Hoyt Richards

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Hoyt Richards (born 1962) is an American model and actor.

Hoyt Richards (real name John Hoyt) became one of the biggest names in modelling in the 1980s and 1990s. He is viewed by some as being the first male Supermodel. His face launched hundreds of advertising campaigns and he was photographed by Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Steven Meisel, Horst and Albert Watson to name but a few. He was sought by numerous designers to front their menswear campaigns including Gianni Versace, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferrè, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Dunhill, Cartier, and Donna Karan

In his teenage year's Richards was sent by his American parents to be educated in the sixth form of the English public school Haileybury. After Haileybury Richards went to Princeton University from where he graduated in 1985 with a BA in Economics. At that stage he had no plans to be a model and dreamt of making it as a professional American Footballer but on a trip to New York he was spotted by a casting director from the Ford Model Agency and was told that he could have a career as a male model. Indeed, this career was to last fifteen years and over 200 major ads.

However, despite his success, behind the façade of happiness something dark was taking place in Richards's life. Throughout the period of his modelling he was a member of a cult called Eternal Values founded by Frederick Von Mierers, a former male model himself and social climber from Brooklyn who convinced scores of beautiful, young, famous and rich New Yorkers (including Sylvester Stallone), that he was an alien "walk-in" from the star Arcturus. Physical beauty was a prerequisite to membership of the cult, which was based in an elegant Manhattan house. Von Mierers said "I'm here to train the leaders of the New Age. Everyone I am training for leadership will have perfect features. I believe in the master race!"

Richards left Eternal Values after the death of Von Mierers from an AIDS related complex in 1990. Von Mierers had been under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for financial irregularities and his death brought the investigation to an end but Richards brought a civil suit against the remains of the group to recover assets which were tied up with the organisation. He received some of his money back but many of his career earnings were lost through the group's activities.

Hoyt Richards is now pursuing a career as an actor.

He is married to the actress Amy Lindsay.