Bruno (adult performer)
{{Short description|Cuban-American model and adult performer}}
{{Notability|1=Biographies|date=January 2024}}
{{use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bruno
| birth_place = Cuba
| nationality = American
| occupation = Model, adult film actor
| known_for = Gay pornography
}}
Bruno is a model and adult performer famous for his work in adult magazines and pornographic films for gay men. AEBN refers to Bruno as "perhaps the quintessential gay porn icon from the 'gay macho' period of the 1970s and early 80s."{{Cite web |title=The Best Of Bruno 2 |url=https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/167001/the-best-of-bruno-2 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=AEBN |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240116052147/https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/167001/the-best-of-bruno-2 |archive-date= Jan 16, 2024 }} Little is publicly known about his personal life or career outside of the gay adult industry.
Biography
Bruno was born in Cuba{{Cite web |title=The Best Of Bruno |url=https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/165457/the-best-of-bruno |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=AEBN |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116052150/https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/165457/the-best-of-bruno |archive-date= Jan 16, 2024 }} and moved to Miami, Florida, when he was 10 years old.{{Cite journal |last=Zweigler |first=Mark |title= Bruno |url=https://www.smutjunkies.com/updates/bruno-aka-hermes-colt-studio-model-gay-porn-super-star/ |journal=Mandate |issue=March 1979 |publisher=smutjunkies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007020222/https://www.smutjunkies.com/updates/bruno-aka-hermes-colt-studio-model-gay-porn-super-star/ |archive-date= Oct 7, 2021 }} As a young man he considered a career in professional weightlifting, but decided against it. Bruno began modeling for gay publications at age 18; his first photo shoot was fully nude and involved other men, but no physical contact. Bruno later met Lou Thomas (also known as Jon Target{{Cite web |title=Colt Studios. Tretter Audio and Video Inventory, Tretter-3. |url=https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/13/archival_objects/1337716 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=University of Minnesota Archival Collections Guides |publisher=Jean Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240201221346/https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/13/archival_objects/1337716 |archive-date= Feb 1, 2024 }}), who was then working for Colt Studio. In a 1979 interview with Mandate, Bruno recalled,
He gave me his card, and said that when I was ready to model to give him a call. About two or three months later I called him and went to New York. Then I went to California to be photographed by Rip Colt. Both sets of photographs were used in the Gallery magazine that Colt did on me.In 1977, Bruno posed for a photograph for the cover of Rod McKuen's 1977 album Slide Easy In.{{Cite news |last=Alfonso |first=Barry |date= August 29, 2019|title=Rod McKuen: Poet, Songwriter, Gay Activist |url=https://glreview.org/article/rod-mckuen-poet-songwriter-gay%e2%80%88activist/ |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=The Gay & Lesbian Review |series=September–October 2019 Issue |language=en-US}}1977 cover art for Slide Easy In by Rod McKuen, digitized and published on [http://glamjacknyc.blogspot.com/2015/01/ Blogspot.com] on January 29, 2015. Inscription on cover reads, in part: "If this album sounds different, it tried to be. The performers, producers, the players (whether part of the enormous rhythm section or the full symphony complement of strings) knew this was a project everyone had to get into; not just on the surface, but deeply—and together. If you don't feel "easy in" then perhaps your threshold of pain or pleasure needs looking into. EASY IN was produced in Great Britain, South America, France, and the United States during a four month period. The completed tape was mastered the second week of February, 1977 in Los Angeles.* It was first played before an audience on St. Valentine's Day on a cruise down the Dalmatian coast between Dubrovnik and Cypress—before a somewhat captive, but nevertheless invited and approving, audience. The producers wish to thank the governments of Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Tunisia; and the directors of "The Islanders" Club without whose cooperative efforts, it would not have been possible. *DON'T DRINK THE ORANGE JUICE was written and recorded on March 25th — the natal day of Ms. O. J. [...] Photos of Bruno courtesy of Target Studios. Bruno Courtesy of The Bull Pen. Special thanks to Target." Only Bruno's arm is visible in the photograph, gripping shortening from fictional brand "Disco" in his fist; the photograph is generally regarded as a reference to gay sex, especially fisting, for which Crisco was commonly used as lubricant at the time.{{Cite web |last=Frank |first=Gillian |date=2015-02-19 |title=Straight After Death: Misremembering the Queer Life and Times of Rod McKuen |url=https://notchesblog.com/2015/02/19/not-by-my-definition-remembering-rod-mckuens-queer-life-and-times/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=NOTCHES |language=en-GB}} An inscription on the cover states:
If this album sounds different, it tried to be. The performers, producers, the players (whether part of the enormous rhythm section or the full symphony complement of strings) knew this was a project everyone had to get into; not just on the surface, but deeply—and together. If you don't feel "easy in" then perhaps your threshold of pain or pleasure needs looking into.In 1979, a portrait of Bruno by Tom of Finland was featured in Target By Tom; The Natural Man, a series of portraits and photographs that Tom co-produced with Lou Thomas.{{Cite web |title=Tom of Finland (1920-1991), Lou Thomas (Dates Unknown), Target by Tom; The Natural Man. |url=https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/TOM-OF-FINLAND-(1920-1991)-LOU-THOMAS-(DATES-UNKNOWN)-TARGET?saleno=2677&lotNo=156&refNo=819584 |access-date=2024-08-01 |website=Swann Galleries |quote=The Natural Man. Six chromogenic prints. Each sheet {{convert|203|x|254|mm|in|abbr=on}}(sheet). 1975. Target by Tom. Eight offset lithographs. Each sheet {{convert|254|x|203|mm|in|abbr=on}}(sheet). Signed and dated "79" in the plate. This dual portfolio set was executed by photographer and co-founder of Target Studios, Lou Thomas. Thomas photographed the models and Tom of Finland drew the models from Thomas' photographs to make the prints. The models included Jeremy Brent, Chuck Gatlin, Steve Sartori, Roger, Barry, Brand, Dak, and Bruno.}}
In addition to modeling, Bruno starred in numerous pornographic films by Colt Studio{{Cite web |title=Model: Bruno |url=https://www.coltstudiogroup.com/profile/639-bruno |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Colt Studio |language=en}} and Bijou Video, including Pleasures In The Sun (1980){{Cite web |title=Pleasures In The Sun |url=https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/91252/pleasures-in-the-sun |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=AEBN}} and the Bullet Videopac series #2,{{Cite web |title=Bullet Videopac 2 |url=https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/162835/bullet-videopac-2 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=AEBN}} #6,{{Cite web |title=Bullet Videopac 6 |url=https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/164595/bullet-videopac-6 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=AEBN}} and #9.{{Cite web |title=Bullet Videopac 9 |url=https://gay.aebn.com/gay/movies/168392/bullet-videopac-9 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=AEBN}} In his 1979 Mandate interview, Bruno stated that he also had a job "in the rate department" of an airline as well as a degree in business.
In 2019, The Advocate described Bruno as having "the mustache that launched a thousand fantasies."{{Cite web |last=Harrity |first=Christopher |date=2019-11-07 |title=Gay/Bi Men and Mustaches, a History in Photos |url=https://www.advocate.com/comedy/2019/11/07/gay-men-and-mustaches-history-photos |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Advocate |language=en}}
Bruno reportedly continued to star in gay porn well into the early 2000s, sometimes under the stage name "Hermes."{{Cite web |last=Stabile |first=Mike |date=2012-12-31 |title=Gay Porn Before and After: Bruno!!!!! |url=https://www.gaypornblog.com/bruno-gay.html |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Gay Porn Blog |language=en-US}} His astrological zodiac sign is libra.
References
Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people
Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people
Category:American male pornographic film actors
Category:American male adult models
Category:Gay pornographic film actors
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States