Harry Reems, 65, R.I.P. (1 Viewer)

[PayOrPlay]

Harry Reems dies at 65; porn actor starred in 'Deep Throat' - latimes.com

Harry Reems, who starred with Linda Lovelace in the 1972 pornographic film "Deep Throat" and became a cause celebre in Hollywood after he was convicted on federal obscenity charges related to the movie, has died. He was 65.

Reems, who had pancreatic cancer and other ailments, died Tuesday at a Salt Lake City veterans hospital. . . .

At first he enjoyed the celebrity that accompanied starring in one of the most successful pornographic films of all time. "You could call me the Shirley Temple" of adult films, Reems told an interviewer when "Deep Throat" was released. "Take an X film and make it an R because I have a PG body."

That changed in 1974 when he was charged along with 10 others with conspiring to distribute "Deep Throat" across state lines. It marked the first time that the federal government had tried to charge an actor for the results of a film's distribution. . . .

While waiting to go on trial, "the heavy drinking began in Memphis," Reems said in 2005 in The Times, and he became a "2-quart-a-day vodka drinker" who at one time lived "in the back of an Albertsons' dumpster in Malibu."

He didn't stop drinking until the late 1980s, when he ended up in Park City, Utah, and entered a 12-step alcohol recovery program.

Once sober, he sold real estate. Reems also turned toward religion.

"I put God in first position, not me," Reems told Utah's Deseret Morning News in 2006, "because anything I had ever done almost killed me."

Trivia: Reems was the original choice to play the Coach in the film version of Grease; the producers changed their minds and gave the role to Sid Caesar.

(I'm going to start this thread in EE; if it has to go BTL later, so be it.)

 

[2009ring]

*insert "stiff" pun here...<insert "stiff"="" pun="" here=""></insert>

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

This news is tough to swallow.

 

[superchuck500]

Reading it makes me so sad I can't finish.