Immaculate Heart Cemetery in Marcus Hook would seem an unlikely resting place for a power-bottom porn star, but this is indeed where Chester native Joey Stefano, né Nicholas Iacona Jr., lays in perpetual sleep. His final resting place bears no headstone, making his presence in the cemetery derelict if not absent.
Yet 17 years after his death, Joey Stefano’s presence in both the mainstream and adult entertainment industries couldn’t be more noticeable. Hollywood director Chad Darnell, whose prior credits include casting Spider-Man and Lost, has spent the bulk of the past three years crafting a 107-page script that he hopes to shape into a two-hour indie biopic by February of next year. The film’s working title is X-Rated, and it recounts the fast life and slow death of one of the biggest gay-porn stars of the 1990s, an era when being in adult film carried far more star power than uploading an amateur video to Xtube.
Darnell’s fascination with Stefano began when a copy of a 1996 biography, Wonder Bread and Ecstasy, fell—literally—at his feet in an L.A. bookstore. Devouring the book in a single sitting, he instantly saw its potential as a movie. “It’s that story of ‘little boy comes to Hollywood and gets taken by the scene,’” says Darnell, who has yet to cast the role of Stefano. “But the real villain in the script is addiction, which Joey had. They all did.”
Stefano was Philly’s Bradley Cooper of gay porn. A small-town, big-dreaming, all-American “dude,” he didn’t just settle for porn, but rather aspired to it. And though his story ended in an almost cliché drug-induced tragedy in November 1994, his list of accomplishments accrued by his death at the age of 26 remains impressive.
Featured model in Madonna’s salacious Sex book? Check. Winner of the Best Actor trophy at the 1992 Gay Erotic Video Awards? Score. Line of Joey Stefano-branded apparel? Just ask the former Spruce Street Video employee about his signature Stefano sweatpants, created to commemorate Joey’s appearance at the 1992 PrideDay Parade. First bottom to hit big in what was previously an industry of straight-acting tops? You bet your butt cheeks. He was one of the only porn stars the Village Voice’s Michael Musto says he ever found attractive. During a dinner together in 1990, Musto says Stefano implanted a Heineken bottle into his ass like a flag on the moon. Musto later dubbed it “the Heinie-kin.” Stefano was a bottom living on top.
Despite his subsequent battles with drugs, and contracting HIV before the dawn of retroviral drugs, Stefano never lost his movie-star glow. When he entered a room, he would sway, grin and, whether he wanted to or not, attract the eyes of everyone else in it.
“He had these timeless looks to him,” says Robert Prion, a New Jersey–based porn director who shot three flicks with Stefano. “He looked like Tom Cruise, only his eyes were much nicer.”
Want to see the classic Ryan Idol/ Joey Stefano scene click here to XVIDEOS
Such a beautiful man – what a terrible waste.
Has the potential to make an excellent film.
Such a shame. I pray he found meaning of his life on The Other Side.
Very interesting….I read the book several years ago and I couldn’t lay it down. Joey as most knew him was a pretty hot guy that had done escorting before he became a star. He had numerous ups and downs and I am sure that the crowd he hung around with played on his weakness. In the end he was left on a bed in a motel room with needles in both arms and probably could have been saved but the person or persons that were there left him to die….read the book. I honestly wish he could have left the business earlier and developed a life away from the bad influences. I still enjoy seeing him and have to say I have had many a hot session watching him and or dreaming about him. Sad that no stone has been erected for him. He lies next to his father from what I can read. Maybe the family is ashamed of him due to his career, but he did try to do a lot for them. I sooo look forward to this movie. I hope they do it right and find a the right person to play Joey….
He truly was a legend… may he rest in peace.
Maybe one of these people profiting from Joey would be kind enough to erect a headstone at his grave?
Chad Darnell tells the story of doing research on the “porn brat pack”, a group of porn stars, film crew and a reporter. He interviewed the surving members, Chi Chi LaRue( Larry Paciotti), Sharon Kane(Cain) and Chris Green. Larry had lost track of the reporter Mickey Skee. Karen Dior(Geoffrey Gann) was dead, but had written an autobiography, now out of print. He ordered it on Amazon autobid. The book arrived, but he was mortified. Not only was the sender local, but a member of his church. He felt compelled to call him and explain be was doing research about a film he was doing on Joey Stefano. The man said he knew Joey back in the day when he reported on the porn industry under the pseudonym… Mickey Skee. What a bizarre, chance meeting.
Joey was buried next to his grandfather’s grave, not his father’s as usually reported. His father’s ashes were interred in the same grave as Joey. The headstone was repeatedly vandalized. One can imagine that some fundie believes that that the likes of Joey shouldn’t be buried with decent folk. The family removed it and has never replaced it.
There’s a trailer on YouTube. It might be an interesting indie movie if Chad can find the funds to complete it.
26. It is strange, but I never think of these guys as having an “age”. If I do think about it, I am always wrong, thinking they are older than they are.
I guess I only know them frozen in time in their pix & movies
It was his time. God’s angels took him to a place where there is no illness but much love.
Sorry to hear about that. He was a hot sexy man in the world
Read the book years ago. Was so impressed: what a tragic life.
Um, this was covered in book all about Joey Stephano: Wonderbread and Ectasy. So what’s with the repeat?
@mattelboy — Only the “owner” of the grave plot (laid to rest beside his father, so I would guess “family”) or the “executor” of the estate (likely no will, so again I would guess “family”) can get permission to erect a stone at a grave site — both in the US and in Canada. In the US the deceased’s body is “owned” by the “immediate” family, NOT by the executor of the estate as is the case in Canada. Legal “marriage” creates a “spouse”, who then takes precedence over ALL other family members, and who then is the owner of the body. This eliminates family squabbles over death rites and inheritance. If his family, presumably Catholic, are ashamed of him and his career, there will never be a stone to mark his passing. Still, a stone is nothing compared to his legacy on film, now likely digitized, and the print record of his life in biographies, copies of which will be preserved in and by the Library of Congress.
@behairy — We can always rely on you to provide some more up-to-date information on a topic. Whether “fundies” or fans were vandalizing the grave stone, it is a sad thing. If I am not mistaken, Jim Morrisson of The Doors was buried in a Paris FR cemetery where artists’ (of all kinds) graves are treated with honor and respect.
it seems that the really good stars of porn die early but in those day it was common to use drugs to be in style it is such a shame that he is no longer with us today. We now know what to do to get help that a person needs today if only then that they knew what we know today would have saved his life. remeber HELP is just a phone call away.
@AJ..Thanks! Lifelong voracious reader with a photographic memory. Jim Morrison is indeed buried in the beautiful Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise in eastern Paris. Est. in 1804 by Napoleon, it is a veritable international encyclopedia of notables who died in Paris. In the early ’90s, his father George updated his grave lease to perpetual and placed a marble slab with the Greek inscription: KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY. His father was a bible scholar in Greek. The phrase is often misinterpreted as people think daemon=demon. To the Greeks a daemon was a neutral/benevolent spirit more like the Roman idea of ‘genius/numen’. It’s the malevolent Abrahamic/Christian idea that is spelled ‘demon’. Under Stoicism, you lived your life according to your own spirit and will. Epictetus described that each of us had our own internal god within that accompanied us throughout life,much like a pro active guardian angel, that guided our development and well being throughout life…a “daimon eaytoy”. ‘Kata’ means according. Thus we can translate it as ” according to his inner self” or more commonly, ‘to your own self be true’. Not a bad way to lead your life…
Left out the point that, like Stefano’s headstone, Morrison’s marker had been constantly vandalized since his burial in 1971 and required constant repairs and replacements. It now has it’s own guard. Last I was there, a bronze replacement of his marble bust by the original sculptor was awaiting permission to be installed.
…gawd…
@ AJ. As someone we was involved in many friends passing due to AIDS, I was able to convince a few of the troubled families to execute a proper or acknowledged burial of their loved one. Your technicalities on the subject are correct, there still appears to be the lack of initiative to rectify this.
I had the pleasure of meeting Joey, and touching that trademark, shrunken-head tattoo (and more). I can still recall the warmth and smoothness of his skin. I will add that no picture or video I’ve ever seen of him has done him justice — he was extraordinarily handsome (those eyes!), refreshingly self-assured (without being cocky) and a whole lot smarter and more articulate than most people would give him credit for.
That’s what makes his loss to drug abuse all the more painful — it just didn’t have to be that way.
As to the disturbance of his eternal rest, I wonder if he was buried under his given name or his nom-de-porn. I find it hard to believe someone (or a bunch of someones) would take the time and trouble to research then vandalize the grave of Nicholas Iacona Jr. Then again, I can’t imagine his family burying him as “Joey Stefano.” Either way, it’s a sad shame — he and Nicholas Iacona Sr. deserve a grave marker that won’t be interfered with.
Perfection. What a pity