Matt Sterling Dies

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Gay porn pioneer Matt Sterling passed away today at Cedars-Sinai hospital. Director John Travis, a Sterling friend and colleague for 40 years, told GAYVN that Sterling died of a motor neuron disease he was diagnosed with 18 years ago. Sterling's real name was Jack Dufault.

Sterling, along with Travis, Falcon Studios founder Chuck Holmes, and John Summers, could almost be said to have founded the gay porn industry in California in the 1960s and '70s.

His first gay line was the legendary Brentwood Studios. But it was his movies for Huge Video, from A Matter of Size to Forced Entry that cemented his name in gay porn history.

Because of his illness, Sterling directed very little from the mid-'90s on. His final movies were Feast Your Eyes and a Matter of Size 2.

No word is yet available on funeral services.

The motor neuron diseases (MNDs) are a group of progressive neurological disorders that destroy cells that control essential muscle activity such as speaking, walking, breathing, and swallowing. Normally, messages from nerve cells in the brain (called upper motor neurons) are transmitted to nerve cells in the brain stem and spinal cord (called lower motor neurons) and from them to particular muscles.