Junkie, drug dealer, gigolo, pimp and thief, porn actor John Holmes’ life was a roller coaster that left no one indifferent. He ranks among the most prolific adult film performers, with documented credits for at least 573 films.
John had an unbalanced childhood, in his teens, he faced his drunken and abusive stepfather by pushing him down the stairs. He left home and after several weeks wandering the streets he returned home. He quickly enlisted in the army as a specialist and communications officer.
He then started working in a variety of jobs, and finally in December 1964 while working as an ambulance driver, he met who would become his wife; Sharon Gebenini. Sharon was a hospital nurse and they got married when he turned 21.
They lead normal lives for a few years until one night, John, who used to frequent clubs where he played poker, was spotted by a photographer who realized the enormous size of his penis while they were both in the bathroom pissing. He made a proposition to John to become a porn actor.
John started with small roles in some movies. He hid this from his wife and used pseudonyms like Fred, Dave, Rudy or Big Dick.
He started to become famous and noticed within the adult industry for his huge cock.
His wife found out what he was doing and got divorced because Holmes had also been arrested on charges of pimping, although he avoided going to prison by working as an informant for the Los Angeles police.
Even actor Ron Jeremy acknowledged that John’s cock was bigger than his, which is saying something!
It was then that he no longer kept his fame a secret andN in 1973, John’s career began to improve with a porn series about the adventures of a private investigator named Johnny Wadd.
In 1978, Holmes was earning 3,000$ a day as a porn actor. He starred in one of the golden ages of porn and possibly became the most famous porn actor in history.
But he didn’t know how to hadle fame and money and, in the late 70’s, he was a serious cocaine addict, which affected his work since he could not get erections.
To pay for his drug addiction and his living standards, Holmes began to commit crimes like selling drugs to gangs, prostituting himself to men and women, and committing credit card fraud and theft.
In 1976, he met 16-year-old Dawn Schiller who became his girlfriend, but Holmes was no longer the same person and got his girlfriend into prostitution, mistreating her and even hitting her in public.
The most famous episode of his life was his involvement in the case of the Wonderland murders, where several men entered a well-known drug house and murdered four people who were inside. Although the truth was never known, Holmes’s footprints appeared at the scene of the crime.
There was even a movie made about this with Val Kilmer as the protagonist, playing John Holmes.
In 1986 Holmes contracted AIDS through prostitution but hid his illness and continued to act in films where he infected several girls.
Holmes married Laurie Rose on January 23, 1987, and confessed to her his illness. He spent his last years slowly dying in a hospital.
John Holmes was a sex symbol that even inspired the movie Boogie Nights, and, although his life was a disaster and he earned as much money as he lost, the actor worked in more than 2,500 movies and it is said that he had sex with more than 10,000 women.
What do you think about his life? Live Fast and Die Young easily applies to Holmes’ life.
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