10 Best 70’s Male Pornstars
With their chiseled chests, thick mustaches, and even thicker hair, the 1970’s offering of male pornstars were raw, masculine, and athletic in a way rarely seen today. These actors led the porn revolution, starring in the Golden Age of Porn’s finest movies, as they starred alongside some of the industry’s finest co-stars.
If you are looking for the best 70’s male pornstars, look no further. At Adult Business Consulting, we’ve rounded up 10 of the most iconic and notorious male pornstars of the 1970’s for you to enjoy.
Jeffrey Hurst
We can’t talk about the Golden Age of Porn without Jeffrey Hurst, one of the first actors of the time when porn was still in its fledgling state. He had a career that spanned the 70’s and 80’s before retiring in 1987 after releasing Slammer Girls. He worked as both a stage actor and a porn actor, balancing both careers with his pornographic debut in 1973’s Bedroom Bedlam.
Ron Jeremy
With the mantle of number one US male porn star, Ron Jeremy (or The Hedgehog) has earned his spot in the Top 10 best 70’s male pornstars. With his iconic mustache and flowing locks, Jeremy rose to his spot as best male pornstar throughout the 70’s and 80’s, where his skills in the bedroom earned him his acting career and spot as number 1 in AVN’s 50 Top Pornstars of All Time. He started his career in 1977’s Can I Do It Till I Need Glasses? and has racked up more than 2000 films, not including his jump into mainstream movies or the 258 he directed. Of course, now the name Ron Jeremy is rather infamous, with multiple allegations of rape and abuse in recent years. In January 2023, Jeremy was found by the court to be mentally unfit to stand trial due to “incurable neurocognitive decline” and is now in a mental institution.
Long Dong Silver
British porn actor Long Dong Silver (taking his name from the Classic Treasure Island) earned his reputation for having a massive penis (reputed to be 18 inches!) Silver’s debut film was the low-budget Sex Freaks, but it wasn’t till the 1980’s that he made his name appearing in Beauty and the Beast in 82 with pron actress Seka.
John Holmes
John Holmes (1944-1988) was an American porn actor that rose to fame in the 1970’s and 1980s. Described as the ‘Elvis Presley of Porn,’ he has made today’s list of the best 70’s porn actors at number four for his prolific skills in the bedroom. His porn career took off in 1971 with the Johnny Wadd series, which included titles Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976), The Jade Pussycat (1977), China Cat (1978), Liquid Lips (1976) and Blonde Fire (1978). He later went on to work on over 240 adult movies. In 2008 he won the XBIZ Lifetime achievement award as a male pornstar.
Sonny Landham
Sonny Landham (1941-2017) was of Cherokee and Seminole stock. He was known for his strong physical presence and booming voice; he played multiple native american roles over the years. He started his acting career in porn movies throughout the 1970’s. He was a nude model for Playgirl magazine before jumping to mainstream acting, including his iconic roles in The Warriors and Predator. He quit acting and, in 2003, made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican Party’s nomination for the Governor of Kentucky.
John Stagliano
John ‘Buttman’ Stagliano is one of the most iconic and well-loved pornstars of the 1970’s. From his Buttman Adventures movies to his Evil Angel production company, where he continues to create adult films, he has made a career that is dearly loved by fans. After working as a stripper, he entered the porn industry as an actor; when he debuted in Stranger in Town in 1978, he stayed as an actor before turning to directing and making the gonzo porn genre popular.
Harry Reems
With his mustache and chiseled body, Harry Reems was the personification of what the 1970’s was all about. He started his acting career in the 1970’s and, working beside Linda Lovelace, jump started his career in porn with the iconic Deep Throat, which led to his arrest under the state’s obscenity laws of the time, as well as his role in The Devil in Miss Jones. Before these films, he acted in multiple porn films, usually 35mm and silent stag films, but it wasn’t till Deep Throat that his career took off.
Eric Edwards
Pornographer, photographer, and director Eric Edwards is a triple threat in the porn industry. His career as an actor started in the late 1960’s and went on to build his career in the 1970’s when he worked with Lovelace, and he is the only porn actor to have worked throughout every decade of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. He is best known for his role in Great Sexpectations, which came out in 1984 and has won multiple AVN and XRCO awards over the decades.
Spalding Gray
Best known for his autobiographical monologues, Spalding Grey was a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, but he started his career in the adult industry in the 1970’s. During this time, he also appeared in adult films, having a featured role in Farmer’s Daughters (1976) and appearing in Radley Metzger‘s Maraschino Cherry (1978) as he also performed in an acting circle alongside William Defoe and Elizabeth LeCompte. In the 1980’s, he moved over to mainstream acting and became a household name throughout the decades before he passed in 2004.
John Leslie
Alongside Ron Jeremy and Harry Reems, John Leslie was one of the most iconic names when discussing male pornstars of the 70’s. Of the 300 movies he starred in, the best roles that gained him popularity were Obsessed in 1977, Desire within Young Girls in 1977, and Talk Dirty to Me in 1980. He is also noted as the first porn actor to switch to directing in the 80’s and released Night Nurses in 1987. For his work in the porn industry, he has earned spots in the AVN and XRCO Hall of Fame.
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