RAME, “the official website of rec.arts.movies.erotica”, keeps track of porn stars who have died. Here are many of the performers from their list…
Accidental
Teri Diver, Overdose, 1/2/2001
“She had apparently taken too much of her headache medicine,” Ren Savant [her husband] told AVN
Joey Stefano, Drug Overdose, HIV Positive, 11/21/1994
Leilani, “accident related to psychological turmoil”, 2/4/1993
Marc Radcliffe, “Accidental drowning in his bathtub”, Unknown Date
“He may have drowned because he was on drugs at the time and passed out in the water”
AIDS
Kristian Brooks, 9/2006
Brandy Dalton, 8/4/2006
Johnny Rey, 1/18/2006 (additional factor: testicular cancer)
Karen Dior, 8/25/2004
Mason Flynt, 1/4/2002
Brett Ford, 12/25/2001
Ron Pearson, 12/10/2001
Chuck Holmes, 9/9/2000
Lisa Melendez, 9/1999
Sparky O’Toole, 8/1999 (“shared the wrong needle”)
Scott O’Hara, 2/18/1998
Kurt Houston, 8/23/1997 (liver failure, hepatitis-related)
Bob Shane, 7/1/1997
Chet Thomas, 3/23/1997
Richard Locke, 9/25/1996
Steve Kennedy, 1995-1997 (exact date not known)
Eric Stone, 12/24/1996
Brad Braverman, 1/10/1996
Ben Barker, 9/28/1995
Lon Flexx, 9/15/1995
Pierce Daniels, 7/8/1995
Jon King, 3/8/1995
Chris Burns, 2/26/1995
Jason Steele, 2/25/1995
Kip Tyler, 1995
Melchor Diaz, 1995
Joe Simmons, 10/2/1995
Glenn Steers, 9/17/1994
Ed Dinakos, 7/6/1994
Jeff Lawrence, 7/31/1994
Brad Peters, 5/31/1994
Jeremy Scott, 5/28/1994
Morelle DeKeigh, 1994
Craig Markle, 1994
Scott Taylor, 12/22/1994
Zeff Ryan, 1/1994
Clint Lockner, 6/17/1993
Luc Colton, 5/18/1993
Lei Lani, 1993
Lisa de Leeuw, 11/11/1993
Paul Pellettier, 10/1993
Tyler Regan, 10/1993 (“Valley fever”)
Scott Bond, 10/29/1993
Keith Ardent, 9/9/1992
Jake Corbin, 9/27/1992
Al Parker, 8/17/1992
Glenn Dime, 8/12/1992
Roy Garret, 4/3/1992
Tim Kramer, 4/15/1992
Lucky Luc, 3/2/1992
Chris Williams, 9/11/1991
Darryl Weld, 7/24/1991
Lee Ryder, 7/10/1991
Lance, 5/26/1991
Christopher Rage, 4/24/1991
Frank Vickers, 2/24/1991
Bill Harrison, 10/18/1991
Nick Elliot, 9/2/1990 (“renowned cinematographer”)
Steve Craig, 9/13/1990
Tony Bravo, 7/25/1990
Bill Henson, 1990
Chris Ladd, 11/14/1990
Johnny Dawes, 7/25/1989
Luke, 6/20/1989
Marc Stevens, 1989
Ryder Hansen, 10/18/1989
John Holmes, 3/13/1988 (“Cardiac arrest, encephalitis and AIDS”)
Eric Stryker, 2/19/1988
Jim Moore, 11/28/1988
Kyle Hazzard, 1/16/1988
Casey Donovan, 8/10/1987
Beau Matthews, 7/20/1986
J.W. King, 12/5/1986
Mike Davis, 1/19/1986
Joey Yale, 1984-1985
Wade Nichols, 1/28/1985
Jeremy Brent, 1980s
Marco Vassi, Unknown Date
Chuck Vincent, mid-1980s (“Popular film director”)
Gordon Grant, Early 1990s
David Rockmore, Early 1990s
Rydar Hanson, Unknown Date
Jim Ed Thompson, Unknown Date
Steve Taylor, Unknown Date
Steve Loignon, Unknown Date
Val Martin, Unknown Date
Ken Diamond, Unknown Date
Dave Connors, Unknown Date
Jesse Koehler, Unknown Date
Arthur Bressan, Jr., Unknown Date
Jaap Penrat, Unknown Date
Lee Richards, Unknown Date
Nick Rogers, Unknown Date
Thom Katt, Unknown Date
Murder
Vanessa Freeman, 1/9/2007 (“A HIGH class hooker…found strangled in her bed”)
Bryan Kocis, 1/24/2007 (“stabbed multiple times”)
Taylor Summers, 3/2004 (“stabbed multiple times”)
Nozomi Momoi, 10/12/2002 (“bizarre murder/suicide pact”)
Steve Cadro, 3/21/2000 (“Bludgeoned and stabbed to death”)
Mark Nixon, 3/3/1998
Derek Powers, 5/19/1996
Brandon Wilde, 3/5/1996
Riny Red, 4/12/1996, (“gunned down”)
Christopher Lance, 4/24/1994
Artie Mitchell, 2/27/1991
Billy London, 10/29/1990 (“Found dismembered in a trash bin”)
Charli Waters, 1989 (“Murdered by a john”)
Toymaster, Unknown Date
J. Brian, Unknown Date (“filmmaker from the ’70’s”)
OD’d
Kirby Scott, 11/2/2006
Eva Lux, 9/20/2005 (“heroin overdose”)
Juliette Jett, 11/5/2005
Judy, 8/20/2004
Rebecca Steele, 1/18/2004 (“suffering from AIDS”)
Mike Henson, 9/21/2002 (“Was HIV+”)
Leo Masters, 6/22/2001
Christian Murphy, 1/23/2001 (“Crystal Meth”)
Jamoo, 8/31/2000
Chance Ryder, 11/1999 (“Accidental overdose of anti-psychotic prescription drugs”)
David Morris, 1999
J.D. Ram, 9/30/1998
Trinity Loren, 10/28/1998
Daniel Holt, 11/20/1993
Chanel Price, 12/20/1992
Arcadia Lake, 1990 (“Accidental overdose”)
Fred Halsted, 1988
Linda Wong, 12/7/1987
Jill Munro, 1982
Suicide
Jon Dough, 8/27/2006 (“He was 43”)
Camilla deCastro, 7/26/2005 (“leapt from her 8th-story apartment”)
Tim Barnett, 7/13/2005 (“hanging himself in his jail cell”)
Rex Cabo/Lance Heywood, 4/29/2005 (“Jumped off a building”)
Karen Lancaume, 1/28/2005
Johnny Rahm, 11/7/2004
Jay Anthony, 4/2003
Naughtia Childs, 1/7/2002 (“Fell off her balcony”)
Mark, 9/1/2000
Jon Vincent, 5/3/2000
Brad Chase, 4/19/2000
Kyle McKenna, 3/14/2000
Wendy O. Williams, 4/7/1998
Steve Fox, 10/23/1997
Andy Mantegna, 11/1996
Christian Fox, 10/1996
Alex Jordan, 7/2/1995
Joel Curry, 10/2/1995
Cal Jammer, 1/25/1995
Savannah, 7/11/1994
Rod Phillips, 6/7/1993
Celia Young, 1992
Alan Lambert, 12/1992
Nancee Kellee, 11/1991
Megan Leigh, 6/16/1990
Kristine Heller, 1989?
Kyle Carrington, 1989
Shauna Grant, 3/23/1984
Mary Millington, 8/19/1979
Melba Bruce, 1977
Claudia Fielers, Unknown Date
Lynn Tars, Unknown Date
Susanna Britton, Unknown Date
Danie, Unknown Date
“Last Updated: 14-Jul-07”
See also:
Dead Porn Stars (PDF, largely overlaps with RAME list, provides headshots)
Alex Jordan – Born 9/20/67; Died 7/2/95 of self-inflicted asphyxiation by hanging at age 27…
Arcadia – Died in 1990 of drug overdose…
Cal Jammer – Died 01/25/95 of self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 34.
Celia Young – In 1992 Celia Young committed suicide using an undisclosed method…
Chanel Price – On December 20, 1992 Porn Star Chanel Price died of a drug overdose.
Charli Waters – Died 1989. Hacked to death by a homicidal john…
Eva Lux – Died on September 20, 2005 from Heroin Overdose…
J.D. Ram – On September 30, 1998 J.D. Ram passed away from a Heroin over dose…
Jill Munroe – In August of 1982 Jill Munroe died of a Heroin overdose…
John Holmes – Born 08/08/44; Died 03/88 of complications resulting from AIDS…
Karen Dior – Died AIDS complications (cirrhosis of the liver) 08/25/2004.
Karen Lancaume – Died of a drug overdose 1/28/2005…
Kristine Heller – Died from a suicide unknown method 1989…
Lei Lani – Born 7/1/64; Died 2/4/93 of accident related to psychological turmoil at age 28…
Linda Wong – Died December 17, 1987 of an accidental drug overdose.
Lisa De Leeuw – Born 2/12/58; Died 11/11/93 of AIDS complications at age 35.
Lisa Melendez – Died of AIDS Sept. 1999
Lolo Ferrari – Died 03/05/00 from a drug overdose at age 30.
Marc Stevens – In 1989 Marck Stevens became one of the growing ranks of adult stars that have succumbed to AIDS.
Morelle DeKeigh – Died from HIV that turned into full blown AIDS in 1994…
Nancee Kellee – Born 1/3/58; Died 7/15/91 of self-inflicted asphyxiation by hanging at age 33.
Naughtia Childs – Died January 2002: Suicide. She had taken a lot of acid and threw herself off a balcony and died.
Nozomi Momoi – On October 12, 2002 Nozomi Momoi was stabbed to death in what officials have called a bizarre murder suicide pact.
Rebecca Steele – Died of OD of Carisoprodo
l; suffering from AIDS 1/18/2004…
Rex Cabo – On April 29, 2005 Rex Cabo committed suicide by jumping from his 11th floor apartment balcony…
Savannah – Born 10/9/70; Died 7/11/94 of self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 23…
Shauna Grant – Born 5/24/63; Died 3/21/84 of self[-]inflicted gunshot wound at age 20…
Susanna Britton – Died from a suicide in the 80’s.
Tamara Lee – Died from HIV that turned into full blown AIDS 2/3/05…
Taylor Sumers – Murdered by photographer 02/29/04…
Trinity Loren – Died 10/24/98 of drug overdose.
Wade Nichols – In late January of 1985 Wade Nichols became one of the growing ranks of adult stars to succumb to the AIDS virus.
Wendy O. Williams – Died 04/06/98 of self-inflicted gunshot wound…
Jon Dough – On August 27, 2006 committed suicide…
Condom Use Below 20% in American Porn Movies
“In any sexual interaction where condoms are used, consumers tend to drift from that,” said Graham Travis, head of production at Elegant Angel Video, a production company that turns out as many as eight new releases a month. “What the consumers want to see is performers without condoms, something that’s as real and intimate as possible…”
Sharon Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who earned a Ph.D. in human sexuality before co-founding the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, said on Monday that condom use in the industry had gone up after the H.I.V. outbreak to 23 percent from 17 percent and that it was now back to about 17.5 percent.
Los Angeles Times: “In California’s Unregulated Porn Film Industry, an Alarming Number of Performers Are Infected With HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. And Nobody Seems to Care.”
The Adult Industry Medical HealthCare Foundation (AIM), an industry- backed clinic in Sherman Oaks, administered voluntary tests to a group consisting primarily of adult film workers. Of 483 people tested between October 2001 and March 2002, about 40% had at least one disease. Nearly 17% tested positive for chlamydia, 13% for gonorrhea and 10% for hepatitis B and C, according to Sharon Mitchell, a former adult actress who founded AIM…
For chlamydia, 101,871 cases were reported for the year [in California as a whole], or about three-tenths of 1%–a rate health officials consider epidemic. The chlamydia rates in the porn world are about 57 times higher than those epidemic proportions…
Types of Porn and Their Occupational Safety Risks (explicit)
The list of STDS on the AIM handout includes: “HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphillis, Hepatitis, A,B,C, Herpes, Genital Warts, Molluscum Contagiosum, Crabs, Trichomonis, Bacterial Vaginosis, Rectal Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, Gonorrhea of the throat.”
The handout calls special attention to these “RISKY SEX ACTS”:
Double penetration–one in vagina, one in ass…
The handout continues with some special cases, which are at “slightly different risk” than the “risky sex acts”:
CREAM PIE–Internal ejaculation either in vagina or ass. HIGH RISK FOR HIV****…
Felching–Ass to mouth…
Snowballing–passing sperm and spit from one person’s mouth over and over
BUKKAKE–multiple males ejaculating on a female’s face–AT RISK FOR CHLAMYDIA OR GONORRHEA OF THE EYE, HERPES OF THE EYE OR NOSE, OR HIV AS THE EYE IS A DIRECT CONDUCT INTO THE BLOODSTREAM…
Porn Worker Conditions: “Who failed Lara Roxx?” (explicit language)
Lara Roxx (aka Laura Roxx, Lana Roxx and Lara Coxx), who began her career in porn three months ago, has HIV…
She got it from fellow performer Darren James. The porn industry has its own scheme of HIV testing and reporting, but it is far from perfect. HIV tests lag behind the bug itself by as many as 60 days. A porn performer can have a lot of high-risk sex in 60 days–with people who also have a whole lot of sex…
There is nobody (with legal authority, at least) even to say to the industry, “You idiots. Start using condoms at the very least…”
Workplace Regulations for Porn Performers: A Dialogue with Renegade Evolution
Even Carol Queen, sex-positive heroine, thinks it’s time for hetero porn to put on a condom:
As good a job as porn has tried to do in preventing its No. 1 occupational hazard, it falls short for a reason that should be instructive to everyone. Its antipathy to condoms puts performers at risk, pure and simple.
Ex-Porn Star Shelley Lubben Talks about Days on the Set: Tedious, Intoxicated, Painful, Risky
Extremely risky acts are safer when condoms are correctly used. To porn fans for whom the sight of a condom is pleasure-squelching, I say: Get used to it. The (heterosexual) adult industry has for 20 years shirked an opportunity to help normalize condom use. This doesn’t just put its own talent at risk. It puts viewers and their partners at risk as well.
In the world of hardcore sex, an average day on the set for a porn actress is a long and tedious process. Women are told to come in around 8 am for makeup but it’s only to make sure porn actresses arrive on time to work. Porn stars have a habit of arriving late because they’re often hung over from drugs or alcohol from the night before…
While waiting around, jaded porn performers usually end up in the rest rooms with bottles of alcohol and lines of speed or outside in their cars for a heroin fix or gathered in the back yard with other actors to smoke marijuana…
Porn is harder than prostitution, where you are treated nice if you are in the luxurious side of it. Porn was totally degrading and shattering. None of the men in prostitution treated me sexually like the men in porn did…
At the time I caught herpes, I had no help and no one to help me deal with the disease. But since AIM came on the scene, the organization has lowered some of the spread of HIV in the adult industry, and has certainly increased awareness among performers. But the truth remains, porn actors continue to risk their lives and the lives of others. Nothing is more devastating than to receive a positive test for a sexually transmitted disease. For me, it was the final blow.
I tried to kill myself. I swallowed several bottles of prescription pills and sliced my wrists but it seemed no matter what I did, I couldn’t die. So I turned off the pain and became a lifeless zombie. Then there were times the pain and trauma would surface and I’d throw fits of rage, yelling and breaking things. I was mad at God, hated myself and hated my parents. Only alcohol and drugs could soothe my pain. I cried out to Jesus to help me and tried to give up my lifestyle but within a week I’d be back in the vicious cycle again. I lost all hope and hated my life.
Interview with Ex-Porn Star Traci Lords: Abused as a Child; High on the Set; Power, Not Arousal; Bad Pay
There’s nothing loving about it, no. Absolutely not. For me, porn was about my pain in my life as a child. And I was completely acting out. I was a wild kid. I was angry at the world. And I was very rebellious, and I wanted to show everybody…
…[I]t was never intentional. I never set out to be a porn star… I was stoned. I was on a set. I was supposed to be a girl in a bikini walking around the pool. And you know, I got high enough, a guy hit on me, and it was a filmed thing. And that was the beginning of my career in that world…
Carol Smith, former porn performer, quoted in Not For Sale
Cited in Biting Beaver; see our reviews of essays in this book
“What I saw were women just like myself who were desperate, addicted to drugs, homeless, and I’m sure probably at least 80 percent of them suffered from sexual abuse as children. I saw them re-living their childhood experiences by getting into that industry. They were looking for attention, pleasing men, and being abused. And that’s all they know. They think it’s great. They think it’s wonderful. I could’ve looked you in the eye ten years ago and told you that I loved being in pornography, was proud of what I was doing and that I was having a great time. But now I can tell you that it’s so far from the truth. I was very convincing. I could convince you. I mean, I could walk up to a porn star today and she could tell me the same story and I can remember being in that place.”
Jenna Jameson’s Cautions to Would-Be Porn Stars
Jameson says porn has more pitfalls “than nearly any other occupation.” Drugs is one…
Kara Nox, adult film star, on “What don’t you like about porn?”
A: …Mostly, it’s the attitude among many men that I’m subhuman. The degradation of women is getting worse. Conditions for women on set are becoming more and more dangerous. As porn grows, more men with Neanderthalean views of women are getting power as talent, and producers. The results are increased acceptance of violence onset. Women face enough danger outside of porn. It seems as though many of the men we fear are now doing porn, and they legitimize their misogyny by saying it’s for entertainment value. That scares the shit out of me, because it means there are even more troglodytes watching this, and geting off on women being hurt.
Pornoland’s unwritten law: “if we tell the truth about what’s really going on here, the fan will get turned off”
“Even the people who enjoy looking at pornography really despise the people they’re watching, and they have no sense of protection for them,” [former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop] said…
The Science Behind Pornography Addiction (explicit language)
[Performers in the sex industry] have high rates of substance abuse, typically alcohol and cocaine, depression, borderline personality disorder which is a particularly serious disorder and dissociative identity disorder which used to be called multiple personality disorder. The experience I find most common among the performers is that they have to be drunk, high or dissociated in order to go to work. Their work environment is particularly toxic. One study on strippers indicated that they were likely to be punched, slapped, grabbed, called cunt and whore and to be followed home or stalked. Not surprisingly, these women often work with bodyguards. This live form of pornography causes violence and the customers receiving these Permission-Giving Beliefs become carriers of these beliefs back to their homes, onto their jobs, into the street, onto the school yard. There they encounter women and children who do not have bodyguards.
The terrible work life of the pornography performer is often followed by an equally terrible home life. They have an increased risk of sexually transmitted disease including HIV, domestic violence and have about a 25% chance of making a marriage that lasts as long as 3 years.
Sexual Ecology: Porn, Promiscuity, and AIDS (explicit language)
Rotello observes that all infectious diseases are ecological. The human behavioral environment is as important a factor as the biological properties of the virus. Variations in technology and culture explain why the same virus will remain rare in one population but start an epidemic in another…
Today’s mainstream heterosexual porn similarly promotes rates of partner change (“50
Guy Cream Pie”) that are far beyond what any society has considered sustainable for sexual health. The one community that adopted this porn myth on a massive scale–gay men in developed countries–was hit with a devastating epidemic within a generation. Nonetheless, porn continues to hold out extreme promiscuity as the universal and natural state of male sexuality, so central to male identity that critical analysis of its historical and ecological contexts is taboo…
Porn films reverse the status equation that Rotello sees as necessary for ecological survival. Monogamy is mocked as stifling or impossible. Unprotected sex with alarming rates of partner change is the ideal. Now that women as well as men consider it acceptable, even cool, to enjoy porn, will the widespread acceptance of porn myths produce a heterosexual STD epidemic to rival AIDS? Rotello’s important book challenges us to treat ourselves, our partners and our sexual ecosystem with more respect if we want to survive.
D.A. Clarke: Women Adopting Men’s Bad Habits Is Not the Answer
To accept that the costs borne by strangers in far-off lands make our way of life unaffordable implies that we learn to respect those people and that we become ashamed of living at their expense; to accept that we are responsible for the damage that we do to our soil, water, and air means that we learn to clean up after ourselves; to accept that resources are precious and should not be wasted is to learn that the world is not a consumable, an expendable – and neither are its people. To accept that our way of life is costing too much means accepting less: giving up excess, resolving to live within our means. Shoving off the costs of your behaviour onto others, expecting someone else to clean up your mess, blowing away the household economy with irresponsible spending, treating other people as objects to be used and discarded: are these not some of the traits for which feminists have persistently criticised and confronted men, the habits of privilege and arrogance?
Grabbing all you can while you can get it is an expensive way to live. It may turn out to be an expensive way to die. A generation which took this lesson to heart would be less likely to use up, despise, abuse and discard women and children as sexual toys…