Alas, poor Hawk! I knew him not.

[Argus Skyhawk]

Most conspicuously, whenever he just happens to be in the frame, he avoids looking in the direction of the camera.

Normally, actors are supposed to avoid looking in the direction of the camera. If an actor or extra looks straight at the camera, it wrecks the shot.

 

[Bob Karo]

I think the simple answer is they didn't want him blocking out view of the main cast.

 

[DarKush]

Hawk's death threw me for a loop because I was expecting them to do more with the character. He was featured just enough that I thought me might become a movie regular. I thought his death was a waste. He hadn't been established well enough for his assimilation and death to have a real emotional impact. I also wish more had been done with Kell Perim. Whereas that helmsman from NEM? Didn't do anything for me.

 

[BillJ]

Just another red shirt to me.

 

[Cyke101]

Hawk's death threw me for a loop because I was expecting them to do more with the character. He was featured just enough that I thought me might become a movie regular. I thought his death was a waste. He hadn't been established well enough for his assimilation and death to have a real emotional impact. I also wish more had been done with Kell Perim. Whereas that helmsman from NEM? Didn't do anything for me.

Subconsciously considering the previous additions to the main cast -- mainly Decker, Ilia, Saavik and Valeris -- had choice roles for their films, I was assuming more would be done with Hawk as well, but that's part of the reason why his assimilation had an impact on me (though obviously not as weighty as if, say, Worf were assimilated).

 

[Therin of Andor]

IIRC, that was circulated BEFORE the movie was released, and may have been suggested by Paramount's publicity department.

IIRC, the rumour about a gay character being in a TNG movie happened first with "Generations". On UseNet and GEnie, fans were compiling all kinds of rumour mills about the movie - and someone claimed a new, young, male character would be featured and that, at some point in the movie, we'd realise he had a husband who was also a crewman.

Someone then claimed to have an early draft of the script and posted a snippet to an early BBS - but, in reality, it was a portion of David Gerrold's infamous "Blood and Fire" grafted into a real leaked section of "Generations".

When "First Contact" was announced, the rumour mill went crazy again, and - now that the early message boards permitted ease of photo sharing - early sketches of the Borg Queen surfaced, which turned out to be real preliminary artwork. Someone else then recycled the above false script segment, this time using the name of Hawk - because a casting list had already mentioned the character name.

Finally, someone rustled up a photo of the actor, Neal McDonough, and this only inflamed the rumour more: "Hawk must be gay - he looks gay!", "He's too pretty to be in Starfleet", "He has gay eyes and gay hair", and other crazy lines.

Years later, gay activist/columnist/author and Trek fan, Andy Mangels, reclaimed those old, false, gay rumours about "First Contact" and made the Hawk character gay in his ST novel, written with Michael A Martin, "Section 31: Rogue".