Kyle Richards' fans were left stunned as the star's early and unrecognizable appearance in an iconic multi-award-winning show went viral. Richards, 57, known to today's audiences as the drama-inducing, glamorous star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, first captivated viewers with roles in classics including Halloween in 1978 and Little House on the Prairie from 1975 to 1982.
However, one role in a 25-time Golden Globe-winning drama has largely gone under the radar, in which Richards starred alongside The Pitt actor Noah Wyle in ER. Richards played the tenacious Nurse Dori Kerns, sans her now-signature hair extensions, fake tan, and designer outfits, in 21 episodes of the show, debuting in its fifth season in 1998.
In this role, Kerns was seen facing off with the show's biggest stars, including Wyle as Dr. John Carter, Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene, and Julianna Margulies as Nurse Manager Carol Hathaway. Richards looked worlds away from her ritzy Los Angeles lifestyle in nurse scrubs and a dowdy makeover, with fans quipping, 'She looks younger now than she did then.'
Others added, 'Holy mother of all glow ups.' While Richards was a rookie on the established ER set, she previously spoke about her connection to show heartthrob George Clooney, who played Dr. Doug Ross. She told People: 'The first day I was on the set of ER my friend said to me, "I can’t believe you’re going to see George again, that’s so cool." And I was like, "What do you mean?" And she started talking about this trip we went on and I was like, "Wait a minute, that George was George Clooney, the Sexiest Man Alive on People magazine?!" I never put two and two together. I was friends with him when I was a teenager. So that first day I was shooting ER, he came up to me and he was like, "Hey, how are you?" I was like, "I cannot believe he remembered and I didn’t. This is so embarrassing." He was just so sweet and down to earth. So lovely.'
Long before RHOBH, Richards was a child actress who starred in the 1978 horror classic Halloween. She returned as her character Lindsey Wallace in the Halloween reboot trilogy. 'When I was in Halloween I was just eight years old. I didn't know what I was doing until I saw it, then I was like, "What on God's green Earth..."' Richards previously said. Writer Danny McBride added that they were trying to 'find characters that have been established in John Carpenter's original and finding ways to keep them involved in the story.' Richards added, 'It just felt so good, all these people from the original movie coming together again.'
Jamie Lee Curtis previously raved about Richards' acting in a 2019 interview where she said, 'She is so great that it's going to be so fun for her audience, who now is used to knowing her for her TV show, they are going to be so happy to see an actress again.' Curtis added, 'She is absolutely fantastic and so beautiful that, you know, she gets very distressed in this movie in every way. Emotionally, physically, environmentally, and she just completely let that other life and just came and shot for three, four weeks and was amazing. People are going to be bonkers about her.'
