He was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Chicago. He attended Farragut Career Academy. He served two years in the United States Navy. He received an associate of arts in black history and music from Kennedy–King College in 1972 and received a Bachelor of Science in journalism, specializing in advertising, from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1975.
Richardson made his film debut as the Fairy Godmother, in the 1977 American erotic musical comedy Cinderella. He is perhaps best known as a regular in the films of Alex Cox, having appeared in Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, Straight to Hell, Walker, The Winner and Searchers 2.0. He played "Turbo" in the 1990 film Tripwire. He recently had a recurring role as the coroner on the TV series Pushing Daisies. He also appeared in They Live and Colors.

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