A Truly Heartbreaking Story About a Forgotten 70s Porn Star

Same story for many of us, I'll bet (minus the porn stardom)

I have to admire the guy. Despite every single fucking thing working against him, he kept persevering.

Hell, I'd have given up at about age 25 if I had been in his shoes.

Aww. He seemed like a nice guy.

He sounds like a decent guy who made the best if the bad cards he was dealt. And God bless the Rialto report for interviewing these performers. It keeps their stories and memories alive.

Damn, that is the life of Job, but he just kept getting back up again and again even though most of his life seemed to be a series of hard knocks.

The seventies were absolutely nuts. It’s nuts in 2025, but it was a different kind of nuts then.

I’m not sure I believe everything from the interview, but really all of it seemed mostly plausible considering the time period.

I took a few screenshots to capture some sections that are highly pertinent to DL.

Honestly, at one point I wondered if Lucy’s Mame might enter into the conversation.

Reference to the Earthquake house on stilts, which could be considered a Datalounge national landmark.

Jethro turned porn mogul.

Julie Andrews, porn aficionado.

I remember him now. He was kind of cute. Did he get a nose job? Sad end. I'll read the interview later with interest.

I was born more than a decade after him, to more stable and more prosperous circumstances. But even then there it wasn't that difficult to encounter stories who had grown up in rough circumstances, shopped around to suit the changing circumstances of parents who found their children burdens, put in foster care or adoption, families who made rather a business if taking in umpteen kids and a small monthly check for their care, children pushed hard into the military at the earliest opportunity, children disowned for dating the wrong people in their parents' eyes, kids pushed into sometimes very hard work at an early age -- made to contribute to their families while still of school age...

And I certainly remember in the late 70/early 80s lots of gay men and lesbians who had been cut off in large measure if not altogether from their families.

I think the 1980s was the start of a fundamental shift in attitudes and responsibilities of parents to their children. The idea that they were optional and cut be cut off entirely fell hard from favor among even a minority of parents. (It didn't become extinct, but the attitude and practice changed dramatically.)

This guy was from a rough time period, still grounded in a tough The Postman Always Rings Twice shadow of the Great Depression.

Amazing interview and life story. Id love to see it as a movie. I felt very emotional for the guy. I sincerely hopes he Rests in peace.

His childhood was tragic, yet he never played the victim. I know people who had it a lot better than him yet blame everyone around them for every shitty mistake and choice they make.

R12 Yes. I was struck by how he just kept going. I'd have probably been in a mental institution if I'd gone through what he went through.

It breaks my heart that he died alone, though.

I love this picture of him with Julie Andrews.

Here he is with "10" cast members, fourth person to the right of Dudley Moore.