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'' is an American magazine that has historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, celebrity journalism, and original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly a ...
'' magazine's ''Man of the Year'' in 1979 as Howie Gordon.
Early life
Howie Gordon was born into an
Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...
family and grew up in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, the younger of two brothers. Throughout school, he worked at his father's company, Gordon's
Esso
Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...
. 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. The school was established in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and S ...
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 college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...
,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, 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 Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, 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 States ...
at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
(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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. He was considering studying to become a Rabbi, and according to Pacheco was accepted by the
Hebrew Union College
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...
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
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 mainstream actor and producer, who later became a pornographic film director.
Spinelli was born Sam Weinstein, to a Jewish family.
He was the brother of actor Jack Weston an ...
's ''
Talk Dirty to Me
"Talk Dirty to Me" is a single from American glam metal band Poison. Released on February 18, 1987, it was the second single from their debut album '' Look What the Cat Dragged In''. The song peaked at No. 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becomi ...
'' (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 contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...
s in reaction to his wife's concerns about the growing
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
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 fil ...
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 List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') annually to honor achievements in the global Sex industry, adult entertainment industry. ...
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 Southeas ...
, and Best Couples Sex Scene - Video (with
Nina Hartley
Marie Louise Hartman (born 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films. She has been described by ''Las Vegas Weekly'' as ...
) and Best Supporting Actor - Video for ''Sensual Escape'' in
1989
1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
.
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, fe ...
. Pacheco and Sprinkle were given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the
Free Speech Coalition
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is a non-profit industry trade group, trade association of the sex industry in the United States. Founded in 1991, it opposes the passage and enforcement of obscenity laws and many censorship laws (with the excep ...
(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 the ...
'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'', 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'' is an American talk show that was hosted by Phil Donahue. The show ran for twenty-nine seasons from November 6, 1967, to September 13, 1996, in which it broadcast 6,715 episodes. Before it was placed in Broadcast synd ...
'', which he says made them more supportive. He had an
open relationship
An open relationship is an intimate relationship that is sexually or romantically non-monogamous. An open relationship generally indicates a relationship where there is a primary emotional and intimate relationship between partners, who agree to ...
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'' ...
Stanford
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
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 three times a week. It also publ ...