Cliff Simon, who played the villain Ba’al in the long-running series “Stargate SG-1,” died after a kiteboarding accident on Topanga Beach in California, his wife announced Thursday. He was 58 years old.
“There’s an open hole where he was once on this earth,” Colette Simon wrote on Facebook. “It was and always will be the love of my life and there is unimaginable pain.”
She said her husband died “doing one of the things she loved most and that she died on the beach near the water, which was her temple.”
“Stargate SG-1,” the space exploration drama that premiered on Showtime in 1997 and ended its ten-year career on the Sci-Fi channel (later known as Syfy), featured Cliff Simon in more of a dozen episodes, according to IMDB.
Colette Simon said the character was “the bad guy you loved to hate.”
Cliff Simon, a South African native who also lived in the UK for many years, made his American television debut in a guest role on “Nash Bridges” in 2000. He later appeared in “NCIS: Los Angeles “,” Days of Our “Lives”, “The Americans” and “Castle”.
Colette Simon quoted her husband as saying, “Acting is what I do, it’s just a part of who I am.”
Cliff Simon was also an experienced swimmer, South African Air Force veteran, instructor and windsurfing model, according to People.
Calling all HuffPost superfans!
Sign up to be a founding member and help set up the next chapter of HuffPost