Date of Birth: Thu, Oct 24, 1946
Place of Birth: Norwood, Massachusetts, USA
A true pioneer of the independent film movement, Jefferson Richard began his professional career in the sixties as a folk/blues singer and musician, performing at the legendary Club 47 in Harvard Square and other notable coffee houses in Boston and New York's Greenwich Village, playing with such luminaries as Tom Rush, Michael Bloomfield, and Paul Butterfield. He earned his degree at the Cambridge School Of Broadcating (where he managed the radio station)and then graduated from the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts in New York. While attending the Academy, he met George "Buck" Flower and they became lifelong friends and collaborators. He joined Flower's nationally known repertory company The Inspiration Players based in Santa Monica CA and toured the country both acting and directing morality based classical theatre in churches and schools. After a stint in the US army where he headed up Armed Forces Radio at Fort Ord CA during the Vietnam war, he began directing theatre in Los Angeles and throughout the country, as well as working on low budget films as an actor, grip, or whatever job he could get. Over the next few years Richard performed every job on the set. He broke into the film production field as the 1st Assistant Director on "The Black Six" which Matt Cimber produced and directed. The two formed a bond and continued to work together over the next fourteen years on such films as "Candy Tangerine Man", "Gemini Affair", and "The Witch That Came From The Sea", with Richard progressing to Production Manager, Line Producer, 2nd Unit Director and eventually Producer. It was while working on Cimber's film "Butterfly" that Richard met and worked with Orson Welles who, even after his death, remains as a great influence in his life. In 1977, Richard migrated to Park City, Utah to work with Sunn Classic Pictures where, in addition to being 1st A.D., he honed his skills as a 2nd Unit Director on the series "The Life And Times Of Grizzly Adams" and the television movie "