Kim Richards Biography

Kim Erica Richards was born on September 19, 1964, in Mineola, New York, US, in the family of business executive Kenneth Edwin Richards and Kathleen Mary (née Dugan). She is of Welsh and Irish ancestry. Her parents separated in 1972 and her mother remarried later.

Richards’ siblings include her younger sister Kyle Richards born in 1969; her older half-sister Kathy Hilton from her mother's first marriage to Lawrence Avanzino; and three paternal half-siblings from her father's first marriage. Nicky Hilton Rothschild and Paris Hilton are her half-nieces though Kathy.

She studied at the Imperial High School in Imperial, California, and graduated from there in 1983.

Kim Richards commenced her showbiz career as an infant with television commercials. She was just four months old when she featured in a diaper ad and by the time she was four and a half years old, Richards had already featured in twenty small-screen commercials.

Her television series debut happened with the starring role of Prudence Everett in the American sitcom ‘Nanny and the Professor’. The series premiered on January 21, 1970, and ran for three seasons till December 27, 1971, gaining Richards widespread attention as a child actress. She later voiced the role in the 1972 American animated comedy TV movie ‘Nanny and the Professor’ based on the sitcom and the 1973 sequel of the animated movie titled ‘Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus’.

Kim Richards went on to feature in several other television series and movies before landing up with the starring role of Tia Malone, in the March 21, 1975, released American fantasy science-fiction film ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’, the first film in the Witch Mountain franchise, produced by Walt Disney Productions. She gained fame playing the psychic alien girl in the film and in its 1978 sequel ‘Return from Witch Mountain’.

Meanwhile she also starred in another Disney film, ‘No Deposit, No Return’ that released on February 11, 1976; and featured in the 1976 American action thriller film ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ and the 1977 American horror film ’The Car’. She also played substantial recurring roles in the television series ‘James at 16’ (1977–78) and ‘Hello, Larry’ (1979–80); and featured as a guest star in several other series like ‘Emergency!’ (1974), ‘Little House on the Prairie’ (1974), ‘The Rockford Files’ (1976), ‘Diff'rent Strokes’ (1979), ‘Alice’ (1982), ‘The Love Boat’ (1982), ‘CHiPs’ (1982), ‘Magnum, P.I.’ (1982), and ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ (1983).

She again shared screen space with her Witch Mountain films co-star Ike Eisenmann in the horror thriller television movie ‘Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell’ that originally aired on CBS on October 31, 1978.

She featured as a young adult, playing more matured roles, in the films ‘Meatballs Part II’ (1984) and ‘Tuff Turf’ (1985). Richards and her then-husband G. Monty Brinson co-produced and featured in the 1990 adventure film ‘Escape’.

She took a break from her showbiz career to raise her four children and made her comeback after around a decade. She reprised her role as Tia in the Eisenmann directed 2002 comedy short ‘The Blair Witch Mountain Project’ that satirized ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’.

Kim Richards portrayed the role of Sandy Doole, the bitter estranged mother of Rae Doole, played by Christina Ricci, in the 2006 American black comedy-drama film ‘Black Snake Moan’. She made cameo appearance as a roadhouse waitress called Tina, a minor change from her Witch Mountain franchise character Tia, in the Dwayne Johnson starrer blockbuster hit 2009 American sci-fi adventure thriller film ‘Race to Witch Mountain’.

In 2010, Richards and her sister Kyle became regular cast members of the American reality television series ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ that premiered on Bravo on October 14, 2010, as the 6th instalment of The Real Housewives franchise. Richards featured regularly in the series for the first five seasons and was dropped as a regular cast member after she started facing personal issues. She however appeared as a guest star in the show in its sixth, seventh, ninth, and tenth seasons.

In 2014, Kim Richards and other cast members of ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ namely Kyle, Lisa Vanderpump, Yolanda Foster and Carlton Gebbia, acted as instrument players in the music video of American singer Lady Gaga’s song ‘G.U.Y.’

She was part of the supporting cast of the American made-for-television action comedy horror film ‘Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!’ that released originally on Syfy on July 22, 2015.

On July 27, 1985, Kim Richards married a supermarket-franchise heir Monty Brinson. Brinson later became a professional poker player. Their daughter Brooke Wiederhorn was born on February 21, 1986. The couple divorced in 1988 and Brinson later succumbed to cancer on January 25, 2016.

Although Richards left Brinson for John Davis, elder son of American industrialist and petroleum mogul Marvin Davis, she eventually tied the knot with John’s younger brother Gregg Davis in 1988. Richards and Gregg together have a daughter, Whitney Davis, born on March 16, 1990, and a son, Chad Davis, born on May 26, 1991. Richards’ second marriage also culminated into divorce in 1991.

She was engaged to John J. Collett when the latter was murdered outside Brent's Deli in Northridge on October 28, 1991. Collett was a commodities salesman who emerged as a main figure in a criminal scheme that involved eight thousand elderly investors and losses that estimated to almost $150 million. Collett was speaking with Richards on the phone when he was shot to death at point-blank range by a hit man.

In 1992, Kim Richards met aircraft-parts supplier John Jackson when the latter purchased Collett's Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Richards and Jackson had a long-term relationship before calling it quits in 1996. Their daughter, Kimberly Jackson, was born on August 23, 1995.

Kim Richards was charged with trespassing, public intoxication, resisting a police officer and battery on an officer (being accused of kicking the officer), and was arrested at the Beverly Hills Hotel on April 15, 2015. She had to stay in Los Angeles County Jail for that night and was released on a $20,000 bail the next morning. She again fell on wrong side of the law later that year. She was accused of shoplifting at a San Fernando Valley Target department store and was arrested on August 2 that year and sent to the Van Nuys jail. She was however released on a $5,000 bail on the next day.