It's hard to believe that Reichen Lehmkuhl was ever thought to be ugly. In his autobiography, Here's What We'll Say, he writes of a note that a girl left in his middle school locker: "She went on to tell me I was ugly, disgusting, and to top it off, a total geek." He then discusses how he was considered unattractive even as he entered the United States Air Force Academy.
Sitting across from the man backstage at St. Luke's Theatre, where he's starring in Anthony J. Wilkinson's comedy My Big Gay Italian Wedding, finds Lehmkuhl to be the antithesis of the school girl's assessment. He's good looking...Strike that... He's very good looking... Strike that, too... He's extremely handsome... No, that doesn't quite describe him either... He's absolutely the personification of male beauty. Yes, that's it! His skin is smooth and clear. There isn't a blemish or shaving nick to be found on his face. His green eyes are both intense yet kindly, and his features rival anything that Michelangelo sculpted: only Reichen Lehmkuhl isn't composed of Carrara marble. He's a warm, caring, and intelligent individual who is making his stage debut in this Off Broadway production. In fact, the audience gets to see how chiseled and beautiful he is early in the play when he performs a scene clad only in his tightie whities.
So how did this ugly duckling of the middle school set become the buff and articulate man he is today? He admits that he started working out before he entered the Air Force Academy in an effort to keep up with the rigorous schedule he anticipated during his first year and basic training. Speaking in a clear voice that has a beguiling boyish quality, Lehmkuhl states: "In my sophomore year something happened; I guess I finally hit puberty when I was twenty years old. I was really a late bloomer. Heck, I didn't even have hair under my arms until I was nineteen! It was very embarrassing. Within a span of a year my whole body changed, though. I remember seeing my face looking different in the mirror. My bones changed, my body changed, I grew, I started filling out; I went from this weird, gawky, scared-looking kid to what I look like now," he states with a self-deprecating laugh. "At my first class reunion from high school, there wasn't a single person who recognized me; not even my best friend." Lehmkuhl relates that he was so ashamed of his looks that be didn't know what color his eyes were because he dreaded looking in a mirror. He still has a difficult time when people compliment his appearance.
Born Richard Allen Lehmkuhl to parents of mostly Germanic origin, he was never happy with the name he'd been given. "Everyone called me 'Rick' and when I went into the first grade in Catholic school, the nun kept calling out 'Richard Lehmkuhl' and I had no idea who she was referring to. She knew who I was because she kept repeating my name louder and louder. I didn't know that my name was actually 'Richard' and she scolded me severely, turning it into a really horrible experience for me. From that day forward I hated the name 'Richard'. I never liked the name 'Rick' either."
When Lehmkuhl was about twenty, he started studying German. At hand he had both a German dictionary and an old English one that his mother had given him. He explains: "I looked up the name 'Richard' and it had several different meanings, like 'to rule'. I went to the German dictionary to cross reference it and saw the word 'reichen' under 'reich', which means 'to rule'. After looking at all the meanings of the word ‘reichen,' I found it was the plural of the word 'reich'--which has the secondary meaning of 'rich'. In German they often add an -en to pluralize a word just as we add an -s in English. So "reichen' means 'riches'. In the verb form it means 'to give or to reach' which I thought was a pretty cool word."
Much to his surprise, Lehmkuhl found that it was rather easy to legally change his name. The judge inquired about his desire for the switch and Lehmkuhl learned that in California it's a valid reason to say, "I don't like it." That's exactly what he did and the name change took place on the spot. It was an easy transition for Lehmkuhl and those around him. His family and friends began calling him "Reichen" immediately and without much difficulty. "I've been 'Reichen' for thirteen years without looking back," Lehmhuhl states with a chuckle in his voice. "I not only chose my name, I created it, so it's very special to me."
