Richard O'Brien (born Richard Timothy Smith; 25 March 1942)[1][2][3] is a British-New Zealander actor, writer, musician, and television presenter. He wrote the musical stage show The Rocky Horror Show in 1973, which has since remained in continuous production. He also co-wrote the screenplay along with director Jim Sharman for the film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and appeared on-screen as Riff Raff. The film became an international success and has received a large cult following.[4][5] O'Brien co-wrote the musical Shock Treatment (1981) and appeared in the film as Dr. Cosmo McKinley.
After a long and successful career based in the United Kingdom, O'Brien gained dual citizenship with New Zealand in 2011, where he resided in Tauranga.[6] O'Brien identifies himself as third gender and uses he/him pronouns.[7]
Early life
O'Brien was born Richard Timothy Smith in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He emigrated with his family to Tauranga, New Zealand, at the age of 10, where his accountant father had purchased a sheep farm. He went to Tauranga Boys' College. It is known also that O'Brien attended Fairfield School in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1952.[8] O'Brien worked as a barber at a barbershop in front of Hamilton's Embassy Theatre. It was at this theatre where O'Brien attended many late-night picture shows and had the idea for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.[9] He returned to England in 1964, after having learned how to ride horses (a skill which provided him with his break into the film industry as a stuntman in Carry On Cowboy)[10] and developing a keen interest in comic books and horror films. He launched his acting career using his mother's maiden name, O'Brien[citation needed] as there was already an actor named Richard Smith.
He says that his upbringing in New Zealand "instilled him with egalitarian ideals that helped him transcend British class restrictions".[11]
Career
To improve his acting skills, O'Brien took method acting classes, and then joined several stage productions as an actor. In 1970, he went into the touring production of Hair for nine months, and spent another nine months in the London production.[12] In the summer of 1972, he met director Jim Sharman who cast him as an Apostle and Leper in the London production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Sharman then cast O'Brien as Willie, the alien in his March 1973 production of Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.[13]
Sharman also helped make O'Brien's draft of a gothic-themed, schlock-horror comic-book fantasy romp into a reality. Sharman suggested changing the working title from They Came from Denton High, and The Rocky Horror Show opened at the Theatre Upstairs in June 1973.[14] Within weeks it had become a box-office hit, moving from the Royal Court to the Classic Cinema, a cinema up for demolition on the King's Road, then to the King's Road Theatre (formerly a cinema known as the Essoldo[15]) and eventually into the West End at the Comedy Theatre.
After seeing the second night's performance of The Rocky Horror Show in the Theatre Upstairs, Jonathan King produced the original cast soundtrack in just over 48 hours during an off-stage weekend, and rushed it out on his UK Records label. He also became a 20% backer with producer Michael White, who put up the remaining 80%.[16]
During this period, O'Brien and his wife Kimi Wong recorded and released pop singles under the name Kimi and Ritz.[17]
Later career
O'Brien continued writing musicals with arranger Richard Hartley, including: T. Zee (1976), Disaster (1978), The Stripper (1982 – based on the Carter Brown novel and produced in Australia), and Top People (1984). O'Brien and Hartley also provided three songs for the film The Return of Captain Invincible (1983), starring Alan Arkin. O'Brien wrote his one-man revue Disgracefully Yours (1985) singing as Mephistopheles Smith.
O'Brien has appeared in Jubilee (1977), Flash Gordon (1980), Dark City (1998), Ever After (1998) and Dungeons & Dragons (2000), among others. Additionally he guest starred in five episodes in the third series of the HTV dramatisation of Robin of Sherwood, as the corrupt druid Gulnar. A music CD of the songs from Disgracefully Yours entitled Absolute O'Brien was released in 1998.[18]
O'Brien became the presenter of UK Channel 4's game show The Crystal Maze in 1990,[19] specialising in sardonic put-downs, occasional eccentricities and playing his harmonica at random intervals. The show ran from 1990 to 1995, with O'Brien presenting the first four series. It was regularly Channel 4's highest-rated programme, reaching a peak of 7million viewers for the 1993 Christmas special. O'Brien left The Crystal Maze in 1993 after the fourth series; the show was then taken over by Edward Tudor-Pole.
In other roles, O'Brien has conceptualised and played the role of the Child Catcher in the West End theatre production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.[19] He also occasionally performs cabaret-style music and comedy on stages around the world, singing songs from Rocky Horror among others. In 1995, he performed a select number of shows as the devilish charmer Mephistopheles Smith in a musical/comedy show he wrote entitled Disgracefully Yours, to which he later gave permission to be adapted into a musical, first by Eubank Productions for the Kansas City Fringe Fest in 2006, and more recently by Janus Theatre Company for the Edinburgh Fringe 2007, simply entitled Mephistopheles Smith. In late 2005, he appeared (as the spirit of the mirror) in the pantomime version of Snow White, which played at the Milton Keynes Theatre. In the summer of 2006, he played the Child Catcher in the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations at Buckingham Palace.[citation needed]
O'Brien performed in Thank-You for the Music, a 90-minute ABBA documentary for ITV, directed by Martin Koch, who previously directed the musical Mamma Mia![20] The documentary included a remake of the mini musical '"The Girl with the Golden Hair" which ABBA performed during their 1977 world tour and featured on ABBA: The Album (also 1977). The musical was performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre and featured O'Brien, Liz McClarnon and the Dynamos.[20] He also hosted the 1993 Brit Awards.
A patron of the Five Stars Scanner Appeal,[21] which benefits the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. From 2001 to 2006 he hosted the annual Transfandango,[22] gala gathering of Dearhearts and Trans 'n' Gentle People to raise money for the hospital. This has since been superseded by Richard O'Brien's Halloween Party.[citation needed]
A script for another rumoured sequel entitled Revenge of the Old Queen of Rocky Horror, has been circulated on the web and reproduced on various fan sites, although it has been officially denied as O'Brien's work by his representatives. While he has worked on a screenplay by that title, it was never publicly released. He wrote the lyrics for The Stripper (based on the book by Carter Brown), a musical which had its British premiere at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch (London) on 28 August 2009.[23]
In 2004, members of the Hamilton City Council in New Zealand honoured O'Brien's contribution to the arts with a statue of Riff Raff, the character he played in The Rocky Horror Show, on the site of the former Embassy Cinema.[24]
O'Brien in 2006
In September 2007, he reprised his role as the Child Catcher for the final two weeks of the five year British run of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He then played the role in its Singapore engagement for the month of November, extended to 9 December. Also in December, he visited Hamilton, New Zealand, for An Evening With Richard O'Brien, with presenter Mark Sainsbury and director Fiona Jackson.[25]
In December 2008, O'Brien donated his original script Pig in Boots to the Wireless Theatre Company,[26] who converted it into an audio pantomime. The show was recorded live at the Headliners Comedy Club in front of a studio audience with live FX and music. The production was opened by an original interview with O'Brien. In October 2012, O'Brien judged "Stage Fright" with the Wireless Theatre Company as part of the London Horror Festival and performed an acoustic set of Rocky Horror songs.[27]
In March 2012, he gave a performance of song and autobiographical stories, It's Party Time with Richard O'Brien at the Hamilton Founders Theatre to celebrate his 70th birthday. In June 2012, he returned to Hamilton, New Zealand, to appear on stage as Fagin with the Hamilton Operatic Society's production of Oliver! at the Founders Theatre.[28]
In September 2016 O'Brien opened the second stage Embassy Park in Hamilton together with Mayor Julie Hardaker.[30] In October 2016, he appeared as the Crystal Maze Computer in a one-off Celebrity Crystal Maze episode for the charity 'Stand Up To Cancer' on Channel 4.[31]
Personal life
In a 2009 interview, O'Brien spoke about an ongoing struggle to reconcile cultural gender roles and described himself as transgender or "of a third gender".[10] O'Brien stated, "There is a continuum between male and female. Some are hard-wired one way or another, I'm in between."[32] He expounded on this in a 2013 interview where he talked about using oestrogen for the previous decade, and that he views himself as 70% male and 30% female.[33] In 2017, O'Brien caused controversy when he said that he supported the statements of Germaine Greer and Barry Humphries that transgender women are not real women. He offered his sympathy to the trans community.[34] In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, O'Brien was reported as stating: "I think anybody who decides to take the huge step with a sex change deserves encouragement and a thumbs-up. As long as they're happy and fulfilled, I applaud them to my very last day. But you can't ever become a natural woman".[10]
In June 2010, the media reported that O'Brien had been denied New Zealand citizenship owing to his being too old under the country's immigration criteria. He commented, "They build a statue of me and celebrate me as a New Zealander, but I have to go on my knees and do all sorts of things, and I'm probably too old."[35] O'Brien's application appeared to garner public support and the decision was later overturned on appeal.[35] In August 2010, New Zealand's Dominion Post reported that O'Brien would be allowed residency and possibly citizenship as an "exceptional" case.[36] According to the Waikato Times, he was officially registered as a New Zealand citizen on 14 December 2011.[6]
O'Brien has been married three times and has three children. He and actress Kimi Wong were married on 4 December 1971 and had a son Linus in May 1972. He has a son and daughter from his second marriage to designer Jane Moss.
On 7 July 2012, aged 70, he proposed to Sabrina Graf, aged 35, a native of Germany, whom he had been dating for three years.[37] They married on 6 April 2013 at their home in Katikati, Bay of Plenty.[38][39]
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien, who also played the supporting role Riff Raff. The film is based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. The film stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. The film is narrated by Charles Gray, with cast members from the original Royal Court Theatre, Roxy Theatre, and Belasco Theatre productions, including Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn.
Timothy James Curry is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London, 1974 Los Angeles, and 1975 Broadway musical stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show.
The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the science fiction and horror genres from the 1930s to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, Rocky, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man complete "with blond hair and a tan".
"Time Warp" is a song featured in the 1973 rock musical The Rocky Horror Show, its 1975 film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the 2016 TV production The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again. The song title comes from a dance performed during the chorus of the song.
The Crystal Maze is a British game show devised by Jacques Antoine, based upon his format for the French game show Fort Boyard, and produced for Channel 4. The programme focuses on teams of contestants, a mixed group of men and women, attempting a range of challenges to earn time required to help them complete one final challenge, which if completed successfully earns them a prize. The premise of the show is themed around challenges set to different periods of human history within a fictional labyrinth of time and space, and is notable for the use of golf ball-sized Swarovski glass crystals as a reward for each challenge successfully completed by contestants, and lock-in conditions for contestants that ran out of time or broke a three-strikes rule on a challenge.
Shock Treatment is a 1981 American musical comedy film directed by Jim Sharman, and co-written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien. It is a follow-up to the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. While not an outright sequel, the film does feature characters from the previous film, most portrayed by different actors, as well as several Rocky Horror actors in new roles. The film stars Jessica Harper as Janet and Cliff DeYoung in a dual role as Brad and the film's main antagonist Farley Flavors, with O'Brien and Patricia Quinn playing sibling character actors, Cosmo and Nation McKinley, and Nell Campbell playing Nurse Ansalong.
Edward Felix Tudor-Pole is an English musician, television presenter and actor.
David Bedella is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in Jerry Springer: The Opera, In The Heights, and & Juliet. He has won three Olivier Awards.
Richard Neville Hartley is an English composer, best known for his work on The Rocky Horror Show. He grew up in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.
James David Sharman is an Australian director and writer for film and stage with more than 70 productions to his credit. He is renowned in Australia for his work as a theatre director since the 1960s, and is best known internationally as the director of the 1973 theatrical hit The Rocky Horror Show, its film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the film's follow-up, Shock Treatment (1981).
"Science Fiction/Double Feature" is the opening song to the original 1973 musical stage production, The Rocky Horror Show as well as its 1975 film counterpart The Rocky Horror Picture Show, book, music and lyrics by Richard O'Brien, musical arrangements by Richard Hartley. The song is reprised at the end of the show, with lyrics that reflect on the final events of the story.
"Over at the Frankenstein Place" is the third song in the 1973 cult musical The Rocky Horror Show, sung outside Dr. Frank N. Furter 's castle in the rain in the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song is in the key of E major.
"Sweet Transvestite" is a song from the 1973 British musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show and its 1975 film counterpart The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song is performed by the character, Dr. Frank N. Furter, originally played by Tim Curry. The book, music and lyrics are by Richard O'Brien and the musical arrangements by Richard Hartley. It is in the key of E major.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a musical with music and lyrics written by Richard and Robert Sherman and a book by Jeremy Sams. It is based on the 1968 film of the same name with screenplay by Roald Dahl, Ken Hughes, and Richard Maibaum. The 1968 film was based in turn on the book of the same name by Ian Fleming. The musical's world premiere was staged the London Palladium on April 16, 2002, directed by Adrian Noble before the show opened on Broadway in 2005.
The Rocky Horror Show is a British musical comedy franchise that began with the 1973 stage performance The Rocky Horror Show. The stage performance mimics many horror B movie and science fiction elements. The stage show was adapted in 1975 as the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which quickly gained a cult following. After being successfully adapted to film, an "equal" was released in 1981 under the title Shock Treatment. While not an outright sequel, the film features many characters from the first film returning, as well as some cast members in different roles.
Brian Thomson is an Australian theatre, opera and film designer. He has been active in Australian stage design since the 1970s.
Kimi and Ritz were a short-lived English pop vocal duo in the early 1970s, comprising Richard O'Brien and his then-wife, Kimi Wong. Although the duo only recorded six songs, they have since acquired something of a cult reputation in the light of O'Brien's subsequent success as a performer and songwriter.
Greg Broadmore is a New Zealand concept designer, artist, writer and sculptor based in Wellington. He is the creator of Dr Grordbort's, and has worked as a designer, artist and writer at The Lord of the Rings film franchise director Peter Jackson's award-winning special effects and prop company, Weta Workshop since 2002. He was the lead concept designer on District 9 and a concept designer and sculptor on King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and The Adventures of Tintin. Broadmore was also one of the illustrators and concept writers for Weta Workshop's first publication, The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again is a 2016 American musical comedy television film. It is a tribute to and remake of the cult classic 1975 film of the same name and directed by Kenny Ortega, using the original script written by Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman.
Kristian Lavercombe is a Welsh-born actor and singer best known for playing Riff Raff in over 2600 performances of The Rocky Horror Show. Described by the show's writer Richard O'Brien as "a fantastically talented Riff Raff", Lavercombe's interpretation of the role has variously been described as "deliciously sleazy", "simply perfection" and "consistently the most watchable thing on stage throughout".
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