Buck Adams, 1955-2008
Buck Adams was a ruthless prevaricator, a brawler, a raucous drunk (when he was not on the wagon), a man who, I assume, never met an illicit narcotic he didn’t like (particularly cocaine), an obviously troubled soul, and a hell of a nice guy, a Mephistopholes in angel’s guise.
Buck was born Charles S. Allen on November 15, 1955 in Newport Beach, California. Buck’s sister, porn star Amber Lynn (Laura Allen), got her brother into the adult film business in the late 1980s after short-lived careers as boxer and a bouncer. Buck went on to appear in over 300 films and videos as an actor and performer. He also enjoyed an award-winning career behind the camera, directing more than 70 features. In 1996, I was proud to write the screenplay for “Night Club” for Buck Adams, a 35mm shot-on-film flesh epic, a gangster melodrama that was intended to be his tribute to Martin Scorsese … in reality, the big-budget XXX epic was more akin to an adult industry version of Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate”, a troubled production plagued by budget constraints, permit issues, and every other problem you can think of. I extended my professional relationship with Buck in 1999 when I interviewed him on-camera for his (plenty fabricated) memories of adult film legend John Holmes for the feature documentary “Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes.”
Buck was plagued by heart problems for quite some time, surviving a series of heart attacks in the late 90s. Yesterday, Buck Adams passed away at a hospital in Northridge at the age of 53.
Inexplicably, Buck never called me by my name. I was always “Cowboy” to him. The only other man who ever called me “Cowboy” for no good reason at all was Mel Brooks, who I encountered in the parking lot of 20th Century-Fox studios quite frequently back in 1979 when I was on the lot to meet with Ronny Graham at the “M*A*S*H” production offices.
It was a long, rough ride for ya, Buck, but you finally got that prime spot on the bench out front of the Trail’s End Saloon. Rest in peace, Cowboy.
nice post Rodger
By: Scot on October 30, 2008
at 4:00 am
Thanks, Scot.
By: Rodger Jacobs on October 30, 2008
at 8:28 am
Hey Rodger, I recognize his face and saw him in porno flicks often. I used to be a real aficionado of porno films but with a few exceptions they bore the shit out of me now. I must be getting old!
Years ago I had a friend who was a big time fence and I accompanied him on business a few times to the Wonderland house where he would buy expensive items that the riffraff there had burglarized from homes, mainly in the Hollywood Hills .
They were all speed freaks and always purchased or traded for coke or crank or pharmaceuticals of some kind.
John Holmes was kind of a regular customer and his alleged killer Eddy Nash was a friend of some of the old time drug dealers I knew. These guys knew Nash from way back in the day when he was a small time drug dealer and hustler from the Temple St., Bunker Hill area.
Anyhow one day this small time thief and drug addict that my partner used to buy shit from tells us that he worked as a maintenance man at the VA hospital on Sawtelle and that we would never guess who he ran into in the AIDS Ward there. So he tells us that it was John Holmes and that he was all shriveled up and looked like an eighty year old.
I was shocked because at the time I thought Holmes was the ultimate Alpha Male.
My partner who knew Holmes fairly well tells me that he wasn’t surprised at all because Holmes had been going down hill rapidly and had been staring in Gay porno flicks the past few years.
Another hero figure bit the dust.
By: don quixote on October 30, 2008
at 4:31 pm