Ney was born in New York City, the son of Erwin Maximillian Ney and Charlotte Marie Donaldson. His father also married Rebie Margaret (Flood), daughter of the Rev. Theodore L. Flood, editor of The Chautauquan and Ruth Crosley Pardington, daughter of Arthur Rayner Pardington, of Lincoln Highway fame. Richard Ney was the father of Rick Dufay, former guitarist for Aerosmith, and grandfather of actress Minka Kelly. A graduate in economics from Columbia University, Ney is best remembered for his role in the Oscar-winning World War II film Mrs. Miniver (1942), and for his short-lived (1943–1947) marriage to his co-star Greer Garson, who played his mother in the film. He also appeared in The Fan (1949). He served in the United States Navy during World War II. Ney’s one Broadway venture was the 1958 musical Portofino, which he produced and for which he wrote the book and lyrics. It closed after three performances. Ney performed mostly in television with occasional film roles until the mid-1960s. In “The Hunt” (January 27, 1962) of the NBC western television series, The Tall Man, Ney plays the wealthy Edward Van Doren, who hires Billy the Kid (Clu Gulager) to guide him into the wilderness to kill a mountain lion. However, Van Doren’s real target is Billy himself. This episode also presents details about the Colt Model 1877 .41 caliber gun used by Billy the Kid.

By the middle 1960s, Ney had successfully transitioned himself into a career as an investment counselor. Initially he joined a Beverly Hills stockbroking firm, prior to launching a newsletter, The Ney Report, which had among its subscribers, J. Paul Getty. Ney wrote three highly critical books about Wall Street, asserting that the market was manipulated by market makers to the detriment of the average investor. The first of these, The Wall Street Jungle, was a New York Times bestseller in 1970. The second and third were The Wall Street Gang and Making It in the Market. Ney was credited with saying, “Hidden behind the facade of pompous jargon and noble affections, there is more sheer larceny per square foot on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than any place else in the world.” Ney tried to argue in his books that stock prices were manipulated and controlled by the specialists who work on the floor of the stock exchange. He has a stepdaughter named Marcia McMartin, daughter of Ney’s former wife Pauline S Settle from her marriage to millionaire Duncan Roy McMartin.