Rex Cabo, an actor and director in adult movies since the early '90s, died April 28 in a bizarre suicide. He jumped from the 11th floor of the Cooper Arms high-rise on Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach, landing on a parked police car.
The incident was reported in a story in the Long Beach Press Telegram on April 29, in which Cabo was identified only as a “40 year-old Long Beach man.” The Los Angeles County Coroner's Department confirmed his identity to AVN.com as Rex Hickok, Cabo’s real name.
The newspaper report said police were alerted by Cabo’s psychotherapist that his patient was distraught and threatening suicide. Officers raced to his room in the downtown apartment building, but by the time they had broken through the locked door, Cabo had gone out on his balcony and jumped.
He landed on top of the police cruiser parked in the red zone in front of the building. According to the newspaper, his impact “crushed the cruiser’s roof, smashed its rear window and buckled the hood.”
He died on the way to the emergency room.
Cabo came into the industry in the early ‘90s and worked both as actor and director, almost exclusively for Leisure Time Entertainment.
In Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne’s The Other Hollywood: TheUncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry, Cabo is remembered as a talent recruiter. Leisure Time owner Mark Carriere is quoted as saying he could “[bring] down girls by the busload.” Among those Carriere put under contract were Vanity, Vivianna and Rikki Lee.
But Cabo’s biggest discovery was a blonde named Shannon Wilsey, whom Carriere promptly rechristened Savannah and built into a superstar. Several years later she too was a suicide.
A friend of Cabo’s who requested anonymity recalled him as “a really promising young man who got seduced by the dark side,” adding that in recent years he had “gained a lot of weight and changed his lifestyle.”
According to another acquaintance, he continued to direct and perform in porn movies and had recently been shooting a “fat person line.” He said he had also recently produced a low-budget horror film.
Cabo’s Personal Bio on Internet Adult Film Database lists 105 movies as director made between 1992 and 1996, all for such Leisure Time labels as Video Exclusives, Venus 99 and Infinity. He often appeared in the titles he directed.
When Cabo first entered the industry as a performer in 1991, with his girlfriend, stripper Heather St. Clair, he was billed as Lance Heywood and acted under that name in some 143 titles.
