About Richard – Home Page

Richard Poe has been a professional actor since 1970, when he left the army and was soon drafted into the chorus of William Ball’s production of Oedipus Rex at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Later that year he was cast as Rosencrantz in a production of Hamlet starring the 73-year-old Dame Judith Anderson, touring all the major theaters in America, including Carnegie Hall. It was a heady start for a recently discharged 1st Lieutenant. He then played a variety of roles in many regional theaters, including The Alley Theater in Houston and the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, before coming to New York in 1985. He has since appeared in thirteen Broadway shows, including the 1988 Best Play Tony Award winning M. Butterfly, 1992 Best Play Nominee Our Country’s Good, 2006 Best Musical Revival Winner The Pajama Game, and the 2007 Best Play Revival Winner Journey’s End. He created the roles of Father Dan (among others) in Paul Rudnick’s groundbreaking comedy Jeffrey, and Leonard in Christopher Durang’s Why Torture Is Wrong…And The People Who Love Them. Recently he returned to The American Conservatory Theater, where it all started, and created the role of Edgar Halcyon in the new musical, Tales Of The City, receiving a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical from the Bay Area Critics Association. And in 2012 he received a Barrymore Award as Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Gunner Concannon in Bruce Graham’s The Outgoing Tide at the Philadelphia Theater Company

Richard has had featured roles in several films, including Born on the Fourth of July, Presumed Innocent, Transamerica, Speechless, Burn After Reading, and Delivery Man.

For his performance as Roy in Teresa is a Mother he was named Best Actor in the 2012 New York City Independent Film Festival. On TV he’s had recurring roles on several series, including Chopper Dave on Frasier, Joe Ippolito on A Whole New Ballgame, Roy Buchanan on The Five Mrs. Buchanans, and Gul Evek, the Cardassian officer, in several episodes of each of the modern Star Trek series.

Richard is a prolific narrator of audiobooks, with over one hundred titles to his credit. His recording of Danielle Steel’s Special Delivery was the second-highest selling audiobook in its year, as was Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. He was nominated for an “Audie” Award for his recordings of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and Dave Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. He won the award in 2004 for his narration of John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden.

Richard is married to Claudia Howard; both are happy Brooklynites.