Richard Pacheco (born Howard Marc Gordon; May 5, 1948) is an American former pornographic film and video actor, writer and director who retired from the X-rated business in the mid-1980s.
He appeared in more than 100 x-rated films and videos. He has won multiple adult film awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director. He was ''
Playgirl
''Playgirl'' was an American magazine that featured general interest articles, lifestyle and celebrity news, in addition to nude or semi-nude men. In the 1970s and 1980s, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women, although it ...
'' magazine's ''Man of the Year'' in 1979 as Howie Gordon.
Early life
Howie Gordon was born into an
Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...
family and grew up in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, the younger of two brothers. Throughout school, he worked at his father's company, Gordon's
Esso
Esso () is a trade name, trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Exxon, Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Ess ...
. He graduated with honors from
Taylor Allderdice High School
Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It opened in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and Squirr ...
in 1966 and was the president of his class.
His first role in pornography was during his term at
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was i ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
, in an amateur student production. After graduation, he quit his job, and moved to
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, to live in a commune. In 1971, he met his wife, Carly, through the commune and they married in 1975. In the mid-1970s, Gordon was earning $5 per hour for construction work, and looking to begin a new career. He applied to the
Episcopal Theological School
Episcopal may refer to:
*Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church
*Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese
*Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name
** Episcopal Church (United State ...
at Harvard (to study history) and the Graduate School of Journalism at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. He was considering studying to become a Rabbi, and according to Pacheco was accepted by the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, but when he learned that he would have to travel to Israel and study Aramaic for two years, he opted to appear in a porn film instead.Interview with Pacheco in
After Porn Ends
''After Porn Ends'' is a 2012 American documentary film about the pornography industry. It features interviews with Asia Carrera, Nina Hartley, Mary Carey, Randy West, Richard Pacheco, John Leslie, Amber Lynn, Seka, Raylene, Bill Margold, Shel ...
Pornography career
In 1978, he was offered his first professional erotic film role in '' The Candy Stripers'' (released 1978) for $200 per day. Thus began his pornographic career.
He appeared in that first film under the name "McKinley Howard", and used many aliases until
Anthony Spinelli
Anthony Spinelli (February 21, 1927 – May 29, 2000) was an American one-time mainstream actor and producer, who later became a pornographic film director.
Under his original stage name, Sam Weston, he produced the mainstream films '' Gun Feve ...
's '' Talk Dirty to Me'' (1980), in which he co-starred as "Richard Pacheco". When that movie became a groundbreaking success, he kept the pseudonym for the box office value it began to accrue.
In November 1984, Pacheco stopped appearing in porn movies without
condom
A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of inte ...
s in reaction to his wife's concerns about the growing AIDS epidemic. This cost him most of his adult acting job offers, and became an effective forced retirement from pornographic acting. He worked in non-sex roles, and as an assistant director to John Leslie until 1986. He only directed one film himself, 1987's ''Careful, He May Be Watching'', starring Seka, but that one won the Best Film award and won him the Best Director award from AVN Awards 1988.
His other adult film awards include
Adult Film Association of America
The Adult Film Association of America (AFAA) was the first American association of pornographic film producers. It fought against censorship laws, attempted to defend the industry against prosecution for obscenity, and held an annual adult film ...
awards for Best Supporting Actor for ''Talk Dirty to Me'' (1980) and ''Nothing to Hide'' (1981), the NY Critics Adult Film 1981 awards for Best Actor for ''Nothing To Hide'', and Best Supporting Actor for ''The Dancers'',
AVN Awards
The AVN Awards are film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine ''AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') to recognize achievement in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic fi ...
for
Best Actor
Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play.
The term most often refers to th ...
- Film for ''Irresistible'', Best Supporting Actor - Film for ''Nothing to Hide'' in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...
, and Best Couples Sex Scene - Video (with
Nina Hartley
Marie Louise Hartman (born March 11, 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress described by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".
Early life and education
Hartley was born on March 11, 1959 in Be ...
) and Best Supporting Actor - Video for ''Sensual Escape'' in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...
.
He was inducted into the
AVN Hall of Fame
The ''AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') Hall of Fame has honored people for their work in the adult entertainment industry since 1995.Bob Chinn and
Annie Sprinkle
Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Citing: Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, fem ...
. Pacheco and Sprinkle were given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the
Free Speech Coalition
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is a non-profit trade association of the pornography and adult entertainment industry in the United States. Founded in 1991, it opposes the passage and enforcement of obscenity laws and many censorship laws (with t ...
(FSC) in the year 2000. And in 2006, Pacheco was presented with the pioneer induction into the
X-Rated Critics Organization
The X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) is a group of writers and editors from the American adult entertainment industry who each year present awards in recognition of achievement within the industry. After the controversy and criticism of th ...
's (XRCO) Hall of Fame.
Post-Pornography career
He has extensively written and spoken about pornography, including columns, articles, reviews, speaking about pornography and AIDS. In
2013 he published his biography, titled ''Hindsight; True Love and Mischief in the Golden Age of Porn'' (Bear Manor Media).
Pacheco was also in the 2012 documentary ''
After Porn Ends
''After Porn Ends'' is a 2012 American documentary film about the pornography industry. It features interviews with Asia Carrera, Nina Hartley, Mary Carey, Randy West, Richard Pacheco, John Leslie, Amber Lynn, Seka, Raylene, Bill Margold, Shel ...
'', which is about life after being a porn actor. In October of 2022, he released a 1 man show audio performance of "Hindsight" which is sold exclusively on the website Bandcamp. Also at the same time, he released for streaming and digital download a comedic dance rap song titled "The Lioness And The Rabbit" with music producer Jimmy Michaels. The song is based on a story told in his 1 man show audio performance and "Hindsight" book.
Family life
He told his parents about his career as he was becoming successful, with appearances in ''Playgirl'' (Man of the Month November 1978 before Man of the Year in 1979), and on the ''
Phil Donahue Show
''The Phil Donahue Show'', also known as ''Donahue'', is an American television talk show hosted by Phil Donahue that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast on WLWD in Dayton, Ohio, and i ...
'', which he says made them more supportive. He had an
open relationship
An open relationship is an intimate relationship that is sexually non-monogamous. The term is distinct from polyamory, in that it generally indicates a relationship where there is a primary emotional and intimate relationship between two partner ...
with his wife initially, which became considerably less open after they had children and AIDS became a threat, but he credits his pornography career for giving him the opportunity to continue sexual encounters for a time without endangering his home life. They have three children, born in the 1980s, with whom they have been open about his pornography career.
Stuff Magazine
''Stuff'' is a British consumer electronics magazine published by Kelsey Media.
History
''Stuff'' was first published in Britain in November 1996 by Dennis Publishing. A bimonthly title, it followed the success of magazines such as ''FHM'' a ...
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
Daily Bruin
The ''Daily Bruin'' is the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles. It began publishing in 1919, the year UCLA was founded.
The ''Daily Bruin'' distributes about 6,000 copies across campus each school day. It also publi ...