Kim Milford

Richard Kim Milford (February 7, 1951 - June 16, 1988) was an American movie and stage actor.

Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, he grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago (Winnetka, Illinois), where he went to New Trier High School. His family includes some familiar names from the movie and art world, sister, actress Penelope Milford ("Coming Home" for which she got an Oscar nomination, "Heathers", "The Burning Bed") and brother, Doug Milford publisher of ArtNet.

Kim Milford was an actor-singer-songwriter-composer-dancer and first appeared in SummerStock Theatre in Chicago at age 10; at age 17 he was in the original staging of "Hair" (he played Woof and Claude). In 1976 he was awarded the Faith and Freedom Award by the Religious Heritage of America for his portrayal of the Prodigal Son in ABC Directories series "Round Trip". Kim later performed in the first concert tour of Jesus Christ Superstar playing Jesus and Judas, and in the first American production of The Rocky Horror Show as Rocky (Roxy Cast in Los Angeles, and in New York City on Broadway).

Kim also appeared in the plays "Henry Sweet Henry", 1967, "Your Own Thing", "Rockabye Hamlet" (1975-76, Laertes), "More Than You Deserve", "Sunset", and "All Bets Off". Kim played in all the major clubs in New York City and Los Angeles with his own band and was lead singer in the Jeff Beck Group (Aug-Sept '72). He also worked on television in the movies "Song of the Succubus" (with Brooke Adams) and "Rock-A-Die-Baby" (aka "Night of the Full Moon"), both on 1975 on ABC's "Wild World of Entertainment", and in which Kim performed his own music; and on TV in "Mannix" ("Portrait in Blues"), "The Highwayman", and "Sonny Spoon". Kim also starred in the feature films "Laserblast", "Bloodbrothers", "Corvette Summer", "Escape", "Nightmare at Noon", and "Wired to Kill".

According to an interview in the October 1974 issue of Viva magazine, Kim was recording an album titled "Chain Your Lovers to the Bedposts" and a single, "Help is on the Way, Rozea" Kim's known recordings include the single "Muddy River Water" (Decca), the Sunset soundtrack, Roxy Cast album of Rocky Horror Show, and his song "Justice" on the 'Ciao! Manhattan' (Edie Sedgwick) movie. Kim also wrote the music for "Salome," based on the Oscar Wilde play, and starred in it at the Mark Taper Fo-rum in Los Angeles in 1979, and also wrote and performed "My Love Is A Rebel" on the soundtrack of Runnymede films' "Limbo", starring Barry Bostwick. In addition, he's on some bootlegs of the August-September 1972 Jeff Beck concerts. He also did one or possibly two albums with his group Moon; they were the band in the two TV movies above and were co-writers on several songs with singer Ron Dante, which include "Lovin' Lady," "Jo Anna," and "She's Puttin' Me Through Changes." (Ron was married to Kim's sister Penelope at the time.)

The negative critical reaction in New York to "The Rocky Horror Show", what had been the Roxy's longest running musical ever came as a surprise to Kim and the entire cast. The show's planned six-month run was abruptly cut short after only 45 performances. Kim was a Christian Scientist, and was proud never to have missed the few performances of Rocky Horror, even when he was handicapped by a devastating tailbone injury that made walking extremely painful.

Milford died in Chicago on June 16, 1988 of heart failure, after having undergone open heart surgery several weeks earlier. He was only 37 years old.

Films

*Laserblast (1978) - Billy Duncan
*Bloodbrothers (aka A Father's Love, 1978) - Butler
*Corvette Summer (aka The Hot One, 1978) - Wayne Lowry
*Wired to Kill (aka Booby Trap, 1986) - Rooster
*Escape (1990) - Zoka
*Nightmare at Noon (1990) - Albino's Henchman

Television

*Rock-A-Die, Baby (aka Night of the Full Moon) (1975 TV)
*Song of the Succubus (1975 TV)
*Mannix episode with Mike Connors (1975 TV)

Broadway

*Henry Sweet Henry (1967)
*Hair - Woof/Claude (1968)
*1776
*Your Own Thing - Sebastian
*More Than You Deserve - Wiley/Trout (1974)
*Rocky Horror Show - Rocky (LA 1974) (NYC 1975).
*Rockabye Hamlet - Laertes (1975-76)

Other Theatre

*Jesus Christ Superstar (Original concert version) - Jesus/Judas (1971)
*Salome (1979)
*Sunset - Danger Dan (1983)

Music

Albums

*"Chain Your Lovers to the Bedposts"
*Sunset soundtrack
*"Bat Out of Hell" (he was Jim Steinman's original choice before Meat Loaf)

ingles

*"Help is on the Way, Rozea"
*"Muddy River Water"

Cast Performances

*Roxy Cast album of Rocky Horror Show

Composer

*"Song of Succubus"
*"Justice" on the 'Ciao! Manhattan' (Edie Sedgewick) soundtrack
*"Salome"
*My Love Is A Rebel (soundtrack of Runnymede films) "Limbo" (starring Barry Bostwick)
*"Lovin' Lady", "Jo Anna", and "She's Puttin' Me Through Changes" (Kim Milford/Ron Dante)