At USC film school Richard Bare directed a short film entitled The Oval Portrait, which won him the student Paul Muni Award for filmmaking. After graduation Bare was not able to find work at the any of the studios so decided to move back to his native Northern California. In Carmel he founded the Film Art Theater, which played foreign films that inspired him even more to pursue his endeavor to become a film director.
After several years he returned to USC to teach, where he wrote and directed a short entitled So You Want to Give Up Smoking, which he sold to Warner Bros. and was able to direct. This led to a long-running series of over 60 “So You Wanna…” shorts written, produced, and directed by Bare and starring George O’Hanlon as Joe McDoakes which include So You Want to Be in Pictures, So You Want to Be on the Radio, and So You're Going to Have an Operation, among many others.
Following the early success of these shorts, Bare was hired on to his first feature film, Smart Girls Don’t Talk in 1948. His other theatrical film credits include Flaxy Martin (1949), The House Across the Street (1949), Return of the Frontiersman (1950), This Side of the Law (1950), Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957), Girl on the Run (1958), This Rebel Breed (1960), I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew (1968), and Wicked, Wicked (1973).
Bare has also had a very extensive and successful career as a television director, helming nearly every episode of Green Acres from 1965-71. His other television credits include The Joe Palooka Story (for which he also served as producer), Colt .45, Sugarfoot, Broken Arrow, Lawman, 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, The Islanders, The Donna Reed Show, Route 66, Twilight Zone, The Virginian, Petticoat Junction, and Lassie.
A Guild member for 70 years after joining in 1945, Bare won the DGA Award in 1958 for Outstanding Achievement in Television for the 77 Sunset Strip episode “All Our Yesterdays.”
Bare passed away in March 2015.