LOS ANGELES—AVN Hall of Fame producer/director, Patrick Collins, co-founder of Elegant Angel, passed away on Sunday morning.
Collins, who had struggled with various health issues in recent years, died in his sleep at his home in a suburb of Los Angeles. He was 73.
“I loved Patrick, he was a very good man,” AVN Hall of Fame executive David Joseph, who was close friends with Collins for more than 20 years, told AVN. “I had a really good relationship with Pat, I just saw him two weeks ago. I went to see him at the hospital and he looked OK.
“He was always nice to me, he was always very helpful. And in the business he was kind of a genius.”
Elegant Angel became one of the adult industry’s top gonzo studios with Collins at the helm, producing iconic series such as Buttwoman, Slutwoman, Big Wet Asses, Big Wet Tits, Sodomania and the annual Performers of the Year titles en route to winning more than 130 AVN Awards.
Collins stepped away from the day-to-day operations of Elegant Angel in 2013, but the studio continued to produce dozens of volumes of its popular lines under different management. The ownership changed hands a couple times before Adult Empire acquired the studio in 2022—and to this day the brand remains among the most recognizable in the industry.
Evil Angel founder John Stagliano told AVN he met Collins during the summer of 1989 because he wanted to hire his adult performer girlfriend, Tianna, for an Evil Angel movie. Both Collins and Tianna were in rehab at the time.
“And he had been sober for two or three months,” recalled Stagliano, who ended up giving him a job as his sales manager for Evil Angel, which was in its infancy.
“He did an OK job and I almost fired him in the spring of ’90—but I decided to keep him on,” Stagliano continued. “Because we really didn’t get along… We had a different style.”
It was Collins who sold Stagliano’s first-ever Buttman movie in September of '89. The title took off and ensuing volumes of the Buttman series became commercial sensations for Stagliano and Evil Angel, which carried that momentum into the 2000s and has never looked back.
“That was the first movie he sold was Adventures of Buttman,” Stagliano said. “It helped that I had somebody like he was—he was tough, I guess. That was his philosophy.”
He also had directorial ambitions and Stagliano gave him a shot, financing all of Collins’ early directing efforts while allowing him to retain an ownership stake in the products. The two launched Elegant Angel together in 1990 as an Evil Angel subsidiary. Using the pseudonym Roscoe Bowltree, Collins directed his first movies—Buttwoman Does Budapest (1992), Hungarian Connection (1992) and Depravity on the Danube (1993). He would go on to perform in and appear in non-sex roles in more than 100 titles as Bowltree, according to IAFD.
“He was a really sexual guy and he did have his own ideas and they worked,” Stagliano said. “However, the more important factor back in 1990 was that he had the balls to do it. There were risks of going to jail because there had been busts. And he had the balls to do it and the skill to do it.”
But Stagliano noted that their relationship wasn’t always a pleasant one after Collins broke away from Evil Angel in 1996, making Elegant Angel an independent studio.
“After all he was a competitor and he started a company with the brand name I opened with him and I let him own those movies and they were successful,” he added.
AVN founder Paul Fishbein remembered how Collins was a premier director during one of, if not the greatest era in porn history.
“He and I were pretty close for a while, he was a friend,” Fishbein said. “He was one of the prominent people of that post-Clinton, ’90s gonzo phase. He was one of the faces of it along with Stagliano and he continued that model, where he gave new filmmakers breaks. First, to shoot their own stuff, and then to own their own stuff.
“He was sort of in the same mode as John in that, ‘Let’s give these people a chance.’ … Not greedy at all. And Patrick had his own vision for the stuff he did.
“He was a strong personality, an interesting guy. I always liked him.”
A natural pornographer, Collins thrived with the edgy vignette series, Sodomania, which soon became Elegant Angel’s signature line. He would go on to provide opportunities to several future stars both in front of and behind the camera. He gave legendary performer Tom Byron his first break as a director in 1996 with the Cumback Pussy line and in 2002 launched the directing career of Mason, who went on to win AVN Director of the Year in 2015 and now is in the Hall of Fame. Collins also signed notable directors Rob Black—who went on to launch Extreme Associates—and Nicky Starks, and offered future Hall of Fame shot-caller Axel Braun his first directing deal in 2002.
The studio won Best Gonzo Release three times under Collins: Buttwoman vs. Slutwoman (2011), Tori Black Is Pretty Filthy (2010) and Brianna Love Is Buttwoman (2008).
Elegant Angel's Blowjob Adventures of Dr. Fellatio won Best Oral-Themed Series in 2000-01, while Glazed and Confused took home AVN gold in 2006. The epic Wasteland captured AVN Movie of the Year in January 2013.
Meanwhile, the studio won Best Anal Sex Scene three times—in 2011 for Asa Akira & Manuel Ferrara in Asa Akira Is Insatiable; in 2009 for Sunny Lane & Ferrara for Big Wet Asses 13; and in 2008 for Bree Olson & Brandon Iron in Big Wet Asses 10.
Big Wet Asses earned the Best Anal-Themed Release trophy twice.
Braun, who went on to become the winningest director in history before retiring in 2023, considered Collins like a “father figure.” In 2003, a year after Axel landed his Elegant Angel directing contract, Collins made him the general manager.
It was while Braun was the GM that he directed Elegant Angel’s first and only feature shot on 16mm film, Compulsion, leading to the Best Couples Sex Scene - Film award for Ashley Long and Kurt Lockwood and Braun’s first win for Best Screenplay at the 2004 AVN Awards.
“That movie won awards all over the world, single-handedly changing the trajectory of my career, and I am forever grateful to Pat for taking a huge gamble on such an expensive project, but most importantly for his friendship and mentorship,” Braun said. “We traveled together all over the world and became very close. He was a remarkable guy and I learned so much from him.
“The last time I saw him was at the AVN Awards in 2011, after I won a landslide of trophies, including my very first Director of the Year award. … He came up to me with teary eyes, gave me a bear hug and said, ‘I always knew you were gonna get to the top, and you fucking deserve it. I’m so happy for you, kid!’
“His words meant so much to me, and I will never forget him.”
Braun said Collins inspired him to write Compulsion in April 2003—and he cast the man himself in a critical non-sex role as Big Charlie.
“I had this character in mind that was a heightened version of him, and the nucleus of my story began forming around it,” Axel recalled. “Pat had never acted before, but his charisma was undeniable. … He hit it out of the park and delivered a truly epic performance.”
David Joseph, who owns US Arcades, Rock Candy Toys and Bedroom Products and has produced hundreds of movies for Red Light District, told AVN he and Collins went on countless lunches over the years.
“He was a great director—one of the best ever,” said Joseph, who added that Collins loved jazz music, smoking cigars and 49ers football.
“He had a strong personality, but he was honorable. Honest, but tough … he might’ve talked loud but he had a good heart.”
