Kim Richards

Disney's golden girl

Kim Richards began working in television commercials at just a few months old. Her face sold powdered milk and diapers before she had any memory of who she was.

In 1970, she landed the role of Prudence Everett in the series Nanny and the Professor. It was no child's play, since little Kim was keeping her household afloat. She signed an exclusive contract with Disney that made her the studio's most profitable face throughout the 1970s.

The film Escape to Witch Mountain from 1975 put her on the global map. She was eleven years old and carried the financial weight of her family. Her mother managed every dollar and every audition with a discipline that bordered on military.

And the system worked.

At seventeen, she tried to break out of the child-star mold with the series Hello, Larry. But audiences didn't want to see her grow up. The industry forced her to choose between being the eternal child or disappearing from the major studios' radar.

In 1985, she appeared in the film Tuff Turf alongside James Spader. It was one of her last attempts to maintain a traditional film career in Hollywood before stepping away from the spotlight.

Then came a long silence.

The return to the reality TV spotlight

In 2010, Bravo signed her for the show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The contract exposed her personal struggles to millions of viewers with no filter whatsoever. Her arguments with her sister Kyle Richards in the back of a limousine are now case studies in television editing classes.

She earned 100,000 dollars per season during her time as the show's main star. But the emotional price was far higher than the fee her agents had negotiated.

In 2015, police arrested her at the Beverly Hills Hotel over an alcohol-related incident. The police report described resisting arrest, a story that went around the world within minutes. She went through several rehab centers while television cameras kept recording every one of her relapses.

In 2020, she made a brief appearance in the show's tenth season to support her family at a public event. From then on, her relationship with fame became intermittent and much more selective.

Her last recorded appearance in the franchise was in 2023 during the thirteenth season. In 2024, her public appearances were reduced to private family events, far from NBCUniversal production contracts.

In 2023, her television work was limited to a guest appearance in episode thirteen of season thirteen.