Full-time Austin Powers impersonator has no plans to hang up yak hair sideburns despite 22-year gap since last film

A full-time professional Austin Powers impersonator who was once mistaken in news reports for Mike Myers himself and arrives at events in a Union flag-emblazoned Mini Cooper has said he has no plans to hang up his yak hair sideburns any time soon despite there being no new films in the franchise for 22 years.

Richard Halpern, 61, from New York but now living in Los Angeles, began doing impressions on a radio show in the 1980s and decided to add Mike Myers’ sexually charged character to his arsenal after seeing the first part of the Austin Powers trilogy – a series of comedy films focused on a British spy filled with sexual innuendos and inspired by James Bond and the 1960s.

Richard, who does not wish to disclose his relationship status or family situation, soon tracked down the designer who made Austin Powers’ well-known teeth and got custom-made outfits – even buying stick-on yak hair sideburns to make the character seem as realistic as possible.

In 1999, Richard appeared on stage at a music festival in costume and was mistaken for Myers in a television news report. After that, business started rolling in and to this day he performs at trade shows and parties.

Richard has made the decision to adapt his routine to fit modern times, asserting he never crosses the line, and is still hoping that a new Austin Powers movie will be released.

Richard, who has never been to the UK, plans to impersonate the character as long as he and Canadian actor comedian Myers are “still around” – and said suggestions of an Austin Powers 4 are “very interesting”.

Richard told PA Real Life: “I had the same person, Gary Archer, who made the teeth for the movie make me a pair and found the exact same set of glasses from the film.

“I had a custom-made shirt with the big white puffy collar… and I bought boots and had to have the exact same number of buttons on the blue velvet suit.

“There is no make-up – there’s just teeth, sideburns, glasses.

“I have sideburns that I stick on, they’re made of yak hair, and I have the purple-looking suit too.

“I do have the Union jack underwear but I don’t think people would want to see me in them!”

In 1983, Richard began doing vocal impressions on his local radio station KIIS-FM.

His favourite character was Tootsie, from the 1983 comedy film of the same name, starring Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack.

“It was a very popular character at the time and in the movie Dustin Hoffman dresses up as a woman, kind of like Mrs Doubtfire,” he said.

“And then someone said to me, ‘Why don’t you start doing voices in person?’

“So anyway, I started dressing up as her.

“I dressed up as her for a year or so… my mother had this red wig that looked very similar which she never wore.

“I used that wig and wore a black velvety culotte dress, brown boots that didn’t fit, cheap rings, lipstick, false eyelashes, and glasses borrowed from an optical store – they cost me five bucks and they actually let me use them then take them back.”

Richard began impersonating Austin Powers after the the release of the first movie, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

“When I first saw the film at a preview screening… I said that it would make a really, really cool Halloween costume, and my friend said the movie was going to be dead and gone by Halloween,” he said.

“All I thought about was, ‘That’s a cool look and character’.

“So I think it kind of took hold of me and I adapted to that world.”

Richard soon developed his go-to quotes from the movie to include in his routine.

He explained: “Most of the presentation is improv because you can’t do an entire event based on some dialogue of a movie, you have to be able to walk and talk.

“I have some little lines in my arsenal, like ‘groovy’, that I use over and over and I always think of more cheesy pick-up lines.”

In 2000, Richard became an Austin Powers impersonator and actor full-time.

“I’ve done some TV commercials and I’ve done some film things… but there have been times where I’ve done regular jobs when I’ve needed to because the work was just not there, for whatever reason,” he said.

His career as an Austin Powers tribute artist soon became successful.

He said: “People were saying I should get in touch with the movie studio because there was going to be this big push to promote the second movie.

“And I did, and I appeared at Dodger Stadium at an event called the Wango Tango which is now iHeart Music Festival.

“Nancy Sinatra was there… and I came on stage and did an impression… and on the Monday morning I was on the morning news and they said Mike Myers showed up but it was actually me!”

Richard began getting hired for events such as trade shows, and turns up in his 2003 Mini Cooper – similar to the one Austin Powers’ father drove in the movie.

After doing the routine for more than 20 years, Richard, who shares his impressions on Instagram under the handle @austinpowersimpersonator, has changed some of his material to fit modern times.

He said: “Even though some of the material can be a bit misogynistic and potentially insulting to women, I never cross that line – I go almost up to that line, but never cross it.

“I am very protective of the women I work with if they’re hired as go-go girls –  there’s tendencies for these women to be harassed and I’m always jumping to their aid, I have a great respect for women and the women I work with.

“I’m always reinventing the situations and the dialogue, in addition to the 60s dialogue and vernacular.

“What makes the character special is that even though he can be perceived as sexist in some of what he says, he actually is just the opposite and he learns from his journey from 1967 to 1997 that there have been changes in the culture.

“He is able to learn the difference and respect the difference between the attitudes of his time in the 1960s to the modern times in the 1990s.”

In recent years Myers has said he would be open to making a fourth Austin Powers film, saying on the Tonight Show in 2023: “I would love to do it, of course, it’s fun.”

Richard said: “I’d love for them to make a new movie, and I’m the same age as Mike Myers so I’ll be doing it for as long as he’s still around and I’m still around – I’d love to do it worldwide.

“It would be very interesting to see what the story would be and  I’ve heard that it would be more focused on Dr Evil.”