John Leslie Nuzzo (January 25, 1945 – December 5, 2010) was an American

pornographic film actor A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dist ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

. Usually credited under the name John Leslie, he also worked under a variety of pseudonyms, including John Leslie Dupre, Frederick Watson, and Lenny Lovely. Along with

Ron Jeremy Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953) is an American former pornographic actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", Jeremy was ranked by AVN at No. 1 in their "50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list. Jeremy has also made a number of non-pornographic ...

Jamie Gillis Jamie Gillis (born Jamey Ira Gurman; April 20, 1943 – February 19, 2010) was an American pornographic actor, director and member of the AVN Hall of Fame. He was married to the porn actress Serena. Early life Gillis was born Jamey Ira Gurman i ...

, John Holmes, and

Harry Reems Herbert John Streicher (August 27, 1947 – March 19, 2013), better known by his professional pseudonym Harry Reems, was an American pornographic actor and later a successful real estate agent. His most famous roles were as Doctor Young in ...

, Leslie was one of the stalwart male stars of the

Golden Age of Porn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-whitelist/Archives/2018/01#Another_Worthy_Journal_Article_on_Wordpress ---> The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American porno ...

, when blue movies had narratives, higher quality production values, and distribution in some legitimate movie houses. After Holmes experienced setbacks due to drug and legal problems, Leslie inherited the mantle of the porn industry's top male superstar with the success of ''Talk Dirty To Me'' in 1980. He eventually starred in over 600 porn films before making the transition to

Early life

Leslie was born into an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...

family in

East Liverpool, Ohio East Liverpool is a city in southeastern Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 9,958 at the 2020 census. It lies along the Ohio River within the Upper Ohio Valley and borders Pennsylvania to the east and West Virginia to the ...

on January 25, 1945. He grew up in the Midland area of

Beaver County, Pennsylvania Beaver County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 168,215. Its county seat is Beaver. The county was created on March 12, 1800, from parts of Allegheny and Washington counties. It took ...

. After graduating from high school, he worked at

Crucible Steel Company A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands te ...

before moving to New York to attend

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

. After finishing art school, he joined the band Brooklyn Blues Busters, where he played harmonica and sang. Later the band relocated to Michigan. In 1973, the band played at the

Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is a music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that started in 1972 from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which itself began in 1969. Although the festival has had a tumultuous history and suspended operations in 200 ...

with

Victoria Spivey Victoria Regina Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976), sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis A ...

Career

In the mid 1970s, Leslie relocated to the Mill Valley area in California and began performing in adult films. His first film was ''Coming Attractions'' (1976). He was a performer in almost 300 adult films and won numerous awards during his days as a performer. He appeared with some of the era's most noted porn stars, including fellow Ohioans

Traci Lords Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma; May 7, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She entered the adult film industry using a fake birth certificate to conceal that she was two years under the legal age of eighteen. Lords starred in adult fi ...

and John "Johnny Wadd" Holmes, as well as Seka,

Kay Parker Kay Taylor Parker (28 August 1944 – 14 October 2022) was a British pornographic film actress who later worked as a metaphysical counselor and mentor. She was the author of an autobiography ''Taboo: Sacred, Don't Touch'' which chronicles her ...

, and

Annette Haven Annette Haven (born December 1, 1954) is an American former pornographic actress popular during the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Haven was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and raised in a Mormon family. Haven later claimed that part of her reason for en ...

. His most noteworthy roles were in '' Obsessed'' (1977), ''Desires Within Young Girls'' (1977), ''A Coming of Angels'' (1977), ''

Dracula Sucks ''Dracula Sucks'' is a 1978 American pornographic horror film directed and co-written by Philip Marshak. The film is based on the 1931 film ''Dracula'', and the 1897 novel of the same name by Bram Stoker. It stars Jamie Gillis as Count Dracula, a ...

'' (aka ''Lust At First Bite'') (1978), ''

Pretty Peaches ''Pretty Peaches'' is a 1978 American pornographic comedy film directed by Alex de Renzy and released during the Golden Age of Porn. The film stars Desireé Cousteau as Peaches, described as "a daffy carefree female who cheerfully plunges through ...

'' (1979), '' Insatiable'' (1980), ''Nothing To Hide'' (1981), and ''Talk Dirty To Me, Part II'' (1982). He was one of the first porn actors to make the transition from performing to directing, beginning with 1987's ''Nightshift Nurses''. Since then he directed more than 90 adult movies, including ''The Chameleon'' (1989), ''Curse of the Catwoman'' (1992), ''Dog Walker'' (1994), and ''Drop Sex'' (1997), along with the ''Voyeur' ', ''Fresh Meat'', and ''Crack Her Jack'' series. He won many awards for his work behind the cameras as well. Though much of his later work, in keeping with current trends in adult video, was in the

gonzo Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose stage ...

genre, such as the "Fresh Meat" and "Crack Her Jack" series, Leslie continued to make feature films, or "sex dramas"; most recently, in 2007 he directed the film ''Brianna Love, Her Fine, Sexy Self.'' He was a member of the AVN, and

XRCO The X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) is a group of writers and editors from the American adult entertainment industry who each year present awards in recognition of achievement within the industry. After the controversy and criticism of the ...

Halls of Fame. John Leslie died of a heart attack at the age of 65 on December 5, 2010 at his home in

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

. Leslie was one of several former porn stars featured in the 2012 documentary ''

After Porn Ends ''After Porn Ends'' is a 2012 American documentary film about the pornography industry. It features interviews with Asia Carrera, Nina Hartley, Mary Carey, Randy West, Richard Pacheco, John Leslie, Amber Lynn, Seka, Raylene, Bill Margold, Sh ...

'', which was about life after being a porn actor. His final appearance was posthumously in the 2016 documentary ''X-Rated 2: The Greatest Adult Stars of All Time''.

Awards

''As a performer'': * 1977 AFAA Award - Best Supporting Actor (''Coming of Angels'') * 1980 AFAA Award - Best Actor (''Talk Dirty to Me'') * 1980 CAFA Award - Best Actor (''Talk Dirty to Me'') * 1981 AFAA Award - Best Actor (''Wicked Sensations'') * 1982 AFAA Award - Best Actor (''Talk Dirty to Me 2'') * 1982 CAFA Award - Best Actor (''Talk Dirty to Me 2'') * 1984 AFAA Award - Best Actor (''Dixie Ray'' & ''Every Woman has a Fantasy'') - tied with himself for both movies * 1984

XRCO Award The XRCO Awards are given by the American X-Rated Critics Organization annually to people working in adult entertainment and it is the only adult industry awards show reserved exclusively for industry members. Once every calendar year, XRCO m ...

- Best Copulation Scene (''Every Woman has a Fantasy'') * 1985 AFAA Award - Best Supporting Actor ('' Taboo 4'') * 1985

AVN Award The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') to recognize achievement in various aspects of the creation and m ...

- Best Supporting Actor, Film (''Firestorm'') * 1986 XRCO Award - Best Actor (''Every Woman has a Fantasy 2'') * 1988 AVN Award -

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

, Film (''Firestorm 2'') * 1988 XRCO Award - Best Actor (''Beauty and the Beast'') ''As a director'': * 1987 XRCO Award - Best Director, Video (''Nightshift Nurses'') * 1988 XRCO Award - Best Director (''Catwoman'') * 1989 AVN Award - Best Director, Video (''Catwoman'') * 1992 XRCO Award - Best Film (''Chameleons: Not The Sequel'') * 1994 XRCO Award - Best Film (''Dog Walker'') * 1994 XRCO Award - Best Director * 1995 AVN Award - Best Director, Film (''Dog Walker'') * 1995 AVN Award - Best Director, Video (''Bad Habits'') * 1997 AVN Award - Best All-Sex Release (''John Leslie's Fresh Meat 3'') * 1997 XRCO Award - Best Director * 1998 AVN Award - Best All-Sex Release (''John Leslie's Fresh Meat 4'') * 1998 XRCO Award - Best Director * 1999 AVN Award - Best All-Sex Release (''John Leslie's Fresh Meat 5'') * 1999 AVN Award - Best Director, Video (''The Lecher 2'') * 2000 AVN Award - Best All-Sex Release (''The Voyeur 12'') ''Other awards'': * 1989 AVN Award - Best Screenplay, Video (''Catwoman'') with Mark Weiss * 1995 AVN Award - Best Screenplay, Film (''Dog Walker'')

Literature

Nicolas Barbano Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

: ''Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner'' (Rosinante, Denmark 1999) : Features a chapter on him.

References

External links

Official John Leslie website
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leslie, John 1945 births 2010 deaths American male pornographic film actors American pornographic film directors American pornographic film producers 20th-century American male actors Artists from Pittsburgh American male film actors American film directors People from East Liverpool, Ohio Pornographic film actors from Ohio American film directors of Italian descent