24 Facts About Richard O'Brien

Richard O'Brien was born on Richard Timothy Smith; 25 March 1942 and is a British-New Zealand actor, writer, musician, and television presenter.

Richard O'Brien wrote the musical stage show The Rocky Horror Show in 1973, which has since remained in continuous production.

Richard O'Brien co-wrote the screenplay along with director Jim Sharman for the film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and appeared on-screen as Riff Raff.

From 1990 to 1993, Richard O'Brien presented the Channel 4 game show The Crystal Maze.

Richard O'Brien provides the voice of Lawrence Fletcher in the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb, as well as its two films.

Richard O'Brien emigrated with his family to Tauranga, New Zealand, at the age of 10, where his accountant father had purchased a sheep farm.

Richard O'Brien worked as a barber at a barbershop in front of Hamilton's Embassy Theatre.

Richard O'Brien returned to England in 1964, after having learned how to ride horses and developing a keen interest in comic books and horror films.

Richard O'Brien launched his acting career using his mother's maiden name, O'Brien as there was already an actor named Richard Smith.

Richard O'Brien says that his upbringing in New Zealand "instilled him with egalitarian ideals that helped him transcend British class restrictions".

O'Brien continued writing musicals with arranger Richard Hartley, including: T Zee, Disaster, The Stripper, and Top People.

Richard O'Brien wrote his one-man revue Disgracefully Yours singing as Mephistopheles Smith.

Richard O'Brien became the presenter of UK Channel 4's game show The Crystal Maze in 1990, specialising in sardonic put-downs, occasional eccentricities and playing his harmonica at random intervals.

Richard 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, Richard O'Brien has conceptualised and played the role of the Child Catcher in the West End theatre production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Richard O'Brien wrote the lyrics for The Stripper, a musical which had its British premiere at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch on 28 August 2009.

In December 2008, Richard O'Brien donated his original script Pig in Boots to the Wireless Theatre Company, who converted it into an audio pantomime.

In October 2012, Richard 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.

Richard O'Brien appeared in 2015 in The Rocky Horror Show in the West End in a limited 11-performance run.

In September 2016 Richard O'Brien opened the second stage Embassy Park in Hamilton together with Mayor Julie Hardaker.

In 2017, Richard 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.

In June 2010, the media reported that Richard O'Brien had been denied New Zealand citizenship owing to his being too old under the country's immigration criteria.

Richard O'Brien has been married three times and has three children.

Richard O'Brien has a son and daughter from his second marriage to designer Jane Moss.