SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Veteran performer Kyle Stone has passed away. He was 54 years old.
Stone's career began in 1993, and he is credited with more than 1,700 performances on the Internet Adult Film Database. Stone had been nominated for sex scenes and acting performances dating back to 2003, and his acting won him two AVN Awards for Non-Sex Performance in Hotel No Tell in 2013 and Conflicted earlier this year. He was also inducted this year into the XRCO Hall of Fame.
According to longtime friend Peter Klimenko, who has known the actor for more than 40 years, Stone passed away in his sleep and was discovered in his bedroom this morning. (The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office was unable to confirm the time and cause of death until next of kin could be officially notified.)
Klimenko had spoken to Stone about three weeks ago and said that things were going well for the actor. According to Klimenko, he had been happily involved with “the best girlfriend he ever had” and was working steadily at a mainstream job but had just quit in order to pursue a business opportunity in the industry. "He was very upbeat, positive," Klimenko said.
"What a horrific loss," said director/agent Jonathan Morgan, who had recently engaged Stone to do computer work for Morgan's agency. "We lost a legend in this business. Kyle was always a professional from beginning to end, probably one of the most amazing actors that I've been around. Because I would be directing comedic movies, Kyle not only had a wide range of comedic timing but also he could meld himself into a character. It was never Kyle being Kyle. He went from the crazy starship commander in Space Nuts to the very flamboyant camp counselor in Camp Cuddly Pines Powertool Massacre to the bellhop in Hotel No Tell. When I needed somebody who had their dialogue down but also had the comedic timing and could give me a character, there was only one phone call that I had to make: Kyle Stone."
"I've known him my whole career," veteran editor Sonny Malone told AVN. "He was, seriously, a gentleman in this industry. That sounds cheesy, but that's the truth. ... This is just a shock."
"I'm just as shocked as anybody else," AVN Hall of Fame performer Melissa Hill said. "I called Tony Tedeschi and Guy DiSilva. Tony was 'Nope. Not believing it. It's a hoax.'
"I thought he was goofy. He was always a big flirt," Hill continued. "He really enjoyed his job: He understood that he was an average-looking guy and he thought he had the best job in the world. When we were in the Philippines working for Private, he went off on an adventure to Hong Kong. He wanted me to go with him but I chickened out at the last minute. He went, and a photo from that trip is on his Facebook page. I always enjoyed working with him, because he was very friendly and always prepared. He was a true professional. I was jealous of his non-sex awards. 'You and your non-sex roles. Kyle! I want some of that!'" she added.
Another AVN Hall of Famer, writer/director/publicist DCypher, offered, "Kyle was a great actor. I booked him on countless scenes for Andre Madness and others. He was a smart guy with strong opinions who loved to read and could hold his own, on set and off."
Upon hearing the news, longtime screenwriter Penny Antine told AVN, “He was one of the nicest guys in the business. Good actor. Good attitude. Always professional. Easy to work with. Fun. I'm so sorry to hear he died so young with so much living left to do.”
Stormy Daniels, who cast Stone as the lead in the last movie she directed for Wicked Pictures, Never Forgotten—of which she said he was very proud—remembered meeting him on her very first big movie as a contract star, Space Nuts. "I've known him since my very first year in the business," Daniels told AVN. "He had a big part, he was captain of the ship, and I'm pretty sure the first time I met him was on the set of that movie. He was like, so cool and so nice. People didn't really know me then, and he really took the time out to give me some acting tips. And there was that scene where we're all up on the bridge in the spaceship, and it was the first time I've obviously ever acted with a green screen and it was really hard, and he was like, 'OK, we're all going to pick the same thing across the room to look at, because otherwise when they CGI in the explosions and ships we'll all be looking at the wrong place.' And so he really helped me that day. And we worked on a lot of stuff together, but that really sticks out because it was the first time I met him and it was Space Nuts.
"I went on to direct him a bunch. He's in a lot of my favorite movies," Daniels continued. "And his parts, no matter how small of a role you gave him, he owned it. He just made it the most important thing in the world. He's a cab driver in Wanderlust, and he had like two lines of dialogue I think, and he was as serious and committed to that part as he was in Never Forgotten. He was super committed to that part, and he was always on time, and always nice to everybody. He was going to have a decent size part in this mainstream horror movie I've been working on for awhile, and he just helped make my movies better. And I can't say that about everybody. He was just one of those people that was always a quiet joy to have on set, and I don't know anybody who's had something bad to say about him."
AVN also reached out to Luc Wylder and Alexandra Silk of Fallen Angel, who worked with Stone on Dirty Dancers 9 with Ruby Jewel and also cast him in other Fallen Angel series, including Amateur Angels and Adult Stars at Home.
"Hearing of Kyle Stone's passing feels like losing a member of the family,” Wylder said. “It seems like only yesterday we were so excited to be part of his induction into the XRCO Hall of Fame. Thank you, Dirty Bob, for honoring this man before his death. Kyle accepted his award with an eloquent Shakespearean rendition of his song for the unsung Viagra-free swordsmen and reported he was happy, healthy and in love. Death is always shocking and takes the best of us. May Kyle's memory always be a blessing to us. .... Kyle was always a gentleman to everyone on set and a true professional at his craft. His spirit will be greatly missed."
Silk added, "I will always love you, my Kyle."
Stone's girlfriend, Lisa West, talked about her relationship with Stone, whom she met on Tinder two years ago. “He is just the best guy in L.A. … by far, hands down, the best, most genuine, such a great person. God brought me to him. I really kind of thought we would grow old together. We had so much in common.”
West noted that Stone never drank or got involved with drugs. “He was such a beautiful person,” she said. “There were big things being thought about in that head. He had lots of plans. He had a lot of dreams. He had stuff going on.”
One of those dreams was a book project, which Stone had been working on for several years. The book was written in diary form, West said, and she had recently given Stone a computer with Microsoft Word so he could to get a draft into shape. Expressing her hope that the book might some day be published, West said, “He was proud of so much. I would just love to have his memory live on.”
Stone is survived by one older brother and two younger brothers.
Sharan Street, Sherri L. Shaulis and Peter Warren contributed to this report. Above, Kyle Stone's induction into the XRCO Hall of Fame at the 2018 XRCO Awards; photo by Rick Garcia/@IndustryByRick
