- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRichard Livert
- Nickname
- Rick
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Handsome and likable Levi Richards was born Richard Livert on July 31, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. Livert was in the debating group in high school and worked part-time jobs as a busboy as a teenager. Richard left home at age 18 to attend Southern Illinois University. Upon returning to New York Livert got a job managing Rita Dimitri's La Chansonette supper club in Manhattan. While working at said club Richard met Lee Strasberg, who encouraged Richard to try acting. In 1968 Livert left New York to seek fame and fortune in Los Angeles, California. Richard subsequently joined theater groups like the Venice Free Theater and began acting in plays. After seeing an ad in the L.A. Free Press for nude modeling, Livert started nude modeling on the side in order to supplement his meager income. Richard made a subsequent transition into 8mm softcore loops before moving onto hardcore features for Jack Genero.
Livert eventually returned to New York in 1971 and tried his hand at selling jeans, jewelry, t-shirts, and cosmetics as well as worked in restaurants, moved furniture, and took care of animals before resuming his career in adult films. Among the notable East Coast adult filmmakers that Richard appeared in X-rated movies for are Gerard Damiano, Radley Metzger, Joseph W. Sarno, Eduardo Cemano, and Doris Wishman. Livert got married in 1975 and, since his wife wasn't impressed with the porno business, made the choice to quit the adult cinema scene altogether. Richard continued to act in theater productions for a few years before acquiring a real estate license in 1988. Livert obtained a Professional Certificate in Real Estate from New York University and became a member of the Real Estate Board of New York. Richard started as a broker at the Michael A. Burak Company and spent much of his real estate career as Director of Sales at the Winick Realty Group prior to joining Goldstein Realty Commercial in the spring of 2000. After Goldstein Realty was purchased by the Prudential Douglas Elliman Commercial Group, Livert went on to work for Douglas Elliman as a real estate broker. Richard's life came to an abrupt tragic end when he committed suicide on October 6, 2015. He was 71 years old.- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders & Ashley West - The Rialto Report
- According to the NY Daily News of October 7, 2015, Livert, a real estate broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, killed himself with a shotgun after a city marshal knocked on his door to evict him from his luxury Murray Hill apartment. He told city Marshal George Essock through the door of his apartment at 305 E. 40th St. to give him a few minutes to get dressed. A few minutes later there was a loud noise and Essock was able to get the door open, finding Livert dead in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to his head. Neighbors said Livert, who lived alone, had financial difficulties and was behind on mortgage and maintenance payments at his apartment complex.
- Despite having become a successful real estate broker in NYC, Livert was buried on Hart Island in a pauper's grave. Attempts by the Rialto Report to find out why included messages left for Livert's older brother, none of which were returned.
- An article in the NY Real Estate Journal from November 2007 states that in an off-the-market transaction, Livert sold a building at 733 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood for $4.75 million to a local bar/restaurant operator. The sellers were Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, owners of Troma Films, who were moving their offices to Long Island City.
- Looking back at those Los Angeles films now it's ... shocking to me. I don't know what to say. Not from a sexual point of view, but from a memory perspective. It's amazing how much I've ... locked away ... deep inside myself. Seeing them again brought some of it back and it's like a time machine. Seeing my younger self ... full of hope, optimism ... it's a strange experience. I struggle sometimes to understand how quickly life has passed and what happened to the kid in the picture.
- I was a happy-go-lucky kid. I did pretty well in most things ... I wasn't a star, but I was a pretty good kid. I wanted to be liked. I still do, I guess. Some things never change.
- Sometimes I'm embarrassed to think of how I sort of fell into sex films. I had the intention of being an actor -- a serious actor -- and yet ... I was a sex worker. But looking back, I think I blocked out what I was doing. I had fun. I went along with it because it was easy money. But I didn't think of the bigger picture. I didn't care. I always think I should have asked more questions of myself. More questions ...
- Now that I think about it there are parts of those days that I miss. It was fun: I got paid and I had sex. There was a loose atmosphere and the world was more innocent. Today ... life can be ... it's complicated. It's all complicated.
- What is shocking to me today -- truly shocking -- is that these films still exist ... and that people are interested in them. Never in a million years did I expect anyone to be interested in this. I thought they were ephemeral. I didn't think they'd last. I thought they would just disappear after playing in theaters. This is just ... I can't explain. It's mind boggling.
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