Paul Campbell is a Canadian actor known for playing Billy Keikeya in Battlestar Galactica. Campbell's appearance on the show was at a point in his career where he was starting to take off, and by Season 2 he was facing scheduling conflicts with other shows. Because of this, it was agreed Keikeya be killed off.[1]
Life after Battlestar Galactica[]
In 2008 interview with Kenn Gold, Campbell spoke about his departure from Battlestar Galactica:
"It was kind of my choice in a way. I was kind of given an ultimatum eventually because in between the end of season one and the beginning of season two I had actually gone to LA and booked a pilot. Because Battlestar production didn’t have me under contract, I was free to go and do that. And it was their loss if the show got picked up and I wasn’t able to come back for season two. I think that was a problem they had with a few of the cast members, that everyone was a free agent after season 1, and I think that scared them a little bit. They could have potentially lost half their cast after season 1, and I think after that, they pretty much ended up signing everyone to a contract. But I’d already been cast in another show and decided to go off on my own and see if it worked. As it turned out it didn’t work, and I ended up having a two episode hiatus after episode 4. I was gone for 5 and 6, then came back for Home Pt. 1, I think it was. Or Home Pt 2, I came back for. So after that kind of gave me the ultimatum and said sign a contract for 5 years, or we kind of need to go our separate ways. And I kind of put it off and put it off, then eventually they just said "Look, we can tell your not really committed to the show, and we can’t write story lines. So we’ve decided to kill the character. It wasn’t really a surprise, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen when it did. But I certainly wasn’t surprised that they had to do that."[2]