John Holmes (pornographic actor)
Encyclopedia
John Curtis Holmes better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd (after the lead character in a series of related films), was one of the most prolific male porn stars
of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s. He was best known for his exceptionally large penis
, which was heavily promoted as being the longest, thickest, and hardest in the porn
industry, although no definitive measurement of Holmes' actual penis length exists. Near the end of his life, Holmes attracted notoriety for his involvement in the Wonderland murders
in 1981, and eventually for his death from complications caused by AIDS
.
Holmes was the subject of several books, a lengthy essay in Rolling Stone
magazine, two feature length documentaries
, and was the inspiration for two Hollywood
movies, Boogie Nights
and Wonderland
.
located a few miles south of the state capital of Columbus, the youngest of four children to Carl Estes and Mary Barton. He knew very little of his father, an alcoholic railroad worker who abandoned his family when John was an infant
. John's mother was a devout Southern Baptist, who regularly attended the Milport Chapel Church along with her children.
In 1946, John's mother married Harold Edward Holmes, and changed her children's surname to Holmes. His stepfather was an alcoholic, who would come home inebriated, stumble about the house, and even vomit on the children. Mary Holmes divorce
d her husband two years later, and moved with her children to Columbus, Ohio
, where they moved into a low-income apartment project building and lived on welfare for several years. When Holmes was eight, his mother married Harold Bowman. Shortly after, Holmes and his family moved from Columbus and settled in the small town of Pataskala, Ohio
about 10 miles east of Columbus. Holmes recalled that Bowman was a good father until his younger half-brother, David, was born, at which point Bowman lost interest in his non-biological children and began neglecting them.
By the time Holmes reached adolescence
Bowman began beating him, but the teenaged Holmes, who was very tall and strong for his age, fought back and knocked Bowman down a flight of stairs. After this incident, Holmes ran away from home at age 16, and after several days of living on the streets, returned home and informed his mother that if he moved back in he would kill Bowman. With his mother's written permission, Holmes dropped out of his junior year of high school and enlisted in the Army
. After advanced training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, he spent three years in West Germany
in the Signal Corps. Upon his honorable discharge
, Holmes moved to Los Angeles
, where he worked in a variety of jobs, including selling goods door-to-door and tending the vats at a Coffee-Nips factory. It was during his stint as an ambulance
driver that he met a nurse named Sharon Gebenini in December 1964. They married in August 1965.
For the next two years, Holmes and Sharon lived uneventful lives. Holmes found work as a forklift driver at a meat packing warehouse in nearby Cudahy, California
. However, repeated exposures to inhaling the sub-freezing air in the large walk-in freezer after being outside inhaling the desert-hot air caused severe health problems, leading to a pneumothorax
(lung collapse) of his right lung on three separate occasions between seven to nine months during the two years he worked there.
which was called 'The Poker Palace' where one evening, a still photographer, standing next to him at a urinal, noticed his extraordinary penis size
and encouraged him to do pornography
. During the mid-late 1960s, Holmes initially did magazine work and an occasional 8 mm loop, keeping his work in porn a secret from his wife.
Determining the number of films he made during the early part of his career is difficult because the ad copy rarely named him. Those that did usually used entirely inconsistent names. For example, one early "Swedish Erotica" brochure from 1973 has five loops featuring Holmes, each with a different name. In the early years of his porn career, Holmes was nicknamed "The Sultan
of Smut", a pun on Babe Ruth
's nickname, The Sultan of Swat.
In 1971, Holmes' career began to take off with a porn series built around a private investigator
named Johnny Wadd most of which were written and directed by Bob Chinn
.
With the success of Deep Throat
(1972), Behind the Green Door
(1972), and The Devil in Miss Jones
(1973), porn became chic, although its legality was still hotly contested. Holmes was arrested during this time for pimp
ing and pandering, but he avoided prison
time by becoming an informant for the LAPD
. Using his status as an informer, Holmes systematically had his competition in the porn industry arrested, leaving him as one of the few free porn stars in Los Angeles.
By 1978, Holmes was reputed to be earning as much as $
3,000 a day as a porn actor. He starred at a time when personality could compensate for a lack of other aesthetic characteristics, and a certain amount of acting ability was still demanded of porn stars.
While his voice was somewhat higher in pitch than one would expect for a "hard-boiled private dick
", most film critics and fans agreed that Holmes did demonstrate enough acting ability to keep the character of "Johnny Wadd" from being merely a banal, one-dimensional parody of Raymond Chandler
's creation, the tough and uncompromising private detective Philip Marlowe
.
By the late 1970s, his use of cocaine
and freebasing was becoming a serious problem. Professionally, it affected his ability to maintain an erection
, as is apparent from his flaccid performance in the 1980 film Insatiable. To support himself and his drug habit Holmes ventured into crime, selling drugs for gang
s, prostituting
himself to both men and women, and committing credit card fraud
and petty theft. In 1976, he met a 16-year-old girl who became his girlfriend. After Holmes fell on hard times, he prostituted both her and himself, as well as beating her in public.
calculated the number of Holmes' sexual partners over the course of his lifetime to be a more modest 3,000 or 2.7 new women per week.
His performances included at least one homosexual feature film, The Private Pleasures of John C. Holmes, and a handful of gay
loops. All of the male stars of Private Pleasures, including Holmes, eventually succumbed to AIDS
.
. At the same time, Holmes was closely associated with the Wonderland Gang
, a group of heroin-addicted cocaine dealers, so called for the location of their hideout: a rowhouse located on Wonderland Avenue in the wooded Laurel Canyon
neighborhood of Los Angeles. Holmes worked for the gang, frequently selling drugs for them. After stealing money
during a couple of drug runs, Holmes found himself in trouble with the gang. In June 1981, allegedly in exchange for his life, he told gang leaders about a very large stash of drugs, money and jewelry Nash had in his house. Holmes helped to set up a robbery that was committed on the morning of June 29, 1981.
Although Holmes did not participate in the robbery, Nash apparently suspected that Holmes had a part in it. After getting Holmes to confess to his participation, Nash exacted revenge against the Wonderland Gang. In the early hours of July 1, 1981, four of the gang
's members were found murdered in their hideout. Holmes was allegedly present during the murders, but it is unclear if he participated in the killings.
Holmes was incarcerated in connection with the murders, but released due to lack of evidence. After spending nearly six months on the run with Dawn Schiller, he was arrested in Florida and returned to Los Angeles. Holmes refused to co-operate with the investigation. In March 1982, Holmes was charged with personally committing all four murders. On June 26, 1982, Holmes was acquitted of all charges except contempt of court
.
. Although Holmes continued to find work in porn, the profession was no longer profitable and he was no longer the premier male star as new and upcoming directors focused on looking for younger talent. Most of Holmes' appearances in adult films and videos during the 1980s were little more than cameos.
In January 1983, he met his future girlfriend and wife, Laurie Rose, a.k.a. Misty Dawn
, on the set of the film Marathon'
In February 1986, Holmes was diagnosed as HIV
positive. According to Laurie Holmes, Holmes claimed that he never used needles and was deeply afraid of them. Both his first wife, Sharon, as well as Bill Amerson
, separately confirmed later that Holmes could not have contracted HIV from intravenous drug use because Holmes never used needles.
During the summer of 1986, unable to find work in America, Holmes traveled to Italy where he filmed his last two porno movies. The next-to-last was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress (originally released in Italy as Carne Bollente) for director Riccardo Schicchi
. The film starred Holmes, the later Italian Parliament member Ilona 'Cicciolina' Staller
, Tracey Adams
, Christoph Clark
, and Amber Lynn
. His final film was The Devil In Mr. Holmes, starring Tracey Adams, Amber Lynn, Karin Schubert
, and Marina Hedman
. These last films created a furor when it was revealed that Holmes had consciously chosen to not reveal his HIV status to his co-stars before engaging in unprotected anal sex for the filming. He continued to make public appearances at autograph signings, as well as hosting video clips during 1986 and 1987, during which time the gaunt physical appearance resulting from his health problems became increasingly evident.
Not wanting to reveal the true nature of his failing health, Holmes claimed to the press that he was suffering from colon cancer. Holmes married Laurie Rose on January 23, 1987 in Las Vegas
, confiding to her that he had AIDS.
During the last four months of his life, he was essentially bed-ridden, constantly going to hospitals for treatment. John Holmes died from AIDS
-related complications (according to his death certificate, cardiorespiratory arrest and encephalitis
due to AIDS, associated with lymphadenopathy
and esophageal candidiasis
) on March 13, 1988 at the age of 43 at a VA Medical Center in Los Angeles. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea off the coast of Oxnard, California
.
, has achieved cult status among some independent film houses in college towns. Some elements of the film Boogie Nights
were based on Holmes' life, and the Wonderland murders were the basis of the 2003 movie Wonderland
, starring Val Kilmer
as Holmes. Los Angeles Times
investigative reporter Marika Tur wrote extensively on the Wonderland murder case and believed that Holmes led several 'hit men' to the two story residence where they murdered four people for the armed robbery of reputed drug dealer, Eddie Nash
. The only survivor to the killings was Susan Launius, who sustained critical head injuries.
After his death, Holmes was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Adult film industry. It was accepted posthumously by his godson Sean Amerson, the son of Holmes' career-long manager Bill Amerson. Holmes' eulogy was delivered by the adult industry's first historian, the late Jim Holliday.
Of the 2,000 to 2,500 porn film appearances John Holmes made in his lifetime, at least 60 to 70 percent of them are one-reel 8 mm silent loops or stag films. Since the majority of Holmes' loops and stag films have gone into public domain
following the collapse of Caballero Control Corporation
in 1990, there are efforts underway to locate all surviving 8 mm loops starring Holmes that he made during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and convert them to DVD for posterity. However, due to the poor quality of the films and of the short life expentancy of 8mm film, it is believed that the majority of Holmes' loops are forever lost.
The true number of women (and men) with whom Holmes had sex during his career will never be completely known. After his death, his ex-wife Sharon came across a foot locker that was plated in 24k gold leaf, which contained photographic references of his "private work." She burned all of it.
Veteran porn actress Dorothea "Seka
" Patton has stated that Holmes' penis was the biggest in the industry. Holmes' first wife recalled him claiming to be 10 inches (25.4 cm) when he first measured himself. Holmes himself once claimed his penis to be fifteen inches (38.1 cm) long and 12 inches (304.8 mm) in circumference. Holmes' longtime manager, Bill Amerson
, said that "I saw John measure himself several times, it was 13 and a half inches" (34.3 cm). A review of Holmes' films over the course of his career shows that most of his early co-stars tended to be short and slender, whereas women with whom he engaged in onscreen sex later in his career were much taller and had proportionately larger bodies; as a result, the size of Holmes' penis appears to fluctuate in his films, relative to the height and mass of his co-stars.
Another longstanding controversy regards whether Holmes ever achieved a full erection
. A popular joke in the 1970s porn industry held that Holmes was incapable of achieving a full erection because the blood flow from his head into his penis would cause him to pass out. Holmes' co-stars have stated that his penis was never particularly hard during intercourse, likening it to "doing it with a big, soft kind of loofah."
So celebrated was Holmes' penis size it was used as a marketing tool for films in which he did not appear. Anybody but My Husband had the promotional tag line "Tony The Hook Perez has a dick so big that he gives even John Holmes a run for his money." After his death, the length of Holmes' penis continued to be used to market Holmes-related material. At the premier of the film Wonderland, patrons were given thirteen-and-a-half inch rulers as gag gifts.
Later, after his 1982 murder trial and acquittal, Holmes began a business partnership with his manager Bill Amerson, as they founded and operated a production company titled Penquin Productions, where Holmes could be a triple-threat: writing, directing, and performing.
Despite the notoriety and infamy associated with Holmes, he also devoted much time to charities involving the environment. He was known to campaign and collect door-to-door for charities such as Save The Whales.
Pornographic actor
A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is a person who appears in pornographic film. Most actors appear nude in films...
of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s. He was best known for his exceptionally large penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
, which was heavily promoted as being the longest, thickest, and hardest in the porn
PORN
Porn is a common short form for pornography. It may also refer to:* Progressive outer retinal necrosis, a disease of the retina* PORN, a French industrial rock band...
industry, although no definitive measurement of Holmes' actual penis length exists. Near the end of his life, Holmes attracted notoriety for his involvement in the Wonderland murders
Wonderland Murders
The Wonderland murders, also known as Four on the Floor or Laurel Canyon Murders, occurred in Los Angeles in 1981, when four people were killed in a drug-related scenario involving porn star John Holmes and was allegedly masterminded by Los Angeles businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash.-Robbery...
in 1981, and eventually for his death from complications caused by AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
.
Holmes was the subject of several books, a lengthy essay in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, two feature length documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, and was the inspiration for two Hollywood
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
movies, Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights is a 1997 drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, and chronicles his rise and fall from the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s...
and Wonderland
Wonderland (film)
Wonderland is a 2003 American crime and drama film co-written and directed by James Cox, and based on the real-life Wonderland Murders that occurred in 1981. The film stars Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Dylan McDermott, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, and Tim Blake Nelson...
.
Early life
John Holmes was born as John Curtis Estes in the small rural town of Ashville, OhioAshville, Ohio
Ashville is a village in Pickaway County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,174 at the 2000 census.-History:A historical museum, Ohio's Small Town Museum, is operated in the community. The museum claims to be home to America's oldest working traffic light, which directed traffic in...
located a few miles south of the state capital of Columbus, the youngest of four children to Carl Estes and Mary Barton. He knew very little of his father, an alcoholic railroad worker who abandoned his family when John was an infant
Infant
A newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
. John's mother was a devout Southern Baptist, who regularly attended the Milport Chapel Church along with her children.
In 1946, John's mother married Harold Edward Holmes, and changed her children's surname to Holmes. His stepfather was an alcoholic, who would come home inebriated, stumble about the house, and even vomit on the children. Mary Holmes divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d her husband two years later, and moved with her children to Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, where they moved into a low-income apartment project building and lived on welfare for several years. When Holmes was eight, his mother married Harold Bowman. Shortly after, Holmes and his family moved from Columbus and settled in the small town of Pataskala, Ohio
Pataskala, Ohio
Pataskala is a city in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 10,249 at the 2000 census. Pataskala was a small community until 1996, when what was then the village of Pataskala merged with Lima Township, vastly increasing its population and geographic area.-Geography:Pataskala is...
about 10 miles east of Columbus. Holmes recalled that Bowman was a good father until his younger half-brother, David, was born, at which point Bowman lost interest in his non-biological children and began neglecting them.
By the time Holmes reached adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
Bowman began beating him, but the teenaged Holmes, who was very tall and strong for his age, fought back and knocked Bowman down a flight of stairs. After this incident, Holmes ran away from home at age 16, and after several days of living on the streets, returned home and informed his mother that if he moved back in he would kill Bowman. With his mother's written permission, Holmes dropped out of his junior year of high school and enlisted in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. After advanced training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, he spent three years in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in the Signal Corps. Upon his honorable discharge
Military discharge
A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve.-United States:Discharge or separation should not be confused with retirement; career U.S...
, Holmes moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where he worked in a variety of jobs, including selling goods door-to-door and tending the vats at a Coffee-Nips factory. It was during his stint as an ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
driver that he met a nurse named Sharon Gebenini in December 1964. They married in August 1965.
For the next two years, Holmes and Sharon lived uneventful lives. Holmes found work as a forklift driver at a meat packing warehouse in nearby Cudahy, California
Cudahy, California
Cudahy is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California. In terms of area, Cudahy is the second smallest city in Los Angeles County, after Hawaiian Gardens. with one of the highest population densities of any incorporated city in the United States...
. However, repeated exposures to inhaling the sub-freezing air in the large walk-in freezer after being outside inhaling the desert-hot air caused severe health problems, leading to a pneumothorax
Pneumothorax
Pneumothorax is a collection of air or gas in the pleural cavity of the chest between the lung and the chest wall. It may occur spontaneously in people without chronic lung conditions as well as in those with lung disease , and many pneumothoraces occur after physical trauma to the chest, blast...
(lung collapse) of his right lung on three separate occasions between seven to nine months during the two years he worked there.
Porn career
While recovering from his illness, Holmes attended a men's card-playing club in Gardena, CaliforniaGardena, California
Gardena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 58,829 at the 2010 census, up from 57,746 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Gardena is located at ....
which was called 'The Poker Palace' where one evening, a still photographer, standing next to him at a urinal, noticed his extraordinary penis size
Human penis size
Human penis size is the measured length and width of the human penis. The most accurate measurement of the human penis comes from several measurements at different times, as there is natural variability in size due to arousal level, time of day, room temperature, frequency of sexual activity, and...
and encouraged him to do pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
. During the mid-late 1960s, Holmes initially did magazine work and an occasional 8 mm loop, keeping his work in porn a secret from his wife.
Determining the number of films he made during the early part of his career is difficult because the ad copy rarely named him. Those that did usually used entirely inconsistent names. For example, one early "Swedish Erotica" brochure from 1973 has five loops featuring Holmes, each with a different name. In the early years of his porn career, Holmes was nicknamed "The Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
of Smut", a pun on Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
's nickname, The Sultan of Swat.
In 1971, Holmes' career began to take off with a porn series built around a private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
named Johnny Wadd most of which were written and directed by Bob Chinn
Bob Chinn
Bob Chinn is an American pornographic film director. He is a member the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame.Chinn started his career circa 1970. He directed the Johnny Wadd series of films featuring actor John C. Holmes...
.
With the success of Deep Throat
Deep Throat (film)
Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film written and directed by Gerard Damiano and produced by Louis Peraino and starring Linda Lovelace ....
(1972), Behind the Green Door
Behind the Green Door
Behind the Green Door is a 1972 feature-length pornographic film, widely considered one of the genre's "classic" pictures. It was the first hardcore film widely released in the United States. It was the first feature-length film directed by the Mitchell brothers and starred Marilyn Chambers...
(1972), and The Devil in Miss Jones
The Devil in Miss Jones
The Devil in Miss Jones is a pornographic film, written, directed and produced by Gerard Damiano and starring Georgina Spelvin. It is widely regarded as a classic adult film, released during the Golden Age of Porn. Damiano made the film after his 1972 success with Deep Throat...
(1973), porn became chic, although its legality was still hotly contested. Holmes was arrested during this time for pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
ing and pandering, but he avoided prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
time by becoming an informant for the LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
. Using his status as an informer, Holmes systematically had his competition in the porn industry arrested, leaving him as one of the few free porn stars in Los Angeles.
By 1978, Holmes was reputed to be earning as much as $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
3,000 a day as a porn actor. He starred at a time when personality could compensate for a lack of other aesthetic characteristics, and a certain amount of acting ability was still demanded of porn stars.
While his voice was somewhat higher in pitch than one would expect for a "hard-boiled private dick
Dick
-Names:* Dick * Dicks * List of people with surname Dick* A nickname for people named Richard-Other:* Democratic Indira Congress , a political party* Dick , a 1999 American comedy...
", most film critics and fans agreed that Holmes did demonstrate enough acting ability to keep the character of "Johnny Wadd" from being merely a banal, one-dimensional parody of Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
's creation, the tough and uncompromising private detective Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
.
By the late 1970s, his use of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and freebasing was becoming a serious problem. Professionally, it affected his ability to maintain an erection
Erection
Penile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal...
, as is apparent from his flaccid performance in the 1980 film Insatiable. To support himself and his drug habit Holmes ventured into crime, selling drugs for gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
s, prostituting
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
himself to both men and women, and committing credit card fraud
Credit card fraud
Credit card fraud is a wide-ranging term for theft and fraud committed using a credit card or any similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction. The purpose may be to obtain goods without paying, or to obtain unauthorized funds from an account. Credit card fraud is also...
and petty theft. In 1976, he met a 16-year-old girl who became his girlfriend. After Holmes fell on hard times, he prostituted both her and himself, as well as beating her in public.
Number of partners
In 1981, he began to claim that he had intercourse with 14,000 women. The number had in fact been invented by Holmes to help salvage his waning image. To substantiate this number, and assuming Holmes' first experience with a woman occurred at 16 as he claimed, then he would have had to have sex with 666 different women a year—1.8 women a day—for the next 21 years. Pornography historian Luke FordLuke Ford
Luke Ford is an American writer, blogger, and former pornography gossip columnist known for his disclosures and traditionalist Jewish religious views.-Personal:Ford moved to California in 1977...
calculated the number of Holmes' sexual partners over the course of his lifetime to be a more modest 3,000 or 2.7 new women per week.
His performances included at least one homosexual feature film, The Private Pleasures of John C. Holmes, and a handful of gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
loops. All of the male stars of Private Pleasures, including Holmes, eventually succumbed to AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
.
Drugs and the Wonderland murders
In the early 1980s, Holmes developed a close friendship with drug dealer and nightclub owner Eddie NashEddie Nash
Eddie Nash is a former nightclub and restaurant manager in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known as the alleged mastermind of the Wonderland Murders.-Early life:...
. At the same time, Holmes was closely associated with the Wonderland Gang
Wonderland Gang
The Wonderland Gang was a group of drug dealers involved in the Los Angeles cocaine trade during the late 1970s and early 1980s; their homebase was located on Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon area. On July 1, 1981 four members of the gang died in the Wonderland murders...
, a group of heroin-addicted cocaine dealers, so called for the location of their hideout: a rowhouse located on Wonderland Avenue in the wooded Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....
neighborhood of Los Angeles. Holmes worked for the gang, frequently selling drugs for them. After stealing money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
during a couple of drug runs, Holmes found himself in trouble with the gang. In June 1981, allegedly in exchange for his life, he told gang leaders about a very large stash of drugs, money and jewelry Nash had in his house. Holmes helped to set up a robbery that was committed on the morning of June 29, 1981.
Although Holmes did not participate in the robbery, Nash apparently suspected that Holmes had a part in it. After getting Holmes to confess to his participation, Nash exacted revenge against the Wonderland Gang. In the early hours of July 1, 1981, four of the gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
's members were found murdered in their hideout. Holmes was allegedly present during the murders, but it is unclear if he participated in the killings.
Holmes was incarcerated in connection with the murders, but released due to lack of evidence. After spending nearly six months on the run with Dawn Schiller, he was arrested in Florida and returned to Los Angeles. Holmes refused to co-operate with the investigation. In March 1982, Holmes was charged with personally committing all four murders. On June 26, 1982, Holmes was acquitted of all charges except contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
.
Later years
In November 1982, after serving jail time for contempt of court and unrelated robbery charges, Holmes was released and almost immediately re-entered the adult film business. However, his cocaine use and freebasing continued from occasionally to frequently. By the early to mid-1980s, the adult film industry began a transition at making porn movies from film to videotapeVideotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
. Although Holmes continued to find work in porn, the profession was no longer profitable and he was no longer the premier male star as new and upcoming directors focused on looking for younger talent. Most of Holmes' appearances in adult films and videos during the 1980s were little more than cameos.
In January 1983, he met his future girlfriend and wife, Laurie Rose, a.k.a. Misty Dawn
Misty Dawn
Misty Dawn is the pseudonym of adult film actress Laurie Rose.She was married to the late adult film actor John Holmes from 1987 until his death from complications from AIDS on March 13, 1988. In addition to Misty Dawn, she also used the name Laurie Diamond...
, on the set of the film Marathon'
In February 1986, Holmes was diagnosed as HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
positive. According to Laurie Holmes, Holmes claimed that he never used needles and was deeply afraid of them. Both his first wife, Sharon, as well as Bill Amerson
Bill Amerson
William Gordon Amerson was an adult film industry mogul, producer and actor in the late-1960s to the late-1980s.Born in Los Angeles, California, Bill Amerson was an early adult film producer in the United States to produce so-called "hard core" entertainment. As reported in the award-winning...
, separately confirmed later that Holmes could not have contracted HIV from intravenous drug use because Holmes never used needles.
During the summer of 1986, unable to find work in America, Holmes traveled to Italy where he filmed his last two porno movies. The next-to-last was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress (originally released in Italy as Carne Bollente) for director Riccardo Schicchi
Riccardo Schicchi
Riccardo Schicchi is an Italian pornographer who became famous with his photography and films featuring Ilona Staller and Moana Pozzi in the 1980s...
. The film starred Holmes, the later Italian Parliament member Ilona 'Cicciolina' Staller
Ilona Staller
Ilona Staller , also known by her stage name la Cicciolina, is a Hungarian-born Italian porn star, politician, and singer. She continued to make hardcore pornographic films while in office. She is famous for delivering political speeches with one breast exposed.-Early life:Anna Ilona was born in...
, Tracey Adams
Tracey Adams
Tracey Adams is an American pornographic actress. She appeared in over 200 movies during the 1980s and 90s, and is a member of the AVN Hall of Fame....
, Christoph Clark
Christoph Clark
Christoph Clark is a French pornographic actor and director. He has been called "perhaps the most popular male star in the French porn industry." Clark was born in France. After working with figures including Marc Dorcel and Michel Renaud, he moved to Budapest in 1991, where he established his...
, and Amber Lynn
Amber Lynn
Amber Lynn is an American pornographic film actress, Model and exotic dancer.- Early life :...
. His final film was The Devil In Mr. Holmes, starring Tracey Adams, Amber Lynn, Karin Schubert
Karin Schubert
Karin Schubert is a German actress. She appeared in film roles in the 1970s before becoming a pornographic actress in the 1980s.In 1971, she appeared in the film of Gérard Oury, La folie des grandeurs....
, and Marina Hedman
Marina Hedman
Marina Hedman Bellis, also known as Marina Frajese and Marina Lotar is a Swedish former pornographic actress and model....
. These last films created a furor when it was revealed that Holmes had consciously chosen to not reveal his HIV status to his co-stars before engaging in unprotected anal sex for the filming. He continued to make public appearances at autograph signings, as well as hosting video clips during 1986 and 1987, during which time the gaunt physical appearance resulting from his health problems became increasingly evident.
Not wanting to reveal the true nature of his failing health, Holmes claimed to the press that he was suffering from colon cancer. Holmes married Laurie Rose on January 23, 1987 in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, confiding to her that he had AIDS.
During the last four months of his life, he was essentially bed-ridden, constantly going to hospitals for treatment. John Holmes died from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related complications (according to his death certificate, cardiorespiratory arrest and encephalitis
Encephalitis
Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain. Encephalitis with meningitis is known as meningoencephalitis. Symptoms include headache, fever, confusion, drowsiness, and fatigue...
due to AIDS, associated with lymphadenopathy
Lymphadenopathy
Lymphadenopathy is a term meaning "disease of the lymph nodes." It is, however, almost synonymously used with "swollen/enlarged lymph nodes". It could be due to infection, auto-immune disease, or malignancy....
and esophageal candidiasis
Esophageal candidiasis
Esophageal candidiasis is an opportunistic infection of the esophagus by Candida albicans. The disease occurs in patients in immunocompromised states, including post-chemotherapy and in AIDS. It is also known as candidal esophagitis or monilial esophagitis.-Clinical presentation:Patients with...
) on March 13, 1988 at the age of 43 at a VA Medical Center in Los Angeles. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea off the coast of Oxnard, California
Oxnard, California
Oxnard is the 113th largest city in the United States, 19th largest city in California and largest city in Ventura County, California, by way of population. It is located at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, and is an important agricultural center, with its distinction as the...
.
Legacy
Holmes' legacy is infamous. A 1998 documentary of his life, Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. HolmesWadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes
Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes is a 1998 documentary directed by Cass Paley, written and produced by Rodger Jacobs and starring John C. Holmes, Ron Jeremy, Larry Flynt, Misty Dawn, Aunt Peg, Rodger Jacobs and Paul Thomas Anderson.- Overview :...
, has achieved cult status among some independent film houses in college towns. Some elements of the film Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights is a 1997 drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, and chronicles his rise and fall from the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s...
were based on Holmes' life, and the Wonderland murders were the basis of the 2003 movie Wonderland
Wonderland (film)
Wonderland is a 2003 American crime and drama film co-written and directed by James Cox, and based on the real-life Wonderland Murders that occurred in 1981. The film stars Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Dylan McDermott, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, and Tim Blake Nelson...
, starring Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
as Holmes. Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
investigative reporter Marika Tur wrote extensively on the Wonderland murder case and believed that Holmes led several 'hit men' to the two story residence where they murdered four people for the armed robbery of reputed drug dealer, Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash is a former nightclub and restaurant manager in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known as the alleged mastermind of the Wonderland Murders.-Early life:...
. The only survivor to the killings was Susan Launius, who sustained critical head injuries.
After his death, Holmes was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Adult film industry. It was accepted posthumously by his godson Sean Amerson, the son of Holmes' career-long manager Bill Amerson. Holmes' eulogy was delivered by the adult industry's first historian, the late Jim Holliday.
Of the 2,000 to 2,500 porn film appearances John Holmes made in his lifetime, at least 60 to 70 percent of them are one-reel 8 mm silent loops or stag films. Since the majority of Holmes' loops and stag films have gone into public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
following the collapse of Caballero Control Corporation
Caballero Home Video
Caballero Home Video is an American pornographic film studio, based in Canoga Park, California. It was previously known as Caballero Control Corporation. The company was founded in 1974, making it one of the oldest U.S. porn studios still in existence...
in 1990, there are efforts underway to locate all surviving 8 mm loops starring Holmes that he made during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and convert them to DVD for posterity. However, due to the poor quality of the films and of the short life expentancy of 8mm film, it is believed that the majority of Holmes' loops are forever lost.
Personal life
Holmes was close to perhaps four or five women in his private life. With one obvious exception, he was meticulous in keeping his professional and private lives separate.- In August 1965, he married a young nurse named Sharon Gebenini. He remained married to her until their divorce was finalized on January 17, 1983.
- In 1975, he met Julia Saint Vincent on the set of his film, Liquid Lips, which was being produced by her uncle, Armand Atamian. Holmes and Saint Vincent stayed close until 1981 and the Wonderland affair. Saint Vincent produced the ersatz biographical film of Holmes' life, Exhausted.
- In 1976, he met a 15-year-old girl named Dawn Schiller, who was his girlfriend from 1976 through the Wonderland incident in 1981. She left Holmes in December 1981, when she turned him in to the police in Florida.
- In 1983, Holmes met his second wife, Laurie RoseMisty DawnMisty Dawn is the pseudonym of adult film actress Laurie Rose.She was married to the late adult film actor John Holmes from 1987 until his death from complications from AIDS on March 13, 1988. In addition to Misty Dawn, she also used the name Laurie Diamond...
. They married in January 1987.
The true number of women (and men) with whom Holmes had sex during his career will never be completely known. After his death, his ex-wife Sharon came across a foot locker that was plated in 24k gold leaf, which contained photographic references of his "private work." She burned all of it.
Penis size
Holmes' main asset in the porn business was his exceptionally large penis. No definitive measurement or documentation verifying this exists, leaving its exact size unknown. Holmes was also one of the first uncircumcised actors who became popular in American porn.Veteran porn actress Dorothea "Seka
Seka
Seka is an American pornographic actress who appeared in many pornographic films during the late 1970s and the 1980s.-Career:...
" Patton has stated that Holmes' penis was the biggest in the industry. Holmes' first wife recalled him claiming to be 10 inches (25.4 cm) when he first measured himself. Holmes himself once claimed his penis to be fifteen inches (38.1 cm) long and 12 inches (304.8 mm) in circumference. Holmes' longtime manager, Bill Amerson
Bill Amerson
William Gordon Amerson was an adult film industry mogul, producer and actor in the late-1960s to the late-1980s.Born in Los Angeles, California, Bill Amerson was an early adult film producer in the United States to produce so-called "hard core" entertainment. As reported in the award-winning...
, said that "I saw John measure himself several times, it was 13 and a half inches" (34.3 cm). A review of Holmes' films over the course of his career shows that most of his early co-stars tended to be short and slender, whereas women with whom he engaged in onscreen sex later in his career were much taller and had proportionately larger bodies; as a result, the size of Holmes' penis appears to fluctuate in his films, relative to the height and mass of his co-stars.
Another longstanding controversy regards whether Holmes ever achieved a full erection
Erection
Penile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal...
. A popular joke in the 1970s porn industry held that Holmes was incapable of achieving a full erection because the blood flow from his head into his penis would cause him to pass out. Holmes' co-stars have stated that his penis was never particularly hard during intercourse, likening it to "doing it with a big, soft kind of loofah."
So celebrated was Holmes' penis size it was used as a marketing tool for films in which he did not appear. Anybody but My Husband had the promotional tag line "Tony The Hook Perez has a dick so big that he gives even John Holmes a run for his money." After his death, the length of Holmes' penis continued to be used to market Holmes-related material. At the premier of the film Wonderland, patrons were given thirteen-and-a-half inch rulers as gag gifts.
Business activities and endeavors
In 1979, Holmes with his younger half-brother, David Bowman, opened up a locksmith and used furniture store called The Just Looking Emporium in Los Angeles which both managed. But because of Holmes' escalating drug addiction and of the lack of money to operate the store since Holmes was squandering all of his and other people's money to buy cocaine and heroin for himself, the business failed by the end of that very year.Later, after his 1982 murder trial and acquittal, Holmes began a business partnership with his manager Bill Amerson, as they founded and operated a production company titled Penquin Productions, where Holmes could be a triple-threat: writing, directing, and performing.
Despite the notoriety and infamy associated with Holmes, he also devoted much time to charities involving the environment. He was known to campaign and collect door-to-door for charities such as Save The Whales.
Holmes mythology
Holmes' career was promoted with a series of outrageous claims that he made over the years (many made up on the spur of the moment by Holmes himself). The most dubious ones include:- Holmes' penis was so big that he had to stop wearing underwear because "I was getting erections and snapping the elastic waist band 4 or 5 times a month."
- Holmes had degrees in physical therapyPhysical therapyPhysical therapy , often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation...
, medicineMedicineMedicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and political sciencePolitical sciencePolitical Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from UCLA. Holmes was in fact a high-school dropout who never returned to school; according to Bill Amerson, "the closest John ever got to UCLA was breaking into cars in the school's parking lot." - A teenage Holmes played the role of Eddie HaskellEddie HaskellEdward Clark "Eddie" Haskell is a fictional character on the Leave It to Beaver television situation comedy, which ran on CBS from October 4, 1957 to 1958 and then on ABC from 1958 to June 20, 1963...
in the TV series Leave it to BeaverLeave It to BeaverLeave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
. (The character was portrayed by actor Ken OsmondKen OsmondKen Osmond is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of four, Osmond is best known for his iconic role as Eddie Haskell on the 1950s television situation comedy Leave It to Beaver, and for reprising the role on the 1980s revival series The New Leave It to...
, who bore a resemblance to Holmes.)
Selected adult feature films
- Sex and the Single Vampire (1970)
- Johnny Wadd (1971)
- Flesh of the Lotus (1971)
- Blonde in Black Lace (1972)
- Tropic of Passion (1973)
- The Danish Connection (1974)
- Oriental Sex Kitten (1975)
- Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976)
- Liquid Lips (1976)
- The Return Of Dick Doorstop (1976)
- Fantasm ('Fruit Salad' segment) (1976)
- The Autobiography of a Flea (1976)
- Hard Soap, Hard Soap (1977)
- Eruption (1977)
- The Jade Pussycat (1977)
- Pizza Girls (1978)
- The China Cat (1978)
- Blonde Fire (1978)
- The Erotic Adventures of Candy (1978)
- The Senator's Daughter (1979)
- Taxi Girls (1979)
- California Gigolo (1979)
- Sweet Captive (1979)
- InsatiableInsatiable (pornographic movie)Insatiable is a classic pornographic movie released in 1980, at the close of the era of 'porn chic' in the US. It starred Marilyn Chambers and was directed by Stu Segall . It was followed by a 1984 sequel, Insatiable II, also directed by Daniels. The series was "enormously popular", and the first...
(1980) - Prisoner of Paradise (1980)
- Aunt Peg (1980)
- Up 'n Coming (1983)
- Nasty Nurses (1983)
- The Private Pleasures of John C. Holmes (1983)
- Girls on Fire (1984)
- Looking for Mr. Goodsex (1985)
- The Grafenberg Spot (1985)
- The Erotic Adventures of Dickman and Throbbin (1986)
- Rockey X (1986)
- The Return of Johnny Wadd (1986)
- Saturday Night Beaver (1986)
- The Rise of the Roman Empress (1986)
- The Devil in Mr. Holmes (1986)
- Angels and Semen (1986)
- Big Daddy Bryant
Awards
- 2008 XBIZ AwardXBIZ AwardXBIZ Awards are given annually to honor "individuals, companies, performers and products that play an essential part in the growth and success of adult entertainment". Organized by the adult industry trade magazine XBIZ, the awards were first given in 2003...
- Lifetime Achievement - Male Performer - February 14, 1985 - First inductee into the X-Rated Critic's Organization (XRCO) Hall of Fame
Biographies
- John Holmes, A Life Measured in Inches, by Jennifer Sugar and Jill C. Nelson. 2008, BearManor Media. ISBN 1593933029. (Updated 2nd edition, 2011 ISBN 978-159393-6747)
- Exhausted: John C. Holmes, the Real Story (1981 documentary)
- Wadd - The Life and Times of John C. Holmes (1998 documentary)
- The Devil and John Holmes by Mike Sager, Rolling Stone. June 15, 1989; reprinted in "Scary Monsters and Super Freaks" (2004).
- Porn King: Autobiography of John C. Holmes (1998).
- XXXL: The John Holmes Story (2000 documentary)
- John Holmes: The Man, the Myth, the Legend (2004 documentary)
External links
- 2008 Book Documenting John Holmes' Life
- Interview with the maker of the 1998 documentary
- Discussion of Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes, by Gary Morris, 2001
- Devil and John Holmes, by Mike Sager at Mike SagerMike SagerMike Sager is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He has been called "the Beat poet of American journalism, that rare reporter who can make literature out of shabby reality." For more than a dozen years he has been a Writer-at-Large for Esquire...
Official Website