Richard Sacher was age 4 when he joined Marjorie Marshall’s dance school in his Bronx neighborhood. He learned to tap dance in the basement of the apartment building where Marshall and her husband raised three children, including future film director Garry and actor/director Penny.

When Marjorie Marshall discovered Sacher could sing as well as dance, she asked him to perform for audiences during costume-change intervals.

“And so, I went from being in group dance numbers to singing solo,” said Sacher. “I loved the limelight of being on stage.”

He continued performing throughout his school years, attending the HS of Music and Art in Manhattan and studying music and voice in college. After earning a degree in elementary education and music, he taught in Westchester County for several years before taking a position as a kindergarten teacher in the Bronx. A few years later, he moved to a middle school, where he worked as a classroom teacher, literacy teacher, and music and theater teacher for over 20 years. He spent the last four years of his 29-year career as a UFT Teacher Center coach in literacy and math before retiring in 2005.

Sacher said he considered acting as a career, once taking on a few gigs the second time he was excessed from the Department of Education. But he was hired back, and he even worked part time in education following his retirement.

By 2012, he was long past ready for his second act. “I said, ‘OK, Sacher, this is the time. You’re not hurting anyone — you’re retired and you have your Tier 1 pension, thank God for that.’”

Sacher studied voice, theater, film, commercials and voiceovers at the HB Studio in Manhattan.

After taking a cabaret class at the 92nd Street Y, he created and performed three solo shows in Manhattan, including “Richard Sings Richard,” a tribute to composer Richard Rodgers, which he performed in 2023 in New York and 2024 in Florida.

Sacher has worked as a featured background actor in films, including “The Week Of” with Adam Sandler and “Back in the Day” with Danny Glover. He has appeared in episodes of TV shows, including “The Following,” “Madam Secretary” and “Alpha House,” and in principal roles on cable shows, including “A Crime to Remember” on Investigation Discovery network.

“The job I had the most fun in was the commercial for the New Jersey Lottery,” he said, recalling the time in 2019 when he was the oldest person on set for a New Jersey Lottery Cash Pop commercial. As he and other actors dance to the 1979 classic “Pop Muzik,” the lead dancer hugs Sacher and says, “You can bring Pop Pop.”

But singing on stage is what Sacher loves most — despite the nervousness he experiences before performing.

Sacher said he calms down once he begins. “It’s the love of performing that gives me the motivation to get up on the stage and sing.”