A memorial was held at the end of February in Southern California for porn star Johnny Rey who died in January. His porn pals, Kurt Young and Dino Phillips, attended with other friends and family.
Dino, who lived with Johnny Rey for years, was one of the last people to see him when he went into the hospital in late January because of failing eyesight. It turns out Johnny had brain lesions and testicular cancer, and he didn't know that he also had AIDS until he went into the hospital.
Johnny was a young blond stud who came into the adult industry to make a splash. After working for Falcon, HIS, Odyssey, Forum, and many other companies, he branched out on his own and wrote and directed movies with incredibly ridiculous titles, such as The Island of Dr. Porneaux; Pheromones: The Smell of Sex; Slam Bam, Thank You Man; and Babes Ballin' Boys — his unique series of girls with strap-on dildos fucking guys.
In his quest to be flamboyant and unique, he came dressed in a Native American outfit riding a horse at one of the awards shows. He also championed AIDS-related causes and hosted benefits, particularly after the death of Joey Stefano. He helped start the Porn Star Baseball Games that ran three years through the Gay Video Guide.
He was also the first to host Cocktails With the Stars at Micky's which has become a regular Thursday night event for the past decade that was eventually taken over by Will Clark and Jason Curious. Rey also wrote a column, "Ask Johnny," for years for Urge magazine, which was run by Genre in the mid-1990s. He turned the column into a video which he did for Bacchus Releasing.
Rey worked for Hall of Fame directors such as Chi Chi LaRue (Posing Strap), Gino Colbert (Inside Karl Thomas), John Rutherford (Midnight Run), and he was in classic videos such as Masquerade, Cut vs. Uncut, Male Triangle, Cruising Grounds, and Bed and Breakfast. He helped Karen Dior launch a series of O Boy movies and he appeared in bisexual films such as Bi Now Pay Later and Bi Love Lucy.
He not only won a Best Actor trophy for the first gay romantic porn musical, Romeo & Julian, but he also won Best Sex Scene with Grant Larson in 1993 when the gay awards were held during the Las Vegas AVN Awards.
He was also nominated as best screenwriter for Twin Exposure for Pleasure Productions and was nominated for several years for Performer of the Year. It was his creative sets, like the underground caves of Island of Dr. Porneaux and the devil and centaur costumes of Pheromones that created the Best Art Direction category for the porn awards.
His real name, Rhett Palmer, was as much a possible porn name as the one he picked.
Johnny worked as a hairdresser before he went into porn and for a few years during his career. He was known for being a bottom, but was versatile and flaunted that talent. And when his twink blond boy image was wearing thin, he reinvented himself by coloring his hair black and making a comeback.
Johnny's video with Casey Jordan perched as an angel on a cliff with giant feathered angel wings, The Score of Sex, earned a lot of nasty reviews, but the music by Jordan and Sharon Kane won an award in 1995.
When he won in the Hottest Cocksucker category at Probe's Men in Video Awards in 1996, Johnny demonstrated his ability by throating the silver phallic trophy while the audience roared.
At the Gay Video Guide Awards, the Dickies, he was nominated for Best Groaner, and choreographed dance numbers for the awards shows that were held at the TomKat Theatre and the Paladium.
Continuing his innovation in porn, Johnny was one of the first stars to have a website and a webcam, and he delved into online porn. He helped dozens of other stars get their own websites and make money streaming live sex, and he represented a few newcomers in the business as their manager.
He helped his friend Dino Phillips launch Great Dane Productions and even had a sex role in Great Dane's first movie, Nude Science.
Johnny kept up his website for many years after he stopped making videos, and always expressed bitterness for not being recognized as a director. However, he was happy with the moniker I bestowed on him in a column about a decade ago — and it seemed to stick — "The Ed Wood of Gay Porn." He reveled in it!
Photo courtesy of GreatDaneProd.com
