He studied at the commercial school in Tallinn and graduated from the State Theater Institute of the Estonian SSR [et] in 1950.
He participated in the Second World War as part of the Estonian Rifle Corps.
[1] From 1959 to 1963, he was a director's assistant at Tallinnfilm, and from 1963 he led amateur acting circles.
[1][3] Raudkivi wrote dramatizations (including Eduard Vilde's Kippari unerohi).
His son is the historian Priit Raudkivi (born 1954).