John Holmes(1944-1988)
- Actor
- Production Manager
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Born John Curtis Estes on August 8, 1944, in rural Pickaway County,
Ohio, the youngest of four children, porn legend John Holmes was raised
by a religious fanatic mother named Mary and an abusive alcoholic
stepfather named Harold Bowman. He was a bible student, but at the age
of 16 dropped out of school, left home and enlisted for a hitch in the US
Army, where he was stationed in West Germany for three years. After his
discharge he moved to Los Angeles in 1964 where he married a young
nurse, and worked odd jobs such as taxi driver, door-to-door salesman,
postal clerk, temp worker, coffee vat attendant, ambulance driver and
forklift driver.
In the late 1960s he gravitated to the underground porno industry. One
story was that a female neighbor was making porno loops and advised
Holmes he could make good money. Unfortunately, his first check bounced
and, after that, he always insisted on payment in cash. Another story
is that in 1967 Holmes was frequenting a men's card playing club in the
Los Angeles suburb of Gardena when a photographer for an underground
magazine noticed his large "member" while standing next to him at a
restroom urinal and gave Holmes his business card, telling him he could
get plenty of work in still photo magazines. By 1969, with the advent
of X-rated porn films, Holmes moved into the movie business. His tall,
slim build, curly light brown hair, a light mustache and bright blue
eyes made him an instantly recognizable star. John was not lacking for
work, bringing not only a professional attitude but also his legendary
endowment (12-5/8" long, according to a Screw Magazine interview, while
other stories put it at 13-1/2" long). His enormously long penis got
him starring roles in over 2,000 loops, stag films and adult features
in a career that spanned nearly 20 years (with a peak of a $3,000-a-day
salary). His lucrative off-screen penis-for-hire business took him
around the world.
His most famous character is probably Johnny Wadd, a lusty,
always-on-the-make private detective he played in several crude porno
films like
Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976),
The Jade Pussycat (1977),
China Cat (1978),
Liquid Lips (1976) and
Blonde Fire (1978), the last of which
is considered the best of the so-called "Wadd films". Better still were
the big-budgeted pictures that co-starred some of the adult film
industry's top leading ladies, including
Marilyn Chambers,
Seka, Annette Haven
and even a young--and underage--Traci Lords.
In the late 1970s Holmes developed a serious drug habit to cocaine (both snorting and freebasing), which
prevented him from performing in the on-screen sex he was famous for,
resulting in his dropping out of the adult-film business. By late 1980
he was broke, most of the huge amounts of money he made having gone to
feed his drug addiction. He was reduced to making money by robbing
people's houses and stealing cars, as well as delivering drugs for the
local gangsters. The lowest point in his life was when he was
implicated in four grisly, drug-related murders on July 1, 1981. He was
allegedly present at the drug-related torture and murders at a house in
the hills above Hollywood of William Deverell, Ronald Launius, Joy
Miller and Barbara Richardson--a group suspected by many in the drug
underworld of specializing in ripping off drug dealers--by a gang of
killers sent by a powerful local gangster named
Eddie Nash. A fifth victim, (Susan Launius,
Ronald Launius' estranged wife), barely survived the attack and had no
memory of the event. The bloody crime made lurid headlines throughout
Southern California and became known as The Wonderland Murders, after
the street in the wooded Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles
where the killings took place. Holmes was implicated in the crime but
refused to tell police what he knew and went on the run for nearly six
months with his teenage mistress,
Dawn Schiller, before he was arrested
while hiding out in Florida and returned to Los Angeles. The L.A.
authorities, angered by Holmes' refusal to cooperate with the
investigation, charged him with committing all four murders. After a
three-week, public trial, Holmes was acquitted on June 26, 1982.
Although found not guilty of the murders, he remained in jail on
previous burglary and contempt-of-court charges until his release in
November 1982. The true nature and details of the Laurel Canyon murders
remains unsolved to this day.
After his release from prison, Holmes tried to clean up his act and
continue his porno career with a new generation of porno stars. His
cocaine addiction continued off-and-on, and although work in the porno
business was still plentiful, it was no longer as lucrative as it had
been, given the explosion in the use of cheaply made videotapes that
saturated the market. In addition, Holmes was no longer the powerhouse
star that he had once been. He was diagnosed with AIDS late in 1985 but
continued working--without telling producers or his co-stars--until
1986, when his increasingly gaunt and frail physical appearance sent up
"red flags" in the industry and he could no longer find work.
During the last five months of his life, John Holmes received treatment and stayed at the local VA (Veterans Administration) Hospital on Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles from November 1987 to his death on March 13, 1988 from AIDS-related complications at age 43, with his second wife at his side, former porn star Misty Dawn. Holmes once estimated
he'd had sex with over 14,000 women (on and off screen), and was truly a porn legend. His life was the basis for the film
Boogie Nights (1997), and he was portrayed by Val Kilmer in Wonderland (2003), about the infamous
murders, but the conflicting truths about his life, as always, was stranger than fiction.
Ohio, the youngest of four children, porn legend John Holmes was raised
by a religious fanatic mother named Mary and an abusive alcoholic
stepfather named Harold Bowman. He was a bible student, but at the age
of 16 dropped out of school, left home and enlisted for a hitch in the US
Army, where he was stationed in West Germany for three years. After his
discharge he moved to Los Angeles in 1964 where he married a young
nurse, and worked odd jobs such as taxi driver, door-to-door salesman,
postal clerk, temp worker, coffee vat attendant, ambulance driver and
forklift driver.
In the late 1960s he gravitated to the underground porno industry. One
story was that a female neighbor was making porno loops and advised
Holmes he could make good money. Unfortunately, his first check bounced
and, after that, he always insisted on payment in cash. Another story
is that in 1967 Holmes was frequenting a men's card playing club in the
Los Angeles suburb of Gardena when a photographer for an underground
magazine noticed his large "member" while standing next to him at a
restroom urinal and gave Holmes his business card, telling him he could
get plenty of work in still photo magazines. By 1969, with the advent
of X-rated porn films, Holmes moved into the movie business. His tall,
slim build, curly light brown hair, a light mustache and bright blue
eyes made him an instantly recognizable star. John was not lacking for
work, bringing not only a professional attitude but also his legendary
endowment (12-5/8" long, according to a Screw Magazine interview, while
other stories put it at 13-1/2" long). His enormously long penis got
him starring roles in over 2,000 loops, stag films and adult features
in a career that spanned nearly 20 years (with a peak of a $3,000-a-day
salary). His lucrative off-screen penis-for-hire business took him
around the world.
His most famous character is probably Johnny Wadd, a lusty,
always-on-the-make private detective he played in several crude porno
films like
Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976),
The Jade Pussycat (1977),
China Cat (1978),
Liquid Lips (1976) and
Blonde Fire (1978), the last of which
is considered the best of the so-called "Wadd films". Better still were
the big-budgeted pictures that co-starred some of the adult film
industry's top leading ladies, including
Marilyn Chambers,
Seka, Annette Haven
and even a young--and underage--Traci Lords.
In the late 1970s Holmes developed a serious drug habit to cocaine (both snorting and freebasing), which
prevented him from performing in the on-screen sex he was famous for,
resulting in his dropping out of the adult-film business. By late 1980
he was broke, most of the huge amounts of money he made having gone to
feed his drug addiction. He was reduced to making money by robbing
people's houses and stealing cars, as well as delivering drugs for the
local gangsters. The lowest point in his life was when he was
implicated in four grisly, drug-related murders on July 1, 1981. He was
allegedly present at the drug-related torture and murders at a house in
the hills above Hollywood of William Deverell, Ronald Launius, Joy
Miller and Barbara Richardson--a group suspected by many in the drug
underworld of specializing in ripping off drug dealers--by a gang of
killers sent by a powerful local gangster named
Eddie Nash. A fifth victim, (Susan Launius,
Ronald Launius' estranged wife), barely survived the attack and had no
memory of the event. The bloody crime made lurid headlines throughout
Southern California and became known as The Wonderland Murders, after
the street in the wooded Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles
where the killings took place. Holmes was implicated in the crime but
refused to tell police what he knew and went on the run for nearly six
months with his teenage mistress,
Dawn Schiller, before he was arrested
while hiding out in Florida and returned to Los Angeles. The L.A.
authorities, angered by Holmes' refusal to cooperate with the
investigation, charged him with committing all four murders. After a
three-week, public trial, Holmes was acquitted on June 26, 1982.
Although found not guilty of the murders, he remained in jail on
previous burglary and contempt-of-court charges until his release in
November 1982. The true nature and details of the Laurel Canyon murders
remains unsolved to this day.
After his release from prison, Holmes tried to clean up his act and
continue his porno career with a new generation of porno stars. His
cocaine addiction continued off-and-on, and although work in the porno
business was still plentiful, it was no longer as lucrative as it had
been, given the explosion in the use of cheaply made videotapes that
saturated the market. In addition, Holmes was no longer the powerhouse
star that he had once been. He was diagnosed with AIDS late in 1985 but
continued working--without telling producers or his co-stars--until
1986, when his increasingly gaunt and frail physical appearance sent up
"red flags" in the industry and he could no longer find work.
During the last five months of his life, John Holmes received treatment and stayed at the local VA (Veterans Administration) Hospital on Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles from November 1987 to his death on March 13, 1988 from AIDS-related complications at age 43, with his second wife at his side, former porn star Misty Dawn. Holmes once estimated
he'd had sex with over 14,000 women (on and off screen), and was truly a porn legend. His life was the basis for the film
Boogie Nights (1997), and he was portrayed by Val Kilmer in Wonderland (2003), about the infamous
murders, but the conflicting truths about his life, as always, was stranger than fiction.