Born in Gillingham, Kent, England, Richards was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London where his fellow classmate was Roland Young.

[2] He made his Broadway debut with that company on October 20, 1913 at the Shubert Theatre as the Nubian Sentinel in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra.

[1] He made several more appearance on Broadway upon his return to the United States in 1927, including Frederick Witney's The Adventurous Age (1927), Cosmo Hamilton's Caste (1927), Robert Nichols's Wings Over Europe (1928), Kenyon Scott's A Noble Rogue (1929), Martha Stanley's Let and Sub-Let (1930), Michael Grismaijer's The Noble Experiment (1930), Howard Warren Comstock's Doctor X (1931), John Larkin's Society Girl (1931–1932), Thetta Quay Franks's Money In The Air (1932), A. J.

Minor's Masks and Faces (1933), Hardwick Nevin's Whatever Possessed Her (1934), Arthur Schwartz's Virginia (1937), Ernest Pascal's I Am Youth (1938), Leslie and Sewell Stokes's Oscar Wilde (1938–1939), Cole Porter's Something for the Boys (1943–1944), Gottfried Reinhardt's Helen Goes To Troy (1944), and Philip Barry's Second Threshold (1951).

Some of his more substantial appearances included the painter Joshua Reynolds in Kitty (1945), Sir Harry Bragdon in White Pongo (1945), Tom Walker in Flight to Nowhere (1946), Burton Stallings in Larceny in Her Heart (1946), Sam Thompson in Linda, Be Good (1947), Police Inspector McIver in 13 Lead Soldiers (1948), Col.