John Holmes (actor)

John Curtis Estes (August 8, 1944 ? March 13, 1988) better known as John Holmes, John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd (after the lead character in a series of related films), was a porn star of the 1970s and 1980s that included one gay film and a handful of gay loops. Holmes is best known for his large penis (generally estimated at between 12-15 inches), his involvement in the brutal Wonderland Murders in 1981, and his death from AIDS. He starred in a large number of loops and features and is one of the most famous male porn stars of all-time.

Porn career

For the next two years, Holmes and his wife lived quiet, uneventful lives. Holmes found work as a forklift driver at a warehouse, but the rigors of driving in and out of a frozen warehouse caused severe health problems, leading a lung to collapse on three separate occasions. While recovering from his illness, Holmes frequented a club in Gardena, where he met a man in the bathroom who, amazed at what he termed Holmes' "prodigious pike," encouraged him to do pornography. Initially, Holmes did magazine work and the occasional 8mm loop, keeping his work in porn secret from his wife.

Related Topics:
Forklift - Gardena - Pornography

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Despite his desire for anonymity, Holmes' penis was large enough that distribution houses for 8mm loops could not resist using Holmes' anatomical anomaly as a marketing gimmick. So, while the ad copy for his first few dozen loops rarely named him, those that did usually gave him a name that was nowhere near what his real first name was. In fact, one early "Swedish Erotica" brochure from 1973 has five Holmes loops listed, each of which has a different name referring to Holmes even though it is obvious from his facial features and the size of his penis that "Fred", "Dave", "Rudy", "Big Dick" and "Stan" are all the same person.

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With the success of The Devil in Miss Jones (1972), Deep Throat (1972), and Behind the Green Door (1973), porn had become chic although its legality was still hotly contested. Holmes was arrested during this time for pimping and pandering, but he avoided prison time by becoming an informant for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Related Topics:
The Devil in Miss Jones - Deep Throat - Behind the Green Door - Porn had become chic - Pimp - Los Angeles Police Department

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In 1973, Holmes' career began to rise with a porn series built around a private investigator named Johnny Wadd. 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 an attractive personality could compensate for a lack of other aesthetic characteristics, and a certain amount of acting ability was still demanded of porn stars on a level that is not seen in today's porn films. While his vocal inflection was arguably 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 more of a one-dimensional banal parody of Raymond Chandler's creations.

Related Topics:
1973 - Private investigator - 1978

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