Rocky Horror maestro Richard O'Brien is revelling in his new role as an academic.
Author and star of cult musical and film The Rocky Horror Show was this week awarded an honorary Wintec Master of Arts for his contribution to the arts and commitment to the Waikato arts community.
"Now I am an academic. Eat your hearts out, all those without honours. I am most grateful and truly excited by this thoughtful and kind act of Wintec," he says.
On accepting the honorary award O'Brien reflected on his Master of Arts Degree: "How splendid to finally be able to prove that my teachers were wrong about me.
"It is true that the school play that I was in, was lifted out of the mundane into a richer brew of theatrical wonder after I combed white gunk through my 14-year-old hair and shape-shifted myself into the form of an old, railway stationmaster in Cornwall.
"For a fleeting moment I felt that school and me may have been able to call an uneasy truce, but Pythagoras turned up, once again, with one of his theorems and the bitter winds of truth blew frost upon that cosy moment of rosy glow."
Born in England, Richard O'Brien emigrated to Hamilton at the age of 10 with his family before spending time working here as a barber. He later returned to England getting a break into the British film industry by riding horses in movies - a skill learnt in New Zealand.
With no desire to continue as a full-time stuntman, he enrolled at drama school. After working backstage in many West End theatres and a flurry of acting roles, Richard went on to write and star in the cult musical, The Rocky Horror Show, which was later adapted into the film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. His character of Riff Raff has since been made into a statue on the site of Hamilton's former Embassy Theatre in Victoria St.
As well as acting, O'Brien has held a variety of presenting roles and has written several musical and stage shows in a career that spans nearly 50 years.
In July last year, he appeared on stage at Hamilton's Founders Theatre as the character Fagin in Hamilton Operatic Society's production of Oliver. He celebrated his 70th birthday in Hamilton with a fundraising concert for Starship Children's Hospital at Founders Theatre.