Bill Amerson, Friend and Mentor of John Holmes, Passes

LOS ANGELES—Bill Amerson, best known for his partnership with legendary adult actor John Holmes, but who was also an actor and producer in his own right, has died of a stroke at his home in Los Angeles. He was 76.

Amerson had a storied career, beginning in the late 1960s when he and a partner (not Holmes) had offices in Hollywood where they would take sexually explicit photos of women and sell them to various magazines like Adam and Adam Film World.

"I first met John [Holmes] in 1969 while casting for some still-photo porn magazine stuff at the Crossroads of the World on Sunset Boulevard," Amerson told Legs McNeill, co-author of The Other Hollywood. "We had an open casting call. It was toward the end of the day and in walked this really skinny kid with an Afro haircut. He didn't look like the type we could use.

"My partner said, 'Have him go in the back room, take off his clothes, take a Polaroid and then say, "Thank you very much"—and that's the end of that.' So we went into the back room. John undressed. He turned around. I looked at it and said, 'You're going to be a star!'"

During the period when Amerson represented Holmes, and eventually took Holmes as his partner in Penguin Productions, Amerson also owned several bookstores and theaters in Southern California and Arizona, and was constantly targeted by the L.A. Vice Squad, which he referred to as the "Pussy Posse"—and even had T-shirts made up with that phrase, which he mailed to various Vice Squad members.

But although Amerson told McNeill that in the early days Holmes would not use any drug except marijuana, in the actor's later years, he became addicted to cocaine and heroin, and this may have led to Amerson having opened a "sober living house" after Holmes died of complications from AIDS.

In fact, it has been said that Amerson was the first producer to require his performers to be tested for HIV before filming them—and to prove how serious he was, both he and Holmes got the first HIV tests in the industry, which showed that both were negative. However, six months later, in late 1985, Holmes took another STD test and came up positive for HIV. He died less than three years later. It was not long after that when Amerson became certified as a sober living counselor and opened up his facility.

"Bill was like the psychologist of the club," said Brad Barnes, owner of the Exposed Gentlemen's Club on Canoga Avenue. "The girls would go to cry on Bill's shoulder. He was sort of the older figure at the club, so he was more a psychologist figure, and he would help out the girls. He got some kind of degree to be a sober living doctor, and he opened a sober living house, facility. He had it even while he was working at the club. He would work with the girls when they had issues. He would get them set up at the sober living house, and they would continue to work here; he'd get them a place to live and try to guide them through the speed bumps of life."

In fact, Amerson got Barnes his first job in adult, where he performed under the stage name "Brick Majors."

"Bill's been working security/reception at Exposed for the past ten years," Barnes told AVN. "He and John Holmes were partners in a company called Penguin Productions. He got me my very first job way back with Ginger Lynn, a Suze Randall shoot. I've known him for 30 years."

"This was like Bill's retirement job," he continued, "because he liked to be around all the girls, and he actually wound up marrying one of the dancers. He was 76 when he died, and she's like 25."

"Bill hadn't been feeling well for the past few months, so when my brother Brian [Surewood] got out of prison, he took over running security at the club," Barnes added."But the last I saw of him, he seemed happy, all the way till the end."

What few knew was that Amerson had been an actor and producer in his own right, mostly in the mid-1980s, though his credits read "Bill Williams" (not to be confused ith the actor who played Kit Carson on 1950s TV). Amerson produced a number of movies including Girls on Fire and The Divorcee (in both of which he also acted), I Love L.A. and Lottery Lu$t. He also appeared as non-sex talent in several adult movies, including Henri Pachard's Taboo American Style series.

Pictured, l-r: John Holmes and Bill Amerson.