Gerard Damiano
Gerard Damiano (born August 4, 1928 in New York City , † October 25, 2008 in Fort Myers ; actually Gerardo Rocco Damiano ) was an American film director . He is best known for his classic porn movies Deep Throat (1972), The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) and the sadomasochistic classic The Story of Joanna (1975). He is often considered one of the most stylish directors in porn chic .
Life
Damiano grew up in the Bronx , New York City. His parents were Catholics of Italian descent; his father died when he was six years old. Even as a child he loved films. As a teenager he worked as a shoe shiner in Times Square and as a table clearer ( busboy ) in a vending machine restaurant in Manhattan.
At the age of 17, he enlisted in the Navy for four years . Subsequently, the GI Bill of Rights enabled him to learn the profession of X-ray assistant. Because he didn't like the job, he retrained to become a hairdresser. Together with a friend, he opened a salon in New York in 1956. He got to know filmmakers through his accountant and got into the film scene. In 1970 he stepped in as the director of a softcore flick called Teenie Tulip , for which he also wrote the script, inspired by the topics of conversation with customers in his own beauty and hairdressing salon.
In 1972 he met Linda Lovelace , whose knowledge of deepthroat he found so amazing that he wrote the hardcore porn film Deep Throat especially for her , which was financed by a member of the Mafia and shot in Miami in six days . The film caused a tremendous sensation. It has been banned in several states in the United States. On the other hand, it sparked a veritable wave of porn chic and a debate about artistic freedom and pornography. The film was produced for $ 25,000 and is considered the most profitable film in cinema history with $ 600 million in revenues through 2008. Damiano didn't get rich with Deep Throat as he ceded his rights to the Mafia financiers, but he became famous in one fell swoop.
In 1973 he shot The Devil in Miss Jones, another porn classic that, in contrast to many of today's genre products, had an artistic claim. Until the late 1980s, he continued to make more hardcore porn films that are considered to be among the better of the genre. He has often written the music for his films since the 1975 film The Story of Joanna , a variation on the story-of-the-O theme. In the early 1990s, when the pornographic film was dead, he shot a few more porn videos, the last one in 1994. After that, he retired into retirement.
Gerard Damiano was married three times. He moved to Fort Myers , Florida with his second wife and two children in 1970 , but continued to work in New York during the week. After separating from his second wife, he moved to California , then returned to Fort Myers a few years before his death and lived there with his children. In February 2005 the documentary Inside Deep Throat came out, which dealt with Deep Throat from a time gap of over 30 years and made Damiano known again. Damiano died on October 25, 2008 of complications from a stroke in Fort Myers.
Filmography
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literature
- Christian Kessler: The Devil In Mr. Damiano . In: Pornography And Its Context (PDF, 1.1 MB; in English) ( Memento from May 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- Hanns-Georg Rodek: Porn for the middle class . In: The world . November 1, 2008 ( at welt.de - obituary).
- Margalit Fox: Gerard Damiano, 80, Dies; Directed 'Deep Throat' . In: The New York Times . October 29, 2008 (American English, at nytimes.com [accessed February 21, 2009]).
- Pierre Perrone: Gerard Damiano: Director of the hugely successful porn film 'Deep Throat' . In: The Independent . October 29, 2008 (in English, from independent.co.uk [accessed February 21, 2009]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Spiegel: Gerard Damiano , Der Spiegel 45/2008, register p. 186.
Web links
- Gerard Damiano in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Gerard Damiano in the Internet Adult Film Database (English)
- Interview with Damiano by Roger Ebert , July 26, 1974 (in English)
- Links to reviews of Damiano films on pornoklassiker.de
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Damiano, Gerard |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Damiano, Gerardo Rocco (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film director |
DATE OF BIRTH | 4th August 1928 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
DATE OF DEATH | October 25, 2008 |
Place of death | Fort Myers |