Joey Stefano

Joey Stefano born 1 January 1968 (d.1994)

Joey Stefano was an American pornographic actor who appeared in gay adult films. He was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His real name was Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr.

Joey Stefano grew up in the Philadelphia area (Chester, Pennsylvania). His father died when he was 15. After several years of prostitution and drug use in New York City, Stefano moved to Los Angeles and enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom in gay pornography. A notable reason for his popularity, besides his smouldering good looks, was his early mastery of the 'hungry bottom' (sexually submissive but verbally demanding) persona. He was HIV positive.

His image and success caught the attention of Madonna, who used him as a model in her 1992 book Sex.

During his lifetime, he was the subject of rumours (some of them spread by himself) regarding his relationships with prominent entertainment industry figures who were known to be gay. At a May 1990 dinner and interview with Jess Cagle (Entertainment Weekly) and Rick X (Manhattan Cable TV's The Closet Case Show), Stefano discussed an alleged series of 'dates' with David Geffen, who at one point implored Stefano to quit using drugs. After the videotaped interview appeared on Rick X's show, OutWeek Magazine 'outed' Geffen, who went on to proudly announce his homosexuality at an AIDS fundraiser.

According to a subsequent biography, Stefano died of an overdose of cocaine, morphine, heroin and ketamine at age 26 in the shower of a motel on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. His body was taken back to Pennsylvania where he was buried next to his father.

Jack Wrangler

Jack Wrangler born 12 July 1946 (d. 2009)

Jack Wrangler was the professional name of John Robert Stillman.

Although he started as a child actor, Jack Wrangler was one of the first and biggest gay porn star of the 1970s, appearing in over 85 films. By the 1980s he had begun to appear in straight porn, apparently having his first experience with a woman on screen.

In 1976, Wrangler met 1940s singer Margaret Whiting, inviting her to one of his one-man 'performances' in New York. Drawn to the glamorous star, a relationship ensued. She was 55, he was 33. When Wrangler confided to Whiting that he was gay, her response was 'only around the edges, dear.' Wrangler and Whiting married in 1979 and remained so until his death.

On retiring from porn, Wrangler moved into writing and producing musical theatre and cabaret, and he and Whiting remained actively visible in the theatrical world and supporting AIDS charities. He was still however, best known for his iconic porn star years. Odd.

His autobiography The Jack Wrangler Story was published in 1984. In 2008, a feature-length documentary film about the life of Wrangler called Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon was produced and directed by Jeffrey Schwarz of Automat Pictures.

Jack Wrangler died on April 7, 2009, at the age of 62 from complications from emphysema.

Al Parker

Al Parker born 25 June 1952 (d. 1992)

Al Parker (born Andrew Okun) was a gay American pornographic actor (porn star), producer, and director.

Raised in the Greater Boston area, at 5' 7" tall, Parker was best-known for being well-groomed and having the lean moustached physique popularised in San Francisco's Castro neighbourhood as the ideal Castro clone. He was also possessed of the other key requirement for a successful porn star.

After he moved to California in the mid-70s, Parker met handsome veteran Richard Cole, a man a dozen years his senior. Cole introduced Parker to the guiltless sexual hedonism of the age.

After arriving in California, Parker was employed by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion West as a butler. Parker's career in gay film started when he was 'discovered' by the legendary Rip Colt, founder of Colt Studios. It was Colt who gave him the name 'Al Parker'.

Parker began his film making career when he was signed by Brentwood Studios. He made 12-15 minute loop films shot on 8 mm film reels.

Later in life Parker and Cole put a bed in the back of their van to use for their sexual pickups during their cross-country trips. In 1980 the pair formed Surge Studio to produce Al Parker films and videos.

Parker was a producer, director and actor. Surge Studios started making larger budget 'theme' features and not just the 'film loops'. Many of the films were shot out of Parker's home in Hermosa Beach, California. Surge Studios was one of the first studios to mandate safe sex practices when AIDS appeared.

Parker's partner, Cole, died of AIDS in 1986. Following Cole's death Parker continued in the adult film business and began a relationship with Canadian porn star Justin Cade.

Al Parker died from complications of AIDS in 1992. He was just 40 years old.

Parker is the subject of Roger Edmonson's biography Clone: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker Gay Superstar. Parker's remains were cremated and a memorial service was held at his private residence.

Performers in gay pornography hold a relatively esteemed position in gay culture, in contrast to their heterosexual counterparts. This is largely due to the fact that hard core pornography itself is such an integral and accepted part of gay male life, especially in comparison to the marginalized position straight pornography holds for its audiences.

Joe A Thomas - glbtq encyclopedia

In the 70s especially, the porn star was a potent symbol of gay sexuality and gay liberation. Al Parker was one its brightest stars.

Joe Dallesandro

Joe Dallesandro born 31 December 1948

Joseph Angelo (Joe) Dallesandro is an American actor and Warhol icon.

Joe Dallesandro was known for his voluptuous physical beauty, flesh-baring film appearances, and openness about his bisexuality. Although he never became a major mainstream star, Dallesandro is generally considered to be the most famous male sex symbol of American underground films of the 20th century. According to biographer Michael Ferguson, Dallesandro was 'the first openly eroticized male sex symbol of the movies to walk naked across the screen'. As well as beauty, his on-screen presence has an enigmatic quality. This derives from what often seems (especially in his appearance in several Warhol films) a bored or surly withholding, and almost comical physical inertia.

As a teenager, Dallesandro supported himself by nude modelling - including sessions for Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guld and Bruce of Los Angeles - and prostitution, and appeared in at least one gay porn film.

Dallesandro met Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in 1967 while they were in the midst of shooting The Loves of Ondine, and they cast him in the film on the spot.

Dallesandro was the obvious choice for the part of a teenage hustler in Flesh, where he had several nude scenes. To a large extent, it was because of him that Flesh became an internationally successful film. Dallesandro became the most popular of the Warhol stars. He quickly drew a devoted cult following that savoured his long sandy hair, distinctively muscular physique, large, thick penis (which is often directly alluded to in the Warhol films), and his utter unselfconsciousness in baring these attributes on camera.

Dallesandro also appeared in Lonesome Cowboys, Trash, Heat, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Andy Warhol's Dracula, also directed by Morrissey. These last two films were shot in Europe, and, after the films were completed, Dallesandro chose not to return to the US. He continued to star in films made mainly in France and Italy for the rest of the decade, returning to America in the 1980s. He made several movies without Warhol and Morrissey, and is known for his portrayal of 1920s gangster Lucky Luciano in Francis Coppola's The Cotton Club. He also appeared as a religious zealot in Cry Baby by John Waters.

Dallesandro has a famous tattoo on his upper right arm that reads 'Little Joe', and was portrayed as the money-minded 'Little Joe' in Lou Reed's hit 1972 song Walk on the Wild Side, which was about the characters Reed knew from Warhol's studio, The Factory. A Warhol photograph of the large crotch bulge of Dallesandro's tight blue jeans graces the famous cover of the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers.

The Smiths would later use a still photograph of Dallesandro from the film Flesh as the cover of their eponymous debut album.

John Waters has praised him as, 'A wonderful actor who forever changed male sexuality on the screen'. He is considered an underground film and gay culture icon, and still has a large cult following.

Dallesandro has been married three times and has two sons. He currently manages a hotel in the heart of Hollywood, where he lives with his cat Booky. He has said: 'I've lived such a full life. I've had such great things. There were some hardships, but overall everything has been great.'

Joe Dallesandro - official site

Casey Donovan

Casey Donovan born 2 November 1943 (d. 1987)

Casey Donovan, also known as John Calvin 'Cal' Culver was an American male porn star of the 1970s and 1980s, appearing primarily in gay adult films and videos. Casey's appeal came largely from his natural good looks, his boy-next-door persona, and especially for his great enthusiasm for sex, both on and off the set. In many ways, he was the epitome of the free love and hedonism of the 1970s and early 80s.

Casey Donovan was born John Calvin Culver in East Bloomfield, New York. After working for a time as a teacher at a private school on New York City's Central Park West, he began acting in summer stock theatre as Cal Culver. He also made money on the side as a male escort. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was appearing in plays like Captain Brassbound's Conversion with Ingrid Bergman, The Merchant of Venice with Rosemary Harris, and an off-Broadway gay-themed play, Circle in the Water. Cal was also modelling, appearing in numerous ads and magazines.

In 1971, Cal played a supporting role in a low budget sexploitation thriller film, Ginger. This in turn led to an offer to appear in Casey, a gay pornographic film in which Cal played the title role, a gay man who is visited by his fairy godmother Wanda (Cal playing a dual role in drag), and is granted a series of wishes which make him sexually irresistible to other men. Cal later took the character's name, Casey, and that of popular singer Donovan to create the pseudonym under which he would appear in all his other erotic roles.

Cal first appeared as Casey Donovan in Boys in the Sand, directed by Wakefield Poole, in 1972. The film was an instant success, with even big name mainstream celebrities going to the premiere. Today the film is considered one of the great classics of male erotic cinema. Despite the success and celebrity the film gained for him, Cal/Casey soon realised that the only real doors it opened for him professionally was as a star of still more gay erotic films although he also featured in a number of heterosexual porn films.

Outside his adult film career, Casey had a successful off-Broadway run in the play Tubstrip, written and directed by Jerry Douglas, and was involved in a close relationship with former film and television star and author Tom Tryon. Casey also tried, unsuccessfully, to run a bed and breakfast, Casa Donovan, in Key West.

By 1985, Casey's health had begun to deteriorate, as he had contracted HIV. He worked with many HIV/AIDS charities and counselled his fans to practice safe sex and get tested for HIV. He performed in a safe sex film for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, although he himself lived in denial that he had the syndrome, even as his health got worse.

Cal Culver, aka Casey Donovan, died from an AIDS-related pulmonary infection in Inverness, Florida on 10 August 1987.

A biography of Cal Culver's life, Boy in the Sand: Casey Donovan, All-American Sex Star, by Roger Edmonson, was published in 1998.