Gay porn director William Higgins dead at 77

Holy shit! The new WH videos released in HD in recent years have been super hot. Wonder what'll happen to the studio now. 😕

A true pioneer - no sarcasm.

Sailor in the Wild, an all time classic of the genre, starring Bill Henson, Rick Donovan, and Leo Ford.

And he was only 77? RiP maestro.

I wonder how many loads have been shot to his videos? Millions? Billions?

A Nazi. Seriously. He went to Europe because he didn't want to deal with people of color and especially porn models of color. His interviews are pretty disgusting. Absolutely was a Trumpkin.

R5 Last I checked Nazis didn't specifically enslave black people 🙄

R6, oh, well that makes it all okay.

A Nazi is the same fucking thing. Shut the hell up.

Link R5, or you’re talking with your head up your ass

I shot MANY loads to Pizza Boy

I heard he had to flee the USA for Europe because he was about to be arrested. I never heard what he did wrong though, but I don't think it had anything to do with porn. One person surmised it might have to do with tax evasion.

I just know he's done a TON of hot porn, and lived a life surrounded by super hot naked guys.

(envy)

He was kinda the architect of the body fascism that gripped gay culture at the onset of the AIDS crisis. But he made hot porn.

Body fascism r12?

What do you mean?

Death comes for the archbishop- of porn.

R14: So does that mean there will be a conclave of porn directors at a bathhouse in Rome, and once they have elected from amongst themselves a new Archbishop of Gay Porn, pink smoke will waft from the smokestack and they will ring bells? And will young men appear on the balcony doing helicopters and bouncing their balls to the bells to announce this joyous occasion?

[quote]He went to Europe because he didn't want to deal with people of color and especially porn models of color.

He fled to Australia and then Thailand because he got arrested and his premises raided in the US. He made videos in Thailand with the locals, but the opportunities to market those videos and expand were scarce, so he then settled in Amsterdam and Prague.

What an ill-informed plonker you are.

[quote]A Nazi. Seriously. He went to Europe because he didn't want to deal with people of color and especially porn models of color. His interviews are pretty disgusting.

It was PRON.

I didn't realize that doing pron was an equal opportunity endeavor. There are as many people who would say that using minority people to perform sex acts for money is an indicator of oppression.

But, giving you the benefit of the doubt, if you want to provide proof, I'd be happy to see for myself. Of course, I'm satisfied, so don't intend to spend time searching. It would be incumbent on you, as the person trying to change opinions, to provide that proof.

R5 is worse than the people he accuses to be Hitler.

along with Cadinot he was the founder of contemporary gay porn. An icon is dead.

I honestly don't remember seeing many of his films.

I was watching porn in the early 90s and only saw a few older films like The Bigger The Better and some of the Joe Gage stuff.

R8 that actually is NOT the same thing, and you're being more Nazi-like by telling me to shut up

R7 still waiting on the proof of your claims.

I’ll always associate him with Amsterdam. He had a whole complex there. His Transition to Prague was symbolic of the whole shift of Euro porn and gay escort scene to Prague from Amsterdam.

I will have to rub one out to "A Sailor in the Wild" in his honor.

And if I don't invite black dudes into my bed, I'm a Nazi!!? Fuck you, racial fucktards. Sexual preferences are just sexual preferences. Being sexually picky is not racism. I hope your mother was so diverse that she fucked with every person of color imaginable.

RiP my great director.

Sailor in the Wild, very memorable and iconic.

RIP.

I just realized the Catalina logo looks like an erect penis.

R25, nice to have a elder Nazi salute one of your own.

Still waiting on that proof, r28!

He was the Orson Welles of gay pron.

R30 If so rosebud has a completeLy different meaning.

I thought he started YMAC?

I considered his American porn top notch back in the day. Few did better. But once he went to Europe and only had those pasty faced Euro trash pronstars to work with his quality went straight to hell IMO. 99% of the quality of his American porn came from the guys he had to work with.

While I was relatively indifferent to his blond stars, like Leo and Lance, I thought Bobby Madison was one of the most handsome men with one of the prettiest dicks to do porn in the early 80s. Thank you, William Higgins. I liked the fact that he made just the barest attempt at holding a film of disparate sex scenes with some gimmicky title, but kept the acting and dialogue to the barest minimum.....because, let's face it, porn actors are not REAL actors, in spite of how they might describe themselves on their social media sites.

R32 I believe the lead producer-director at YMAC was "Larry Bronco" (Jerry Self).

Thanks R35.

That scene from "Class Reunion" where he had like 21 guys in a daisy chain around the pool ....

Tony Stefano was sex on a stick. Henson was very pretty. They didn't fuck in Pizza Boy, right? But they did in Matt Sterling's Inch by Inch.

R21 Same fucking thing. Shut up.

He refused to feature trans people of color in his movies and had to leave the USA. He was a monster!

R40 😂😂

You all saying we are antisocial are the weird ones. I don't care if I had a line of cars down the block at my house, even more reason not to bring your ass over. YOU WEREN'T INVITED. Stop trying to impose your lonely ass into my life. FREAK.

^^^I was not in this thread when I posted that and it just switched on me again. Come on Muriel.

I'm sending flowers, anyone want to pitch in? I'll set up a GoFundMe account, 50.00 each should do it. I'll be back with details.

[quote] That scene from "Class Reunion" where he had like 21 guys in a daisy chain around the pool ....

It was like "The Human Centipede 3," except using the other side of the human body.

The guys he had to work with back in the 80s were veritable sex beasts. They radiated pure sex heat without having to penetrate a single hole. When they performed you could see they were loving every minute of it. Unlike these talent free pretty boys of today, most of whom clearly hate the work.

I'd say Higgins has really become "King of the Erotic Solo."

Also, if you like HOT ASS. No one else really (un)covers that angle like he's been doing.

Did he have an heir apparent to take over his realm?

Higgins didn't focus on his hot Euro boys' foreskin enough. Bel Ami shows off the beautiful intact cock much better.

Boys of Venice, Pacific Coast Highway, A Sailor in the Wild, The Pizza Boy: He Delivers, The Young and the Hung, Big Guns... so many '80s classics.

There was always an unsubstantiated rumor floating around the LA gay porn scene that porn actor, Morgan, slipped off a cliff and plunged to his death during the filming of a William Higgins porn flick. A major cover-up transpired and Williams was never implicated. The rumors then morphed into something even more nefarious than mere accident.

Porn star Jake Wood was quoted as saying "Bill was the best director, like, ever. I'll never forget the time he told me to cum up Austin Page's nose. Genius."

I think he had beautiful men and creative videography.

But he rarely kept the camera on one sex act long enough for me to get into.

It was actually pretty frustrating.

R4 Trillions

I dare say his plot lines inspired David DeCoteau although that is probably not a point in his favor. Class of '84!

sailor in the wild, man that was goooood.

who is the other director from usa that went over there and made it big?

Mel Roberts who was another early California Boys type pornographer also ended up in Eastern Europe

He directed Matt Ramsey/Peter North's first ever (or maybe it was second) porn film

He invented CGI.

Bronze age here: Before Higgins and a few others porn was simply grubby images of people fucking. He elevated it into something more- into the realm of art -- as well as reflecting back the pre-HIV cruising culture we had back then. No one else showed back to us this part of who we are/were.---then porn descended into commodity.

The Prague BUddies series (1, 2, and 3) was awesome and hot and featured some of my favorite performers (including the amazing Pavil Novotny)

R54 Maybe you're thinking of George Duroy of Bel Ami ?? He's Slovakian, but went to UCLA Film School and his initial film work was for Falcon Studios, ca. 1993-94. (He'd also been doing photography for U.S. based "Freshmen" magazine.) But even at that point, Bel Ami was already something of a work in progress, with "Tender Strangers" and "Lukas' Story" produced around the the same time. His resume shows he continued to do some films for Falcon up until about '97.

I had a friend, now deceased, who was one of William Higgins' boys in the 1980s. Friend was kicked out of his family home before he finished high school, lived in his car for some time, and ended up at William Higgins' home in WeHo, sharing a room with other boys in similar predicaments. They slept on bunk beds, fucked around with each other, and had their turn with Higgins. Friend said the first time he was summoned by Higgins, he refused, only to have the bigger boys grab him, rough him up a little, and carry him by force to Higgins. Higgins threatened to put him back out on the streets if he didn't comply. Higgins, in return, took care of the boys and helped them on their feet so that they didn't overstay their welcome and become permanent boarders.

Wasn't the real reason Higgins had to flee the USA was he was a suspect in the death of an underage model. The story was the blonde twink went to take a pee at the side of a dark road and fell off a cliff. Or so they say

^^ Blonde twinks name was Morgan he looked like he was about 16 yr.

R62, that was the rumor around town. See R49.

more of the late Morgan last video was released in 1983. When did Billy hightail it out of LA?

Morgan lasd vid is listed as 1984

The rumour I read on ATKOL was that Morgan was going to become a male Traci Lords and he had an "accident" to avoid landing many people in jail.

Some of his former Cezch models most of whom he picked up at the notorious Prague train station later went on to work at other studios like Bel Ami. These former models described the atmosphere at Higgins studio over his bookstore Drakes as "weird". Assuming that Czech teen hustlers have seen it all "weird" is probably an understatement.

Higgins was in the US years after the supposed Morgan incident. He didn't the leave the country besides that. Porn performers, especially back them, totally disappeared from the public eye after retiring. The Morgan urban legend is probably just that, an urban legend.

Higgins had a major foot fetish. Every audition included ole Billy sucking on their lil piggys.

Err, that should be "He didn't the leave the country because of that"

So for someone unfamiliar with his oeuvre, which of his films should I watch (or watch first)?

So does my Daddy, R70.

R65, Morgan supposedly died around 1983-84. Higgins left for Europe in the late 1990s, so quite a bit of time had passed. People had pretty much forgotten about Morgan until Higgins provided an update in one of the those gay video guides in the 1990s. Higgins claimed that Morgan had been vacationing in Big Bear with family, when he asked his dad to pull over so he could pee, got out of the car, took a few steps, and plunged to his death. However, people did some sleuthing and found no records of a young male around Morgan's age in 83-84 dying in such a manner.

My friend who worked for Higgins in the mid 80s heard those rumors too, but heard and believed that it was no accident.

The more believable story going around was that Morgan's dad found out about the pron, and he was shamed into quitting and a death story manufactured.

Higgins didn't leave the US for Prague until 1991. Almost 10 years after this model Morgan died. However the rumor was Higgins had paid off another model who then had been arrested on another charge and was now willing to testify against Higgins as part of a plea bargain So the case was seriously going to be reopened. Thus the delay in Old Billy's getaway. He did leave LA very abruptly selling his vid/bookstore Drakes on Melrose in weeks.He directed his first Cezch vid under the name of Wiliam Hof in 1992. Interestingly Higgins lived in Prague for 27 yrs but never learned to speak or understand Cezch. He always had to rely on his Cedzch cameraman and assistants when he filmed.He said it was a very difficult language

Fantastic gif r15! Where do you find it or is that you swinging your manhood?!😘😄

Higgins did have an eye for talent. Although in 90's post soviet Prague there was an abundance of riches. Many of his models wound up working for premier studio Bel Ami. My all time favorite Higgins model was bellissimo Karel Rok. He was a doppelganger for my late lover.

Did 17 year old Lucas Ridgeston do his first vids for Higgins? BTW the legal age in the Cezch republic was 16 yr. So many of these vids featured under age ( in USA) boys. Also these vids were unavaliable for sale in the Cezch republic in the 90s so many of these boys felt comfortable filming knowing their family or girlfriends /wives would never see the vid. Of course the internet changed all that.

R77 that gif is Jess from Sean Cody

Thank you r80 👍🙂

Ridgeston had his first film credit for Mans Best studio in 1992 Boytropolis . That would make him 17. Mans Best Studio was run by a notorious Berlin chicken hawk who directed under the name of Rolf Hammershmidt. Most of his vids featured mid teen cezch boys . This resulted in a couple of arrests buyers ordering thru mail and video stores selling Man Best vids in America.

R72 Pizza Boy. It was my first porn film I downed using Kazaa back in 2000 on AOL. I was a teen back then

R10 I'd say more Spielberg rather than the Welles of gay porn. Before him it was more grungy, darker, more Genet. He brought the smooth shaved sunny California look to his stars. It was perfect 1980s, like the English bands invasion at the time. Memorable times. RIP.

Not Higgins. Actually it was Rolf Hammerschmidt's ironically named Proof on File vids that were banned in USA for using 15-16 year old boys. These vids were very popular in Germany. Many middle age married Berlin businessman fed sex tourism trade in 90's Prague . A series of very distributing award winning documentaries were made on the subject of underage male prostitution/vid performers in 90's Prague .I remember screening some at Film Festival in LA. Quite Dickensian.

William Higgins started as a photographer for the notorious Mel Roberts who was busted for using underage So Cal boys in 1977. The apple did not fall far from the tree.

Some of the things that used to be banned or caused legal issues are pretty par for the course now. Not movies with those not of consenting age, obviously (as R85's post points out). But other things that were not generally shown in videos, kink/fetish things, have suddenly become a lot more common.

There was a director in the 80s and 90s who did exclusively water sports videos, and a friend of mine had a few. Then the guy that made them and distributed them was arrested and sentenced for mail order indecency.

Now you can't watch a Titan Men video without there being an option for the water sports scenes. Just interesting to me that changed in a matter of years.

The whole daddy/son fantasy is also more frequent now. In the 70s/80s it might have been older/younger guys together, but now, I mean half the Joe Gage videos strongly imply the whole dad/son connection.

Lukas at 45yr has matured into a mighty fine looking DILF

R85 wasn't one of the directors of those docs some anti-gay shit?

Gay porn director William Higgins is DEAD TO ME!

He had an amazing output.

From the horses mouth:

“I [went and] said, ‘I thought porno was legal because of the First Amendment,’ and [the attorney] laughs and says, ‘Oh how naïve you are! What’s amazing to me is that you’ve been in the business this long and haven’t had any encounters with the police.’”

Fort Lauderdale

Those words would later prove to be prophetic in 1988, when Higgins and a talent scout found themselves cruising for ‘models’ in South Florida.

“Well, I had a scout, and I’ve said to all the scouts, ‘Whatever you do, don’t mess around with anybody underage,’” Higgins told AVN.

So together in Fort Lauderdale they drove along the street, “and I saw a kid who was obviously underage, and I said ‘Don’t look at him.’ And [the scout] said, ‘I’m not looking at him.’ And I said ‘I know you’re looking at him.’”

Afterwards, Higgins left on a business trip.

“And guess what?” Higgins told AVN, “He had shot pictures of the guy I told him not to pick up, not to shoot.”

Shortly thereafter Higgins woke up to 15 police cars raiding the house with shotguns, nightsticks, and ‘everything else.’

The cop explained to him, “Well [the scout] took these pictures and he sent them to a lab, and the lab had to call us by law.” And he showed Higgins the pictures and he said, “Do you have anything to say about that?” And Higgins said, “Yes, take the cuffs off of me and I will murder him right in front of you. Can you can arrest me for that?’”

In the midst of the investigation, Higgins went on a ‘world tour.’ First he went to Australia and made a movie, but he didn’t like it. Then he went on to Thailand, and was happy with the product, but didn’t see any future opportunities there.

Ultimately, Higgins ended up in Amsterdam where his European distributor was located.

Higgins eventually settled in Prague, Czech Republic,

^ " first he went to THAILAND" Guilty as charged Uncle Billy

Lukas Ridgeston did his first vid for a german company he was sixteen not eighteen

test

Everyone thank you for you contributions. This reminds me of these videos taken by an amateur British guy following the fall of the Soviet Union. If you had a little cash on hand eastern Europe was a gold mine filled with hot, poor, and willing hunks. It's all very exploitative, but that's porn for ya. William Higgins probably made similar films for his own collection.

Watch out, my xvideo link tries to force a download. So sorry, I don;t know why it's doing that.

Da. Ve remember Willy

R96 you're a creep, you know.

Lucas Ridgeston/Juraj Vrzgula age sixteen. Still had his baby fat.

I remember Higgins had some models who he took under his wing and trained to be directors. Rosta Patric and Boris-something. Both very hot.

He always kept Christmas well.

He kept those stockings stuffed.

R77: I just searched for a GIF of a naked helicopter is all. I feel visual elements are an excellent way of describing religious rituals of the Roaming Cock-lick Church.

I think I will finally bite the bullet and purchase a subscription to William Higgan's site. I have some vacation time on my hands to scour his massive archive.

Do! Tell us what you find r105. Besides the films one can buy, that is.

[quote]Gay porn director William Higgins is DEAD TO ME! —do it right or don't do it at all OP

Fuck off, you fucking POS teenage girl.

I do not pay money to be on this site to play your little fucking juvenile meme games.

Someone forgot to take his medication....

R107

R107 hasn’t been laid in a long time

Hey Qween!

"The mountain dew commercial fell through ...." lol!

But she won't reveal why he ran off to Europe.

^Thanks for posting . Nothing to see here keep moving.

R105 Waste of money, William higgins scenes is sooo robotic/boring... it's a pity because some of the guys is really gorgeous.

I wonder if he left his company/movies to anyone? Hopefully not his family (if he has any surviving), because they could just trash everything he made.

Might be a good idea to get his stuff while you in can if you're a fan of his work in case the site goes does down for good.

Of course, his entire library might end up on one the torrent sites.

a moment from Sailor in the Wild

R114 In his two-part interview with AVN last year, he mentions a "business partner," so there's probably some kind of contingency plan for the company. Plus, he also said that he himself hadn't been doing many of the film shoots due to his health (knee replacement surgery).

Part 1

Part 2.

What was the name of that porn director that went on to become a legit film director and is he still working?

If only caverject had existed in Rick's prime!

I know porn is a job, but after see his interview saying that he prefers str8 performers over gay/bi performers, he died rather later tbh...

[quote] because some of the guys is really gorgeous.

Oh, dear!

I loved his vintage stuff, very hot. But the work he did in Prague with the Euro twinks left me cold, I’m not a huge foreskin fan. I met Higgins once, at his bar in Prague. Seemed like a nice guy, very avuncular. He had health problems like diabetes and heart issues, he wasn’t a healthy man.

Very "bio" on WH web site reads: " Vlad..Niko..et al. is a STRAIGHT student who lives in Prague"

Yet Higgins was quoted as saying that BI-SEXUALITY is the norm in Czechoslovakia. What ever it takes to sell vids.

Oh Pavel

[quote] What was the name of that porn director that went on to become a legit film director and is he still working?

Wash Westmoreland made a number of porn films under the name Wash West including Naked Highway, and Dr. Jerkoff and Mr. Hard.

He then went on to make much more respectable independent films like Still Alice and Colette. His most recent film was The Earthquake Bird.

I liked how he got the models to shave their rears I find most hairy asses ugly He made many great videos but the last two he got credit for are classic that seemed to be directed by the great Matt Sterling. One scene featured Kevin Williams as a toy for 10 men but strangely he only got fucked twice and sucked no dick. I read Kevin did not e enjoy making the scene and much of the footage was locked in a vault somewhere.

One of his early films he had a contest for winning a motorcycle. Leo Ford won had a wreck and died.

[quote] I liked how he got the models to shave their rears

He obviously hadn't been doing that for a long, long time.

Do we know what killed the ole whoremonger?

Heart attack.

By any chance did he reveal whatever happened to Aaron Gage on his deathbed?

^^ He died of the AIDs like 90% of the porn guys of that era.

He gave us Kip Noll who I consider the greatest gay porn star of all time. He disappeared in a state like Ohio and believe he died also.

Kip Noll my first porn crush! We were the same age. So he must be dead, FYI he made 8mm fiilms(google it) before the Higgins vids. Yes 8mm you went into the booth in the "dirty book store" put a quarter in and got 1 minute of Kip Noll. Cost me damn near$2.00 to get off. I was quick on the draw in those days.

I would love to read an interview with Lucas Ridgeston if he'd give the real tea on his whole life. I can only imagine the shit that he got into.

I listened to a podcast where an old school graphic designer of the gay persuasion was interviewed. He recalled meeting Lukas Ridgeston as part of George Duroy's entourage. He said Ridgeston was aloof until it was mentioned that the graphic designer had trained as an architect. I think he said that Ridgeston was an architecture student (who obviously did porn to pay the bills).

Sad anecdote about the "Class Reunion" movie's motorcycle. The winner was Leo Ford, famous for videos like "Leo and Lance." He ended up killed a few years later on Santa Monica Blvd while riding that same motorcycle.

Some claimed Kip Noll was "Thomas Earl Hagen" from Greenwich, Connecticut and that he died in Utah in 2001 at age 43. Not sure how that was determined.

I found Thomas Hagen's yearbook photo and it wasn't Kip Noll. Also Thomas Earl Hagen married a woman in Utah in 1983, which doesn't really fit the timeline to be Knoll. He was still doing porn and making appearances at that time.

I guess it possible his name was Thomas Hagen but not the one that died in 2001. We'll probably never know for sure. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the person who was Kip Noll was dead. He was supposedly G4P and had a big drug habit back then.

We know, r137.

R127 (ten posts!) already told us.

137 was better written

[quote]R127 who ain’t no Shakespeare

Neither was Shakespeare

Porn stars prior to about 1985 (which is about when working out among gay porn stars became so big, as a response to the AIDS crisis) look so strange to me. They look like the difference between Donatello's David and Michelangelo's David--pouty manchildren vs. muscled hunks.

R142 - good description.

In addition to Kip Noll the other vanished into thin air 80's porn god of my youth. Higgins said he married a wealthy woman but died of the AIDS in the 90's.

[quote]think he said that Ridgeston was an architecture student (who obviously did porn to pay the bills).

Eez kvite commoon in Eastern Yurrup--no?

[quote]think he said that Ridgeston was an architecture student (who obviously did porn to pay the bills).

Eez kvite commoon in Eastern Yurrup--no?

Will they be dimming the lights on Santa Monica Boulevard in his memory?

The William Higgins website must be in name only. None of the many videos I have seen at WH remind me of his early work..

The type of glossy porn Higgins and others produced in the 80's died with the internet. The stuff on his website is actually considered premium product by todays standards. Mostly these days it's all cell phone photography or Chaturbate.

Well done, r147!

Brilliant!

I think those of us who grew up during his most classic period (1979 - 1988) owe a great deal of gratitude to him for what he provided to us as young gaylings.

How many of his movies helped us to see ourselves outside of what limited observations we had growing up in a small town? I was too young to view porn during this time, but thanks to porn store clerks who didn't care, I was able to enter adult book stores and these movies opened up my mind to my "lifestyle" and what it meant. Not just sex, but the personal interaction/storyline of how young, gay men associated with each other.

How many of the guys helped us "realize we were gay"? What sexual techniques did we learn/acquire that we saw for the first time in his movies?

Yes, of course, "learning about life, love, and s-e-x" via hardcore porn may not be the BEST way to grow up, but, to a small town boy, it worked.

A criminal pornographer died? Hmm. Why don’t I give a shit?

Maybe because you’re too wrapped up in inspecting your ivory tower for dust ya cunt?

R114 The studio-website won't be going anywhere. His business associates at WilliamHiggins.com released this message in the website's newsletter:

William "Bill" Higgins

(19. 12. 1942 - 21. 12. 2019)

In response to the many requests for information from his friends around the world, it is with great sadness we can confirm that William ‘Bill’ Higgins passed away on Saturday 21st December in Prague from a heart attack while being transported to hospital from his home by ambulance at approximately 05.00 am.

Although Bill had previously had heart problems in the last decade and was fitted with a pacemaker, he was currently in very good health. A knee replacement in March 2016 slowed him down a bit but that was his only recent major health issue.

Bill had only just celebrated his 77th birthday 2 days earlier on Thursday 19th December. Born in 1942, Bill was working normally up to the day before his passing, recording his last Newsletter vlog on the Friday afternoon in which, he was relaxed, cheerful, forward-looking and his amusing self as the Xmas season approached.

This fatal attack came as a complete surprise to all his friends and colleagues and we remain devastated by the totally unexpected personal loss of our good friend and boss.

In compliance with Bill’s expressed wishes, he did not want to have any sort of memorial service or headstone. Bill was cremated privately in Prague on Monday 30th December.

To allow time for friends to attend we have decided to scatter Bill’s ashes at the end of May in the same location that his 2 beloved dogs, Buddy and Aida, are buried. The precise date will be confirmed to his friends in due course.

It is appropriate and Bill would certainly have wished that we address one issue specifically to our regular and loyal site members. All the staff at the studio have worked for Bill for a very long time now and we know how he felt about maintaining the quantity and quality of output that appears on his websites. It is very important to us all to honour Bill’s memory and legacy and this we intend to do in the difficult months ahead. We intend to fully maintain the high standard Bill set for us.

Finally, we thank all those who have contacted us with their supportive messages since the tragic news became public.

Since OP's link comes up as a grey box for me, I clicked thinking I'd see a NYT Obit

Even until recently he still managed to get very attractive models for his films.

Nikol Minok & Martin Gajda

Did Susan Dey send her condolences?

Martin Hovor & Peter Lipnik

r147 Do I detect sarcasm??!😁😉

I just watched a WH scene and... Looks sad tbh, it's so visible that the performers do not want be there...the lack of chemistry, the mechanical sex... How people like to watch this?

You watched one sub-par scene and assume all others are like that?

Some of them have a lot of chemistry. Some of the guys are really hot.

But I guess you saw one scene so you know everything.

I don't think I've seen a Higgins website scene (I've never seen his 80s/90s stuff) that had chemistry. Models like Bradley Cook (sp?) look good enough to eat but they're a flop in motion. Nikol Monak is so cold and mechanical. People criticise Bel Ami but at least their models are cheerful - and you can compare directly with Higgins, as some models have appeared on both sites.

R160 I watched a scene of Tomas salek (because he's hot af) very boring, I tried to watch other with him and it's was awful no chemistry at all, and then I tried to watch a random scene of WH and it was the same experience, pretty mechanical and dull. For obvious reason his str8 scenes is a bit better... it seems most of the scenes in WH is like that and I will not waste my time watching bad porn... if you have a suggestion (last chance) it would welcome.

I think his recent work is best with the "erotic solos" and "hot ass videos," but not everyone goes for that. The actual sex with other guys is usually a bore.

It's bizarre how he has a series called "Wank Party," which is centred on sucking and fucking, like any other porn scene. Perhaps his Czech subordinates named it.

Duroy was the one who said bisexuality was the norm in Eastern Europe. Pure bullshit, but people believed it.

Higgins seems to have discovered a boatload of guys early in his time in Prague who went on to have long careers in Europorn. He clearly had an eye and a way to engage them. OTOH, his stuff like most of the Eastern European porn often lacks a certain energy, probably because so many of the guys are nominally straight. Duroy's videos are much more stylish, but really no more interesting.

The story about him in California with the house of boys is interesting but not surprising. he wouldn't have been the first porn director with lousy boundaries.

Duroy also said that gay people basically didn't exist there. Such bullshit.

The newer generation of Bel Ami performers are much more enthusiastic than generations gone by. Sure, there's still some mechanical performers, but much less so than in 90s/00s porn.

Eye opening these homophobic remarks, I'm glad I never liked Eastern European porn.

R165 he broke the 4th wall. You are the one wanking.

The original Wank videos were mostly just guys sitting around and wanking.

Eventually they added some sucking.

Then came the fucking.

So they just became pseudo-orgy videos. I say 'pseudo' because most of them are just groups of couples, not a lot of partner switching. Some though are pretty hot.

So how long do you think his site will continue on, under his name?

He hadn't been running the site for years. Like George Duroy, he was essentially a consultant.

R172 His name is established as a "brand," so as long as his business partners see a profit by using it, I imagine they'll keep it. And if they want to continue to be in the porn business, then they'd be pretty dumb to just arbitrarily give that name up before rolling out and firmly establishing another name to replace it. They already have something like five other brands that they market porn under at the WH site (STR8HELL, AmbushMassage, etc.), and the material that they have in the "William Higgins Archive" section (dated 1999-2010) will probably always be marketed with his name.

What about Dirk Yates, didn't he follow Wm Higgins to Urop?

R175 Dirk Yates now directs for Active Duty, the porn studio with a military theme founded by Dink Flamingo. I'm pretty sure material is produced in the U.S. (Active Duty is now owned by Gamma Entertainment, who also own Next Door Studios.)

Did Higgins ever work with Tex Anthony, probably makes favorite gay porn star of all time, he died of AIDS in 1992

R177 Yes. Tex Anthony appeared in William Higgins' "The Young & the Hung" (1985).

Tex also got the cover of Higgins' film "Spring Semester."

R179 damn he was beautiful, like the boy next door. His scene in The Young and the Hung with the two other guys and the watermelon will always be a classic

Imagine being a porn star in the late 70s/early 80s and contracting a deadly disease that know one knew about at first and when they found out what it was, it was too late?

Imagine all those beautiful boys like Tex, who came to LA to make it as an actor, and who died of AIDS at such a young age

I wonder what he was thinking or where he was living towards the end of his life?