen more of him on Trek. A memorable and well-loved character. RIP.

“The Naked Time” was actually the first “Star Trek” episode I had ever watched…this was probably 1974 or so and I was about 10.
I was visiting my grandmother’s house and my Nana, Grandpa and Aunt Phyl apparently watched “Star Trek” reruns on their own. As a smaller kid, I loved “Lost in Space” but kept reading about “Star Trek” and I kept seeing tons of “Star Trek” books every time I went to the bookstore.
The episode looking back on it now really had a lot of meat in it. We learn about Kirk’s obsession with his ship. We get to see the inside of Spock and its really a key episode for him. Bones, Scotty, Rand and especially Sulu are featured. And of course, Kevin Riley practically stole the show and the ship.
Thanks Bruce for taking the Enterprise and all of us on a trip that we will revisit from time to time over the next few decades, at least. You will not be forgotten. RIP

Only two eps! Seemed like more, he made such an impression.

RIP Mr Hyde.

His role in TOS was small, but memorable!

RIP

R.I.P Mr Riley.

great

R.I.P. Mr. Hyde

Wonderful, memorable performances! I can STILL hear him singing “Kathleen,” a year after I last watched “The Naked Time.”

My condolences to his family and friends.

I’m so sorry to hear the news: I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Lt. Riley and wish he could have had more play in the later series and even the movies. Unfortunately, he was replaced by Checkov, a character I don’t necessarily dislike, especially since I have a great appreciation for Walter Koenig in his later performance as Bester on Babylon 5.

But Riley had a real great bit: the fightin’ Irish takes a drunken delusion to come out, but it’s there, and then his appearance in “Conscience of the King” added depth to a character that was previously just played for laughs. That was something we didn’t really get with Chekov, or with many people at all in the Original Series. I often want to use his catch phrase from his first episode: “One more time!”

His looks always reminded me of Rowdy Mcdowall. RIP

R.I.P bruce Hyde

Thanks for making me smile Bruce. :)

I always wished he’d stuck around on the show. Sad for his family. Glad to hear he had a fulfilling life.

Sad news indeed.

It’s a shame he was not on more episodes. He was a good actor in his role, and from what I hear, a good human being as well.

Regards.

DON’T DRINK THE MILK, O’RILEY!!!! DON’T DRINK THE….

…..oh, crap.

This is off topic, but …

Why can’t TrekMovie update it’s discussion group platform? Am I the only one who finds it very difficult to follow the threads here because posts are not grouped together?

I’ve been on this site since it began, but find that having to scroll up and down and specify the poster I’m referring to is … awkward.

Why not switch to Disquis where you can reply directly to a post? It’s easy to implement and used by a majority of the entertainment sites. Trekcore uses it and it is so much more enjoyable to follow comments.

Trekcore is also becoming the leader in posting Trek related news. I mean, I’m loyal to TrekMovie, but they seriously need to update this site as soon as possible to prepare for the next movie release.

Am I on my own on this?

Regards.

Note to myself:

Do not post anything questioning how TrekMovie handles discussions group (such as using Disquis rather than whatever it is using now) in order to improve things …

… because it will not show up …

Regards.

@ #5

Miles,

A cool.story. I remember hearing Ray Mansarek tell of his first meeting with Jim Morrison on a beach as Jim tells him of his vision of life and their future. I’m going to substitute your name for when Ray says , “that’s cool Jim (Miles).”. Cool story!

From what I’ve read, Bruce dropped out of acting not long after his ST appearances. His second appearance was for a part called “Daiken” (the character survives into the Blish novelizations) but Justman or somebody realized he’d been on earlier as Kevin Riley, so they changed the name to fit the actor. Good thing, too, as the two parts were pretty disseparate – which added depth to the character (comic relief the first time, holocaust-type survivor the second time).

Lostrod –

Your comment got sucked up by the spam filter. I fished it out and posted it. No one was trying to censor your comments, believe me.

We all feel your pain re: comments. We’ve wanted to implement a new comment system for a while now, but due to a variety of reasons we haven’t been able to do it. Hopefully we’ll be abl to roll something out soon.

We appreciate the feedback.

Brian.

RIP, Lt. Riley.

“Onnne Mooooore Time… ” Bruce. We’re gonna miss ya.

Thanks, Brian.

Traffic will pick soon when promotion begins to kick in. I hope the site changes can happen in time.

Regards.

Brian – if you’re contemplating upgrades, a new responsive theme would be most welcome. Hard to visit Trekmovie on a phone…

Sadness. :(

Comment number 5 strikes me as the common theme for the St. Cloud, MN area. I live there too and like that commentor, I had no idea that Lt. Kevin Rand – Bruce Hyde, lived in my community till I heard on the local radio station that he died. I’ve been bedazzled for 2 days at this bit of news that I’ve been living next to a Star Trek cast member and had no idea. Let me 2nd the motion that Bruce Hyde stole the show in his first appearance on Star Trek playing the seemingly buzzed cocky Irishman Riley. Most of those Star Trek episodes not only have stood the test of time, they are far better than what’s on the tube today.

@Lostrod – Site ownership has been missing in action for several years now, so what you see is what you get. If AP pops in for more then a few days, that might be a sign…

Yeah, I’d expect to see something after the holidays. Disney seems content to ramp up the lions share of the marketing for SW:TFW sixty days prior, given that Trek isn’t quite in the same league, they probably do need to do a bit more promotion. Now, is there a downside to that kind of marketing? Maybe Disney has had an ‘oops’ moment, as what appears to be yet another Death Star is prominently featured on the poster released today…..third times the charm? Hopefully they shielded that damn exhaust port by now.

Kevin Riley was my favorite guest character on Trek! I could even say, my most beloved guest character, because of his irrepressible spirit in “Naked Time” and his poignant side ahown in “Conscience of the King”!

(Many are the times I have “annoyed” fellow Trekfans by singing Riley’s slightly off-key rendition of “…Kathleen” …

Or saying as a term of “doggone it,” “No dance tonight!”)

R.I.P. Mr Hyde, you’re among the stars, beyond Antares now and we’ll always remember you.

RIP Bruce (Riley).

For me, Bruce played the average guy, while helping to make Star Trek a BIG idea.

Here’s to you, Bruce!

Rest in peace…

I really liked OReilly.

What great Character! Too bad we didn’t get to see more of him.

Rest In Peace.

42. Disinvited – October 19, 2015

Good Link. Thanks much.

#48. Danpaine – October 19, 2015

You are welcome.

I came across that around the first of February and even though I knew from back then the potential, it still hit me hard when we lost him to the throat cancer.

Don’t know why. It just does.

He had a good life and will be missed.

Farewell, Bruce Hyde. Peace.

Re: #1. Harry

Hi, Harry!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: #29. Chuckunit

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Too funny!

Re: #42. Disinvited

Excellent! Thanks!

Katie G.