RIP: Jamie Gillis

It seems like there's been far too much news of this kind over the recently, but yet another porn legend passed in the last few days.

Jamie Gillis was one of the great male talents of porn from its earliest days of 8mm loops in the early 70s through the "Golden Age", and continued working up through the 1990s. Like Ron Jeremy, Paul Thomas, and Harry Reems, his was a classic story from the porn's early days of an Off-Broadway actor who drifted into porn and made a career of it. He was also a innovator behind the camera, and can claim credit (or blame) for launching the "gonzo" and "pro-am" genres with On the Prowl (parodied ruthlessly in Boogie Nights) and, along with Ed Powers, the earliest Dirty Debutantes videos.

Susie Bright did a wonderful interview with him a couple years back and reposts parts of it in the Gillis memorial she posted today. The man was a engaging raconteur and the interview is well worth a listen. Also worth checking out are the memorials by Gram Ponante, the cinema blogger The Blood Splattered Scribe, SerpentLibertine, and a retrospective from a couple years back on another blog, Penetrating Insights.

Another one gone before his time.

Addendum: Not everybody has such a rosy assessment of Jamie Gillis, as Ernest Green points out in the comments following. Gillis' all-around sexual omnivory/perversity reputedly did cross the line into limit-pushing and outright cruelty toward some of the women he worked with, especially newcomers. I can confirm that I've seen scenes in the early Dirty Debutantes videos with him that seemed very rough, and doubly inappropriate given that many of the DD performers were "fresh off the bus" and not experienced in asserting themselves on a porn set. I largely wrote this off as an outlier, but unfortunately, this did not seem to be the case. This is in great contrast to his assessment from those with overwhelmingly positive memories of Gillis, and with the well-mannered and magnanaimous impression he gives in his Susie Bright interview. As with more than a few people, he is somebody who leaves behind a conflicting legacy.

RIP: David Aaron Clark

Via BlueBlood comes the news that innovative porn director, erotica writer, and all-around creative personality David Aaron Clark passed yesterday at age 49. Amelia G memorializes him here.

Marilyn Chambers, 1952–2009

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Passing of a Pornographic Priestess

Bettie Page (1923–2008)

Bettie Page Memorial site
LA Times obit
Susie Bright comments

And going back to one of the original questions of this blog – "Why pro-porn?"

Because sometimes, just sometimes, it creates icons like this, that's why.