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:Gerard Damiano

{{short description|American film director (1928–2008)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2015}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Gerard Damiano

| image =

| caption =

| birthname = Gerardo Rocco Damiano

| birth_date = {{birth date|1928|08|04}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|10|25|1928|08|04}}

| death_place = Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.

| spouse = {{plainlist|

  • {{marriage|Barbara Walton|||end=div}}
  • {{marriage|Paula Morton|1975|end=div}}

}}

| partner = Annie Sprinkle

| children = 2

| occupation = Director, producer, writer

| years_active = 1969–1994

}}

Gerardo Rocco "Gerard" Damiano (August 4, 1928{{cite web|url=http://avn.com/video/articles/33053.html |title='Deep Throat' Director Gerard Damiano Dies at 80 |access-date=2008-10-27 |first=David |last=Sullivan |date=October 27, 2007 |magazine=AVN |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029002305/http://avn.com/video/articles/33053.html |archive-date=October 29, 2008 }} – October 25, 2008){{cite web|url= http://www.news-press.com/article/20081027/NEWS0110/810270351/1085/NEWS01|title= Gerard Damiano, adult film director, dies in Fort Myers|access-date= 2008-10-27|first=Amy Bennett|last= Williams|date= October 27, 2007|newspaper= The News-Press}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}} was an American director of adult films.

Damiano wrote and directed the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat, which starred Linda Lovelace. He also directed The Devil in Miss Jones, which ranked {{abbr|No.|Number}}{{sp}}7 in Variety's list of the top-grossing pictures of 1973. Deep Throat came in at No.{{sp}}11 that year, its second consecutive year on the list.{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Jon|title=Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry|year=2000|publisher=NYU Press|location=New York City|isbn=978-0814751428|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hollywoodvhardco00lewi_0/page/260 260–67]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodvhardco00lewi_0/page/260}} Damiano is one of the seminal directors of what is known as The Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).

Biography

=Early life=

Gerard Damiano was born Gerardo Rocco Damiano to an Italian American Catholic family in the Bronx, New York City. When he was 6, his father died; his mother never remarried. He was a shoeshine boy in Times Square and worked in an automat.{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/movies/29damiano-1.html|title= Gerard Damiano, 80, Dies; Directed 'Deep Throat'|access-date= 2008-10-29|first= Margalit|last= Fox|date= October 28, 2008|newspaper= The New York Times}} The day he turned 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy, and served for 4 years. After his discharge, at the age of 21 years, Damiano studied X-ray technology on the G.I. Bill, and was an X-ray technician at Jamaica Hospital, in Queens, New York. He then opened a hairdressing salon with a friend in New York City. Frequently overhearing sexual gossip, at the salon, it convinced him that pornographic films, made to appeal to couples, would be a commercial success.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103103740_pf.html|title=Gerard Damiano, 80; Directed Ground-Breaking 'Deep Throat' Film|access-date= 2009-03-30|newspaper= The Washington Post}}

=Entrance into porn=

Damiano took an interest in film-making after his accountant introduced him to a producer who was making a low-budget horror film. Intrigued, Damiano began helping out as he could on the set, and went on to work as a crew member on numerous New York sexploitation films in the late 1960s.{{cite web|url=http://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/09/08/deep-throat-damiano-lovelace-and-lovelace-podcast-20/|title=Deep Throat: Damiano, Lovelace.. and “Lovelace”|website=The Rialto Report|date=September 8, 2013}}

==''Deep Throat''==

{{main|Deep Throat (film)}}

He directed the famous film Deep Throat, which was released in 1972 and starred Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems. The film is regarded as pioneering, and its success, is credited with helping to launch the modern adult-entertainment industry.{{cite web|newspaper=Guardian US|author=Smith, David|title=Deep Throat at 50: the controversial film that pushed porn into the mainstream|date=June 11, 2022|url=https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-guardian-usa/20220611/281865827124822?srsltid=AfmBOor7B_HsnxYxGotxeiegynTz_IlDMnSylUtUuXe8a6o8ehyLQsPT|publisher=PressReader}}

Damiano was surprised that the film attracted such attention.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The film was financed by organized crime, and Damiano did not benefit from the film's substantial commercial success.

Other notable films made by Damiano included The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), Memories Within Miss Aggie (1974), The Story of Joanna (1975), Let My Puppets Come (1976), Odyssey (1977), The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue (1980) and Skinflicks (1981).

==Recognition in ''Variety''==

In 1973, The Devil in Miss Jones made the Variety list of the top ten highest-grossing pictures of the year; Deep Throat, then in its second year of release (and second year on the list), just missed the top 10, coming in at No.{{sp}}11 for the year. The Devil in Miss Jones racked up box office receipts of $7.7 million for the year, coming in just below the James Bond-franchise entry Live and Let Die and Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon. Deep Throat grossed $4.6 million for the year, placing it ahead of the prestige picture Sleuth, which featured Oscar-nominated performances by Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. In 1975, Inish Kae, the film's distributor, launched an ad campaign touting the movie for Academy Award nominations. The ads in the entertainment industry trade press touted Miss Aggie for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Damiano) and Best Actress (Deborah Ashira).

Damiano often appeared in his own films in small non-sexual side roles, and used the names "Albert Gork," "Al Gork," "Jerry Gerard," under which name he had actually produced and directed Deep Throat, or "D. Furred."{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} He directed more than 50 adult films during his career.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3274884/Porn-director-of-Deep-Throat-Gerard-Damiano-dies.html|title=Porn director of 'Deep Throat' Gerard Damiano dies|access-date= 2009-03-30|newspaper= The Daily Telegraph | location=London | first=Catherine | last=Elsworth | date=October 28, 2008}}

=Personal life=

He married three times; with his second wife, Barbara Walton, he had two children, Christar and Gerard, Jr.

Aged 18, Annie Sprinkle - then known as Ellen F Steinberg - began working at the ticket booth at the Cine-Plaza Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, when Deep Throat (1972) was playing.{{cite web |date=April 7, 2013 |title=Annie Sprinkle: The Early Years – Podcast 05 |url=https://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/04/07/annie-sprinkle/ |website=The Rialto Report }}{{self-published inline|date=January 2023}} The film was busted, and when Steinberg had to appear in court as a witness, she met and began a relationship with Damiano, becoming his mistress. She followed him to New York City.

He was interviewed for the 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat.

=Death=

Damiano died on October 25, 2008, in a Fort Myers, Florida hospital, at the age of 80 years, following complications from a stroke he had suffered in September.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2008/film/news/director-gerard-damiano-dies-1117995651/|title=Director Gerard Damiano dies|date=November 11, 2008|author=Associated Press|magazine=Variety}}

Filmography (partial)

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

  1. We All Go Down (1969)
  2. The Magical Ring (1971)
  3. Sex USA (1971) (uncredited)
  4. Changes (1970) (documentary)
  5. Teenie Tulip (1970)
  6. The Marriage Manual (1970) (documentary)
  7. Deep Throat (1972; as Jerry Gerard)
  8. Meatball (1972) (as D. Furred)
  9. The Devil in Miss Jones (1973)
  10. Memories Within Miss Aggie (1974)
  11. Legacy of Satan (1974)
  12. Portrait (1974) (uncredited)
  13. The Story of Joanna (1975)
  14. Let My Puppets Come (1976)
  15. Joint Venture (1977)
  16. Odyssey: The Ultimate Trip (1977)
  17. Joint Venture (1977) (uncredited)
  18. The Confessions of Linda Lovelace (1977) (uncredited)
  19. Skin-Flicks (1978)
  20. Fantasy (1979)
  21. People (1979)
  22. For Richer, for Poorer (1979)
  23. Beyond Your Wildest Dreams (1981)
  24. The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue (1981)
  25. Never So Deep (1981)
  26. Consenting Adults (1982)
  27. Night Hunger (1983)
  28. Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? (1984) (video)
  29. Throat 12 Years After (1984)
  30. Return to Alpha Blue (1984) (video)
  31. Inside Everybody (1984) (video)
  32. Flesh and Fantasy (1985)
  33. Cravings (1985)
  34. Forbidden Bodies (1986) (video)
  35. Ultrasex (1987)
  36. Slightly Used (1987) (video)
  37. Maximum Head (1987)
  38. Lessons in Lust (1987) (video)
  39. Future Sodom (1987) (video)
  40. Ruthless Women (1988)
  41. Candy's Little Sister Sugar (1988) (video)
  42. Splendor in the Ass (1989; alternative title: Sex Express)
  43. Young Girls in Tight Jeans (1989)
  44. Perils of Paula (1989) (video)
  45. Dirty Movies (1989) (video)
  46. Proposta oscena (1991) (video)
  47. Just for the Hell of It (1991)
  48. Manbait (1991)
  49. ''Manbait Part 2 (1991) (video)
  50. Giochi di Coppia (1991)
  51. The Last Couple (1992)
  52. The Naked Goddess (1992)
  53. The Naked Goddess II (1992) (video)

{{div col end}}

Awards

  • 2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement in Movie Production[http://www.xbizawards.com/winners.php XBIZ Award Winners], XBIZ, February 2011

See also

The following listing includes related award-winning directors of adult erotic films:

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

{{div col end}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

External links

  • {{IMDb name|0198790|Gerard Damiano}}
  • [http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-devil-in-miss-jones-1973 Roger Ebert Review ("best" of genre; rated 3 of 4) of The Devil in Miss Jones, directed by Gerald Damiano (June 13, 1973).]
  • [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19740726/PEOPLE/50205001 Roger Ebert Interview with Deep Throat director Gerard Damiano (July 26, 1974).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004011247/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19740726%2FPEOPLE%2F50205001 |date=October 4, 2012 }}

{{Gerard Damiano}}

{{Sexual revolution|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Damiano, Gerard}}

Category:1928 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century American screenwriters

Category:American pornographic film directors

Category:American pornographic film producers

Category:American male screenwriters

Category:American writers of Italian descent

Category:English-language film directors

Category:Film directors from New York City

Category:Screenwriters from New York (state)

Category:United States Navy sailors