70's gay porn god Jack Wrangler has
died, reports the AP. He was 62.
Wrangler died in New York City of
complications arising from lung disease, said Lewis Tice, director of
Publicity and Marketing for TLA Releasing, a distributor of
independent films aimed at the gay and lesbian community.
“Jack was one of the earlier pioneers
in helping to bring awareness to the gay community by being open
about who he was and about following his dreams,” Tice said. “We
are deeply saddened as he is an essential part of our gay history.
Our sympathies go out to his family.”
Before any other gay porn star thrust
his hips into porn icon status – Jeff Stryker, Ryan Idol – there
was Jack Wrangler, who appeared on the scene at the peak of the
sexual revolution.
Wrangler's life is the subject of last
year's documentary Anatomy of an Icon,
distributed by TLA Releasing.
In the film, Wrangler himself tells how
he went from go-go boy to porn star almost overnight by starring in
such classics as Kansas City Trucking Company. He
would build his macho-man reputation in 80-plus porn films. An
openly gay man, Wrangler then decided to conquer straight porn –
having sex with a woman for the first time on film.
At the height of
his career, Wrangler met pop singer and actress Margaret Whiting.
While she was twenty-two years his elder, the pair fell in love and
married eighteen years later in 1994.
Wrangler
successfully metamorphosed into a musical theater producer in the
late 70's and turned his back on gay porn superstardom.