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Don't have a SFW link at the moment, but pornstar August Ames has died of an apparent suicide at age 23

For future reference, here's a non-pornographic resource of all known porn star deaths, FYI. I find it oddly fascinating reading every once in a while

Still not necessarily SFW to click on and establish a link to from my work computer ("porn" is in the URL), but useful all the same, thanks for posting it.

Seems she refused to do a job two days ago when she found out the male in the scene had done gay porn, and warned whoever was replacing her to be cautious because of differing STD testing protocols. In response, she was being totally lit up by pretty much everyone imaginable for two days online, and her last tweet just read "fuck y'all." Was a fan of her work, she seemed outspoken and strong and obviously was insensitive in this instance but it's always very sad to see anyone bullied to the point of [if the rumors here are correct] taking her own life.

Actually given the differences in protocol I don't think refusing should be considered insensitive.

knives wrote:Actually given the differences in protocol I don't think refusing should be considered insensitive.

It appears there is a difference with STD testing or something with men and gay pornography? This is all news to me but it doesn't make this situation any less messed up.

If I recall, been awhile since I've paid attention, the testing isn't the primary difference. The use of condoms and other similar safety procedures are which has made this a common refusal for some actresses.

domino harvey wrote:For future reference, here's a non-pornographic resource of all known porn star deaths, FYI. I find it oddly fascinating reading every once in a while

It's weird to see Cameron Mitchell's name listed among the performers. Apparently he was tricked into appearing in non-pornographic scenes for a 1980s porn film.

It's also not current, as it doesn't have the other big recent porn star death included, Shyla Stylez. Still a pretty exhaustive, if morbid, resource

domino harvey wrote:For future reference, here's a non-pornographic resource of all known porn star deaths, FYI. I find it oddly fascinating reading every once in a while

I did take a brief look at it and the list of Non dead status updates struck me as very Ballardian:
"Allegedly Alive"; "FAKED: Car crash"; "Not dead"; "Accidental Head Injury, whilst on Valium"; "Rumor". And of course "Still kickin, tho living in Indiana"

Though it does get much darker with the AIDS section.

Based on what I've read, HIV/AIDS is the only thing regularly tested in the industry, and that if you've worked in porn long enough you accept you'll catch something at some point.

Ames’ death has been confirmed as suicide by hanging.

I didn't know who she was but a cursory search on Twitter yielded hundreds of people making variations of the same two jokes: either they know who she is but their girlfriend doesn't, or they're going to knowingly masturbate to a dead woman as "tribute". So, another reason to just never look at social media, I guess

The level of dehumanizing that people do re: people who entertain them in some cases more often than Academy Award winning actors is really nauseating, I agree. Not sure why these people are treated like such garbage to this day, even as their industry is more and more normalized

Haven't read any of the comments in question and won't, but from what Dom wrote, the "tribute" seems like a variation of the "I can tell by the way that stripper smiled that she's super into me" delusion more than anything. As with anything else, a disturbing number of people really have a hard time distinguishing the fantasy from reality. Dehumanization, sure, of course ... but that ain't the half of it. We should all be thankful that porn gives these people at least some kind of outlet.

Australian actor and director Samantha Rebillet, on 27 November, aged forty-five.

Brian C wrote:Haven't read any of the comments in question and won't, but from what Dom wrote, the "tribute" seems like a variation of the "I can tell by the way that stripper smiled that she's super into me" delusion more than anything. As with anything else, a disturbing number of people really have a hard time distinguishing the fantasy from reality. Dehumanization, sure, of course ... but that ain't the half of it. We should all be thankful that porn gives these people at least some kind of outlet.

If only more people used pornography in the humanizing way.

William H. Gass, at 93.

I'm coincidentally in the midst of his mammoth The Tunnel, which I've been reading on-and-off for the past four months. I'd just begun reading it again on Wednesday, which I only learned today is the day of his death.

NYRB classics have recently reissued both his astonishing first story collection, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, and his short philosophical treatise, On Being Blue, both excellent places to start if you've never read this bleak but delicious stylist. Until his death, there was no other living writer I could think of who played such meticulous attention to their sentences and how they sounded. Though he lived to an enviable age and was publishing until the end (his last book coming out two years ago), it's still sad we'll get nothing more from him.

domino harvey wrote:For future reference, here's a non-pornographic resource of all known porn star deaths, FYI. I find it oddly fascinating reading every once in a while

Spalding Gray was in a porno?

More than one. I remember watching Radley Metzger’s Maraschino Cherry and thinking that there was someone in it that looked startlingly like him - so I looked up the cast list, and...

...well, I was right.

There are clips of Grey talking about his porno days in And Everything Is Going Fine.

Professor Wagstaff wrote:There are clips of Grey talking about his porno days in And Everything Is Going Fine.

His experience also featured heavily in his novel "Impossible Vacation".

Steve Reevis

A Montanan and a member of Blackfeet Nation. Seen in things like Fargo and Dances with Wolves. I can't really describe these places to people who haven't been there but to describe it as abject poverty is about as much I can get without getting angry about the conditions these people have to put up with. Him dying at age fifty five has some unfortunate implications but I don't know if it'd be appropriate to share it or not. Horrible.

He's most recognizable for the Fargo part but he has a memorably droll performance in his Bones episode, The Man In The Bear.