Kim Erika Richards was born September 19, 1964 in Mineola, Long Island, New York to Kathleen Mary Dugan & Kenneth Edwin Richards, a business executive. She is of Irish, English, and Welsh descent. Kim made her TV commercial debut at four months in a diaper ad.
By age four and a half Kim had already appeared in 20 TV commercials.
Richards made her television series debut in 1970 on the show
Nanny und der Professor (1970).
Kim later had substantial recurring roles on the TV programs
Mit 15 hat man noch Träume (1977) and
Hello, Larry (1979). Richards
achieved fame as psychic alien girl Tia in
the terrific Disney family feature
Die Flucht zum Hexenberg (1975) and its equally solid sequel
Der Sieg der Sternenkinder (1978).
Kim also played an obnoxious little brat who gets
brutally killed in
John Carpenter's fantastic urban
action cult gem
Assault - Anschlag bei Nacht (1976).
Among the TV shows Richards has done guest spots on are
Disney-Land (1954),
Detektiv Rockford - Anruf genügt (1974),
Make-Up und Pistolen (1974),
Unsere kleine Farm (1974),
Eine amerikanische Familie (1976),
Imbiß mit Biß (1976),
CHiPs (1977),
Ein Duke kommt selten allein (1979),
Love Boat (1977),
Noch Fragen Arnold? (1978),
Project U.F.O. (1978),
Magnum (1980) and
Medical Center (1969). Kim was reunited with her "Witch Mountain" co-star
Ike Eisenmann for the hilariously horrible
made-for-TV horror howler
Der Höllenhund (1978)
(Richards did a career interview for the recent DVD of this
film). Kim played more mature adult roles in the mid 80s
movies Das total verrückte Ferien-Camp (1984)
and Love-Fighters - Tuff Turf (1985) in which Richards
gives a performance as a teenage gang leader's brash girlfriend. Richards took a hiatus from acting to raise
her four children Brook, Whitney, Chad and Kimberly. After a
lengthy absence from the big screen, Kim Richards made a
welcome comeback with a fine portrayal of
Christina Ricci's bitter estranged
mother in the excellent
Black Snake Moan (2006). She's
the sister of fellow actress
Kyle Richards -- they appeared
together in Der Teufel auf Rädern (1977) as
James Brolin's daughters -- and
Kathy Hilton, who is the mother
of Paris Hilton.
