John Holmes and a brief history of HIV in the porn industry

John Holmes’ death in March, 1988 from AIDS-related complications was, along with the similar fates of Rock Hudson and Ryan White and the HIV diagnosis of Magic Johnson, one of several high-profile wakeup calls for HIV/AIDS education and research funding.

But it was Hudson, a closeted Hollywood movie star, who “put a face on the disease” (according to Morgan Fairchild) with his death in 1985, so it was not from a lack of education on Holmes’ part that he knowingly exposed several partners to the virus by continuing to work post-diagnosis.

Holmes learned of his HIV infection in 1986. It is widely alleged, though not certain, that he contracted the disease from gay performer Joey Yale in Holmes’ most well-known (but certainly not only) gay release, “The Private Pleasures of John Holmes.” Yale himself died from AIDS in 1985. Holmes is said to have been afraid of needles, choosing to drink or smoke his drugs of choice, and many close to him say it was highly unlikely he contracted the disease through intravenous drug use.

What is certain is that Holmes knew he had HIV when he went to Italy in 1986 to film movies like “The Rise And Fall of the Roman Empress” with Amber Lynn and Ilona “Cicciolina” Staller, though neither they, nor any of the other actors or actresses Holmes worked with following his diagnosis (including Ginger Lynn) ever contracted the disease. Which is tremendously lucky.

While diseases like Herpes, Gonorrhea, and Chlamydia are considered “occupational hazards” in the adult industry (I was on a set recently in which one actress was working as a production assistant. “I have the clap,” she told me, “so I’m eating cheeseburgers for a few weeks”), HIV infection is a relative rarity, which is also lucky because testing of performers was not anywhere near as standardized in Holmes’ time as it is today.

Even so, 1995 saw the HIV infection of Evil Angel founder John Stagliano, and there have been comparatively large outbreaks in 2004 (“the Darren James Incident”) as well as smaller ones in 2009 and this month.

But porn’s worst HIV crisis came 12 years ago.

Adult Industry Medical (AIM) was founded in 1998, the same year that performer Marc Wallice, having hidden his HIV-positive status for as much as two years and having infected scene partners Brooke Ashley and Tricia Devereaux, was revealed to be a carrier. He had faked his lab documentation.

Wallice, unlike Holmes, was roundly villified within the porn industry following the April 30, 1998 announcement. He became the most hated person in porn since Traci Lords’ fudging of her driver’s license caused the recall of thousands of dollars-worth of expensive VHS tapes. I suspect that only because a dollar value couldn’t be attached to Wallice’s reprehensible behavior that he was allowed to return to the industry as a director (briefly, as Marc Gold).

That is not to say Holmes’ own recklessness didn’t make people furious.

For their book “John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches,” Jill Nelson and Jennifer Sugar interviewed Amber Lynn, who shared a scene with Holmes and Cicciolina in “The Rise And Fall of the Roman Empress.”

Lynn told us that she had been angry, scared and hurt for almost twenty years that Holmes had knowingly exposed her to the virus. It wasn’t until celebrating a decade of sobriety in 2008, after her own extensive history with drug and alcohol abuse that Lynn was able to finally forgive Holmes. She said she realized “John wasn’t evil; he was an addict” and believed that years of drug abuse had compromised his ability to think rationally. Cicciolina (Ilona Staller) who had also worked with John in his last two pictures has expressed similar concerns about having been put at risk. Thankfully, there are no reported cases of anyone contracting HIV from John Holmes. Laurie Holmes (John’s widow) is also AIDS free.

Holmes also alienated his family (which, if you peruse the growing collection of Holmesiana out there, might have had it coming). Still, in a 2007 quote from Debra Leah Holmes, John’s niece, we get a picture of how people continue to comfort themselves with the idea of disease as divine validation of their own prejudices.

i belive him contracting aids was GODS way of telling him “THAT IS ENOUGH JOHN , and he was taken out of this earth

The Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) lists dozens of gay performers who died of AIDS-related complications, as well as three (mostly) straight performers, including Holmes and Lisa DeLeeuw, who contracted the disease from IV drug use after leaving porn.

Bisexual performer Danny Wylde acknowledges that testing on the “gay side” of the adult industry has historically been less prioritized or methodical, but that is changing:

The implication is that the gay “side” of the adult industry is segregated into different factions: those who promote testing, those that don’t, those that are HIV-positive, and those who aren’t. However, the trend seems to be going in one direction. Testing is becoming the norm.

I believe that both education and economics play a part in the unlikelihood of another knowing HIV carrier performing sex scenes in the straight adult industry. Even if personal ethics haven’t noticeably improved, news spreads much faster in a socially-connected business, and no one can afford a work stoppage.

Previously on Porn Valley Observed: Your Porn Valley HIV digest; John Holmes book also measured in inches

About Gram the Man 4399 Articles
Gram Ponante is America's Beloved Porn Journalist

3 Comments

  1. The true irresponsibility of the porn industry to protect its actors and actresses from the horror of AIDS when it was a well known affliction is staggering. Protection is the key, and elimination is the desire. Who would want to live a few years with a death sentence on their lives?

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