John Richardson

Born in Worthing, Sussex, on January 19, 1934, John Richardson had no desire to become an actor. But after serving in the Merchant Marine, he answered an ad for new members for a theater group. He felt so motivated while performing that he continued in the world, in various companies.

In cinema he began playing small roles in films as notable as The Last Night of the Titanic or 39 Steps (the 1959 remake). He played his first major role in The Mask of the Demon , Mario Bava ‘s horror classic , where he played a doctor.

He shared the screen with the most explosive actresses of the time. He starred with Ursula Andress in She, the goddess of fire , and with Raquel Welch A million years ago , his best-known film, where he played Tumak, a caveman from the Rock Tribe, expelled from it and sentenced to live in the desert after a brawl with his father, Akhoba, the big chief.

During filming he fell in love with a co-star, Martine Beswich, whom he married in 1967. The couple would divorce in 1973.

John Richardson spent most of the 1970s and 1980s working in Italy on such films as Frankenstein ’80 (1972), Torso, Carnal Violence (1973), Stars Battle (1977), and Devil’s Spawn (1989). He retired in 1994 after the telefilm Milner . In the last years of his life he focused on his passion for photography.