Robert Charles Kerman was born on December 16, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York City, to a pickle maker father and a bookkeeper mother. He grew up in a middle-class Italian-Jewish neighborhood of Bensonhurst, sharing a two-family rowhouse with his aunt and parents. Kerman's interest in acting began during his freshman year at Lafayette High School, and he enrolled in a drama class during his senior year, which led to relationships with a few girls.
After graduating from Brooklyn College in 1970, Kerman pursued acting, taking on various jobs such as driving a Good Humor ice-cream truck and a taxi driver to support himself. He began acting in off-Broadway shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan, appearing in classics like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A View From a Bridge".
In the mid-1970s, Kerman became involved in the underground adult film business, performing in non-sex roles for $100 a day. He first performed on-screen sex in 1974 in director Roberta Findlay's "Anyone But My Husband", playing the lead role of the snobbish husband of C.J. Laing. Kerman adopted the porn acting name "Richard Bolla" (often shortened to "R.Bolla"),which was inspired by a logo on a cardboard box of Bolla wine.
Kerman's porn career flourished during the middle and late 1970s and early 1980s, with over 100 adult feature films under his belt. He worked for many adult filmmakers, including Gerard Damiano, Gary Graver, Henri Pachard, and others, and performed with porn icons like Seka, Vanessa del Rio, Jennifer Welles, Ginger Lynn, and Veronica Hart.
Despite his success in the adult film industry, Kerman's true calling was mainstream acting. Between porn roles, he tried to pursue work in mainstream films, appearing in small parts in "Concorde Affaire '79" (1979) and "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980). He was later cast by Italian director Umberto Lenzi for a lead role in "Eaten Alive!" (1980),shot in Sri Lanka.
Kerman returned to New York when acting jobs in Europe did not materialize, and he resumed his work in the American porn industry until 1984. He then moved to Los Angeles to break into mainstream acting, landing an agent and signing a three-year contract. He appeared in five or six television shows in guest star roles and had small parts in "No Way Out" (1987) and "Night of the Creeps" (1986).
However, Kerman's acting career was cut short when his female agent fired him for no clear reason, and he was unwilling to return to the porn business. He returned to New York, where he eventually dropped out of the acting business altogether, rarely working since.
In 1998, Kerman received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Free Speech Coalition's annual Night of the Stars, a gala event for the adult film industry. In 2001, the theatrical re-release of "Cannibal Holocaust" brought Kerman out of retirement to promote the movie in Los Angeles, where he was asked to audition for a role in the first "Spider-Man" (2002) by director Sam Raimi. Kerman landed a small but memorable role as a New York City tugboat captain.
