BY MARK MAWSTON
We regret to report that actor John Richardson has passed
away this week, just two weeks before what would have been his 87th
birthday.
John found fame in the 1960s via
films such as Mario Bava's Black Sunday and Hammer Film's remakes
of She and One Million Years B.C., wherein he co-starred alongside
many of the most beautiful actresses of the era, such as Ursula Andress,
Barbara Steele and Raquel Welch who famously bemoaned, on first being
introduced to John, that her new leading man was more beautiful than she
was!
John's role in One Million Years B.C. (1966), Ray Harryhausen's prehistoric
animated cult classic, led to a long relationship with his co-star Martine
Beswick and a move to Hollywood, where he landed roles in big budget
Hollywood productions such as Vincente Minnelli's On A Clear Day You Can See
Forever with Barbra Streisand.
Not a fan of Hollywood, John began
working in his beloved Italy, starring in low-budget thrillers such as Torso
and Eyeball, which he was surprised to find had a larger following
than some of his more mainstream features. Some of these films he hadn't seen since
he made them and which I had the pleasure of finding and giving them to him to
watch. John famously used to ask for the car he drove in these films to be
included in his fee and he also informed me that he once bought a vehicle that took his fancy from Steve McQueen.
Cars may have been a passion but his
first real love- bar his partner Helen- was photography. We were introduced via
a mutual friend, and from this, our shared passion for film and photography led
to the interview that subsequently appeared in Cinema Retro (Vol. 15: issues 45
and 46). John discussed his life both in front of and behind the camera, his first career-spanning interview since retiring from the film world, as he
preferred to remain out of the limelight and to spend most of his days walking
and taking photographs.
John may have battled dinosaurs and vampires
on screen but the current real-life horror of Covid took from us one of the true
gentlemen of cinema whose love for life was obvious through the twinkle in his
famously blue eyes. The eternal flame that John entered in She is true
in a way; for as long as the amazing genre films in which he starred continue
to flicker on screen, John will always be with us.
John’s partner Helen thought it would
be fitting that this announcement came via Cinema Retro and myself, as I'd
become very close to John after our interview, catching up with each other most
weeks via the phone. In his usual down-to-earth way, he initially said "no
one would be interested in hearing my stories". They were- and John was
shocked to learn that they had been nominated in last year's Rondo Awards. His
experiences pertained to a golden age when stars really were just that. Now, another
real star is shining in the heavens.
John's time as a movie star led to
several iconic roles on screen but it was his work as a photographer that he
was most passionate about and through this he has left us with many more iconic
images that he took from behind a lens.
John M. Richardson January 19th 1934-
January 5th 2020.