DUBLIN, Ireland—AVN has learned that performer/director Brandon Iron, who had mysteriously fallen out of contact with friends since roughly mid-April, in fact died around that time in Dublin, where he had been living for several years with his girlfriend Sarah O'Brien and their daughter Lily.
O'Brien told AVN that she discovered Iron's body, but noted that the cause and exact time of his death remain unknown. "I have been given no information, as I am not next of kin," she explained. Iron's birthday was July 14, upon which he would have turned 51.
"I know [Brandon] would be happy to be remembered, he loved L.A. and his life there!" O'Brien further commented. "[Brandon] was and will always be a great father. I am devastated by what happened."
A native of Alberta, Canada, who holds a degree in English, Iron tentatively began dabbling in the adult industry in 1991, but did not pursue it full-time until 1997. In 2000, he expanded into directing, building up a portfolio of work for Extreme Associates, Devil's Film, Premiere Pictures and Red Light District, until signing on as a contract helmsman in 2003 for Red Light sister banner Platinum X Pictures.
In 2007, Iron struck back out on his own with eponymous label Brandon Iron Productions, securing a distribution partnership with JM Productions. While he mostly focused on his website, BrandonIron.com, and selling clips through ManyVids in recent years, Iron did make an isolated return to studio directing in 2015 with the interracial title Shade X for Smash Pictures, which went on to earn a 2016 AVN Award nomination for Best Interracial Movie.
Performer/director and longtime friend Ralph Long, who was among the first to take note of Iron's dropoff in communication, told AVN, "Brandon Iron was the nicest and most down-to-earth person in the industry. He was kind and would go out of his way to help anyone. Brandon will be missed."
Kick Ass Pictures founder Mark Kulkis, who was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame along with Iron in 2018, recollected, "I first met Brandon in 1998 when I was working at Legend [Video]. Brandon was going through one of his funks at the time. Throughout his career, he would suffer these bouts of low self-esteem where he was convinced he was no good and declare he was going to quit the business. In this particular case, his loss of confidence was my gain, because he sold his almost-new camera to me at a bargain price. The same camera, incidentally, that I would use to shoot Barefoot Confidential, Chica Boom and the other titles that would establish Kick Ass Pictures.
"I loved using Brandon as talent," Kulkis continued. "He was a funny actor and as nice a guy as they come, ready to try anything you requested; he had a huge dick and knew how to use it; and he was a hardcore foot lover, which was perfect for my movies. He was always my go-to guy when he was available. I also admired his intelligence and joie de vivre. He was constantly traveling to exotic cities around the globe. An English major like myself, he was a voracious reader and could always be counted on for great conversation. We'd often have dinner when he was in town. He was also extremely humble—I think perhaps too humble, because being more assertive in certain business matters probably would have been better for his career. But that was part of his charm as well.
"I texted him last year that our lives were finally complete, because we were both inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame at the same time. It was obviously a joke, because he had a lot more to give to the world. My heart goes out to Sarah and their little girl Lily, whom I know he loved being a dad to."
Another fellow AVN Hall of Famer, Jim Powers, offered, "I remember when [Iron] first got in, I got a Polaroid sent to me from Canada—it was back when he had that big mustache and everything—this guy with a mustache from Canada, and he wanted to come down and start doing porn. At the time, I used to shoot for JM and so forth, I would shoot amateur lines and stuff for them, and I'll never forget the first time I [shot him], I go, 'This guy is great—huge cock, he's getting it hard.' And I was shooting features at the time for the old Spice Network, and I shoot him in this feature, and the first scene is going to be on this big, huge table, and he walks out, I remember, and he just pulls out his cock, and [his co-star] looks over and she goes, 'There's a new sheriff in town.' That's what I'll always remember."
He went on, "What I also remember is that Brandon was at all of our bukkakes; he just liked hanging out at the bukkakes, and I'd always go, 'What the fuck are you doing here?' But he just loved being at the bukkakes. That was Brandon, man, Brandon was the ultimate pervert. He lived and breathed it.
"It's truly sad," Powers reflected. "He was the real deal."
Photo of Brandon Iron from his Facebook page.
