Rick Sandford was born December 31, 1950, in Denver, Colorado, and grew up in the Lake Tahoe area. His early difficulties learning to read led his parents to enroll him in a private school, Peter Pan. At the school he learned how to overcome his difficulties and would later consider reading as a primary component of his happiness. Sandford at some point created typescripts of original documents including his mother's correspondence in 1951. His early personal journal entries date to 1958 and were short and sporadic, however his later entries were longer and more frequent. The journal entries include copies of his correspondence and writings, and traditional journal entries concerning his life. His journals also document his appreciation of motion pictures, another life-long passion. After his graduation in 1969, he came to Los Angeles to see the musical, Hair and the Russian motion picture version of War and Peace. After 1972, Sandford remained in Los Angeles employed in various positions, from an usher at Grauman's Chinese Theatre to a television show stand-in. He received credit as a "research assistant" on 50 Golden Years of Oscar: the Official History of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Ronald Haver's David O. Selznick's Hollywood. Along the way Sandford appeared on television shows and in motion pictures as an extra and in a few bit parts. During the late 1970s and early 1980s he worked as an editor on 3 gay erotic films and appeared as Benjamin Barker or Ben Barker in 13 gay erotic motion pictures including Kip Noll and the Westside Boys, Rear Deliveries, Skin Deep, The Class of '84 Part 2Jocks, Gold Rush Boys, The Boys of San Francisco, A Night at Halsted's, and Games. On Octber 23rd, 1979, Sandford posed for Don Bachardy, the work was published in October (1981). During the mid 1980s, Bachdardy sketched Sandford for his book, Drawing of the Male Nude. He also served as an assistant on the 1990 documentary Hollywood Mavericks. In 1991, his short story "Forster & Rosenthal Reevaluated: An Investigative Report" was published in the anthology, Indivisible: New Short Fiction by Gay and Lesbian West Coast Writers. In 1994, another of his short stories, "Purim" was published in Blood Whispers: L.A. Writers on AIDS, Volume 2. He died of AIDS during the evening of September 28, 1995. Two more of Sandford's short stories were published posthumously, "The Gospel Of Bartholemew Legate: Three Fragments" in His 2: Brilliant New Fiction by Gay Writers and "Manifest White" in His 3: Brilliant New Fiction by Gay Writers. In 2000, his novel, Boys Across the Street was published.