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Playing HawkMotivation -- Preparation -- Playing Hawk -- Audience reaction -- Sources Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century's
"Hawk" character was played by New York actor Thom
Christopher. Before Buck Rogers, Thom had been on various TV
shows, but his main experience was on the New York
stage, both on and off Broadway. Thom was asked
to do a screen test for Hawk after having visited
the NBC/Universal casting department in connection
with another role. Upon reading the character breakdown,
he got very excited by the wonderful acting challenge
offered by Hawk. "What got to me about Hawk's character was his
exoticness. I knew you could take this character, with feathers on his
head, black spandex and laser gun and relate him, as John [Mantley] and
the writers had, to the ancient bird legends of Aku-Aku in the South
Pacific. I had read the book Aku-Aku (The Secret of Easter
Island)
by Thor Heyerdahl years earlier and that played into it as well."
1
For Thom, an important part of the appeal of Hawk was the wide "range
of emotional ideas and colors to play with"; 2
he was very
happy that there was more to this character than just "the bizarre
visual thing".
3
Audience reaction Originally, Hawk was written into only three scripts. However, it soon became clear that the shows' audience would not put up with that, so efforts were made to have Hawk appear in every single episode. "John Mantley said, 'We've got to just show you at times'. I was even saying Wilma's lines! Suddenly Erin would say, 'Wait a minute. What happened to those lines?' I was given Erin's lines to say because they said, 'We've just got to show Hawk standing on the screen!'" 3 Hawk was so popular that if the show would have run for another season, rumours have it that there would have been a spin-off of Hawk. 3 Unfortunately, this was not to be. (See the Some history section.) Still, Thom's performance as Hawk did give rise to the foundation of the Thom Christopher Fan Club in the States, and of the Hawk Alliance in England. To this day, people keep fond memories of Thom's wonderful portrayal of this unique character.
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Having
got the role, Thom started preparing
for his performance as a birdman by studying the
mannerisms of hawks: looking them up in the Audubon
books, visiting the birds section of the American
Museum of Natural History, and observing real-life
hawks in the Central Park zoo. A few typical gestures resulting from
these observations were Hawk's quick focusing head motions (based on
the Central Park hawks' focus-and-spot behavior) and his only using his
legs to climb -- having had years of training as a dancer, Thom was
able to make this look quite effortless. One other thing that helped
him prepare for his role as Hawk, was music. "One night I put on Gustav
Holst's The Planets. The first band on the record
is 'Mars'.
And as that music ran through my mind, I thought, 'If there is a theme
for Hawk, that would be it.' That gave me the mood for the character."
4
It was also in The Time of the
Hawk that the foundation was laid for the close friendship
between
Buck and Hawk -- a friendship based on mutual respect and shared
loneliness. "It's a case of two men at opposite ends of the spectrum --
two men out of sync, living in a world
out of their time." 4 The fact that Gil
Gerard and Thom also "got along famously" 1
off-screen,
helped them to convey a sense of real comradeship between Buck and
Hawk. "The two of us played off each other so well." 4
Gil
Gerard echoes this sentiment: "I enjoyed working with Thom Christopher.
He's a fine actor. I felt we were able to create a really interesting
relationship between Hawk and Buck." 5
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