In the Rocky Horror Picture Show, you may know him as Riff Raff (A Handyman). But to others, he is a God. Aside from portraying Riff Raff, he also wrote the script, lyrics, and music for the play. As a longtime fan of B movies, bad sci-fi films, and Dr. Strange comics, it is no surprise that he wrote the part of Riff Raff for himself while writing the play intending to attract like-minded people to othe theater. Lou Adler is quoted as saying..."Richard O'Brien's brain - that's where everything is. He's Riff Raff, but he's also the doctor, the monster, all the characters." It's an ideal part for the author-actor.
Among the outrageousness in the show, nothing is as bizarre as the character of Riff Raff. And probably none so difficult to portay. While everyone else in the movie works from a single set of character traits and develops in a linear fashion, the hunchbacked handyman and his sister Magenta are duplicitous. They appear to be menial servants, when in fact they are powerful undercover agents waiting for the right moment to take over the Transylvanian leadership on Earth and return to their native planet of Transexxual.
Riff Raff is insolent in his lack of power, cruel when he holds it, and insanely paranoiac in its exercise. It is he who works most closely with the mad scientist in charge of the mission; he who releases Rocky from bondage, creating pandemonium in his master's heart; and he who weilds the laser gun that kills Columbia, Rocky, and Frank at the movie's end. They successfully accomplish what they had set out to do and finally launch the catsle back to the planet of Transexxual, in the galaxy of Transylvania.
"Ritz" Also doubles as part of the American Gothic characters in the very start of the film. Along with Patricia Quinn (Magenta), "Little" Nell Campbell (Columbia), and Tim Curry (Dr. Frank N. Furter, who portrays the priest in the wedding scene. How ironic...).
Although the Rocky Horror Picture Show marks O'Brien's motion picture debut, he is no stranger to performing. Born in New Zealand and married to Kimi Wong, a Transylvanian, with whom he has recorded rock singles under the name "Kimi and Ritz", he appeared in the London productions of Hair with Tim Curry, and Jesus Christ Superstar, under the direction of Jim Sharman. He played the part of a strange creature in sam Sheppard's The Unseen Hand before originating the role of Riff Raff in the London production of the Rocky Horror Show. He recreated that role on Broadway and again in the movie.
After winning the London Evening Standard's award for the Best Musical of 1973 with The Rocky Horror Show, O'Brien returned to writing for the theater. His play Disaster - featuring Patricia Quinn and Jonathan Adams, with costumes by Sue Blane - opened in London during the summer of 1978. The bizarre musical closed the same summer. The critics decided that it wasn't that good.
He then went on to write and also star in another movie, which has been described as the "unofficial sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show" , called Shock Treatment. This was first referred to as the further adventures of Brad and Janet. This takes the two characters into a television studio. The movie is kept going by the different "programs" that are being "filmed". Each "show" is a way to make the plotline move along. It is very smoothly done and he should be commended for it. Richard O'Brien returns to a new character with and old feel. Cosmo Nation. Patricia Quinn helps with the feel by playing his sister and insinuated "more-than-friends" associate. They run the mental ward "show" and dutifully admit Brad into it. Charles Gray also returns to play an actual main part. He helps to get the couple, Brad and Janet, back together and cancel their "series."