John Holmes: A Pop Icon

John Holmes, the most famous male porn star of all time, died on 13 March 1988. The Spanish daily El Pais dedicated a commemorative article to the death of this pop icon. Why is John Holmes a pop icon? For a start, I take myself as an example: I have never seen a porn film, but I know John Holmes. He’s a pop icon because he has inspired books, songs (like John Holmes by the Italian band Elio e le Storie Tese) and movies like Boogie Nights and Wonderland. At last, a pop icon usually doesn’t have a long and quiet life. He died of Aids at age 44 and had a fairly full life : drug, alcool, prison and naturally much, much sex.

El Pais article tells a few little known anecdotes. He was noticed by a photographer standing next to him at a restroom urinal ( porn has its talent-scouts as well..) and in his career appeared in gay films too. He was a gigolò, a stripper, a stool pigeon. For his cocain addiction, that forced him to snort a line every 15 minutes, he started to keep the underworld and was involved in the Wonderland murders . The rest is story, or rather, is myth. Little wonder that our times have as a myth a man famous only for his penis. After all, the Greeks already venerated a certain Priapus.