Career beginnings

Tauranga-raised actor and Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O’Brien, 67, has told the Guardian that his career began riding horses in movies, having learnt to ride growing up in New Zealand. “In 1965, I got to London,” O’Brien says, “joined a stunt agency and rode horses in Carry on Cowboy and Casino Royale.” The best advice anyone ever gave him? “In 1969, the set designer Sean Kenny said: ‘You know, Richard, all you have to do is realise your dreams. Many people will try to stop you, but the only person who can finally stop you is yourself.'” O’Brien was born Richard Timothy Smith in 1942 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. In 1951, O’Brien emigrated with his family to Tauranga where his father had purchased a sheep farm.