Dick Richards

Dick Richards
Born	1936 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, and photographer

Dick Richards (born 1936) Dick Richards is an award-winning American film director, producer, and photographer. Known as a storyteller and an “actor’s director”, Richards has worked with Robert Mitchum, Gene Hackman, Martin Sheen, Blythe Danner, Catherine Deneuve, Alan Arkin and many others.

Born and raised in New York, Richards rose to prominence during the 1960s advertising revolution, becoming a world-renowned photographer and commercial director with clients including Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, Polaroid, General Motors, Hertz, Pepsi, etc.

His celebrated advertising work has won every major industry award including the Cannes Lion for best worldwide commercial, as well as multiple Clio’s and New York Art Director Awards. Pauline Kael referred to Richards as “a photographer who became a whiz at TV commercials [before directing movies].”

After years in the New York commercial world, Richards moved to Hollywood and directed his first feature film, The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), which was praised for its historical accuracy and period atmosphere. The film won Richards the WGA’s Screen Writer’s Annual Story Award and earned Jerry Bruckheimer his first film credit as associate producer. Richards and Bruckheimer, friends from their commercial days, went on to make three more movies together.

Richard’s next film Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975) starring Alan Arkin, McKenzie Phillips and Harry Dean Stanton, opened to positive reviews. In her book, Reeling, Pauline Kael calls Richards “A real southpaw” and said that, “[Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins] sneaks up on you – you discover it like a ‘sleeper.’ I found it a funny, velvety film, with the kind of tenderness you can almost feel on your fingertips.”

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