American porn actor John Holmes was BOTD in 1944. Born in Ashville, Ohio, he grew up in poverty, leaving home at 15 and joining the US Army. After being discharged in 1963, he moved to Los Angeles, working a variety of menial jobs. In the late 1960s, he began working as a nude model for gay physique magazines and starred in several erotic films. He rose to fame as the star of the 1971 film film Johnny Wadd, playing an exceptionally well-endowed private investigator with unconventional interrogation methods. The film’s success led to a series of imaginatively titled sequels Around the World with Johnny Wadd, Here Comes Johnny Wadd and The Return of Johnny Wadd, making him the porn industry’s highest-paid male star. Offscreen, his life was less rock-hard: frequently arrested for pimping, he became an informant for the Los Angeles Police Department to avoid further arrest, and developed a cocaine addiction. Unable to sustain erections in adult film work, he turned to drug dealing, theft, credit card fraud and sex work to support himself. In 1976, he met and groomed 15 year-old Dawn Schiller, encouraging her addiction to drugs and forcing her into prostitution to fund their drug habits. In 1981, he was present at the murder of four members of a Los Angeles drug gang, known as the Wonderland Murders. After fleeing police for three weeks, he was arrested and tried for murder, but acquitted due to lack of evidence. After a brief prison sentence, he attempted a career comeback in adult films, including the gay-themed The Private Pleasures of John C Holmes. Diagnosed HIV positive in 1985, he chose not to reveal his status to his co-stars before engaging in unprotected sex. Married twice, he claimed to have had over 14,000 sexual partners. He died in 1988 of an AIDS-related illness, aged 43. Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boogie Nights, chronicling the rise and fall of a well-endowed porn star, was inspired by Holmes’ career, though excised many of the ugly realities of his life and crimes.