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'' 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 on ...

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 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" (the phonetic ...

. 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 S ...

in 1966 and was the president of his class. His first role in pornography was during his term at Antioch College,

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 E ...

, 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 at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(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 un ...

. He was considering studying to become a Rabbi, and according to Pacheco was accepted by the

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

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, S ...

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 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 male and female con ...

s in reaction to his wife's concerns about the growing

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

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 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 fil ...

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 the ...

- 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 Southeas ...

, 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 Ber ...

) and Best Supporting Actor - Video for ''Sensual Escape'' in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, 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 Exxo ...

. He was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in January 1999, along with 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, femi ...

. Pacheco and Sprinkle were given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Free Speech Coalition (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 ''

'', 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, an ...

'', which he says made them more supportive. He had an open relationship 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.

References

External links

* * *

About Richard Pacheco

"Richard Pacheco: The Accidental Porn Star with the Average Endowment"
Xandria Collection June 30, 2000 interview
"Easy Come, Easy Go"

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 ...

article February 26, 2003
"Ex-porn stars enlisted in AIDS fight"
Mercury News article April 14, 2006
"Ex-porn stars talk sex to Cubberley"

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. S ...

Daily Online Edition, April 17, 2006
"Speaker celebrates sexuality"
by Jessica Roy, The ''

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 publis ...

'', February 16, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2007.

By Richard Pacheco

Love and a Good Right Hook: A Rebirth of Hope
Article about the first World Conference on Pornography, 1998.

April 1999 article on his induction into the AVN Hall of Fame.

Libido magazine review of a 2001 book by Jo-Ann Baker

Libido magazine article on the

May–December romance Concepts of age disparity in sexual relationships, including what defines an age disparity, have developed over time and vary among societies. Differences in age preferences for mates can stem from partner availability, gender roles, and evoluti ...

, December 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pacheco, Richard 1948 births American male pornographic film actors Antioch College alumni Living people Playgirl Men of the Month Taylor Allderdice High School alumni