Gay Porn Stars We Lost in 2023

In August of 2020, porn star Koldo Goran tweeted about three fellow performers who had recently died. Goran’s tweet was the only public notice that one of them, Dani Rivera, had been murdered. “I realize nobody talks about it, we are unprotected and forgotten;” Goran tweeted “We are humans, people, enough of contempt.”

Most gay news outlets choose to ignore the passing of all but the biggest names in the adult film industry.  Porn companies also seem reluctant to broadcast the death of a performer who is still on their roster, forever young and willing in their website content. An obit is a real boner killer, ya know? Why jeopardize the profit margin?

Additionally, performers who abandon their porn personas and return to life under their real names often pass away unnoticed by former employers and scene partners.

This year’s list contains no people of color. Why? Is it that none have passed on or that they haven’t been reported yet? For this reason – and due to continued interest from fans – there are ongoing updates to the lists of porn star passings in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

We remember those that were lost in 2023 to prove Koldo Goran wrong – they have not been forgotten.

1) Ed Fury was not a gay porn star per se, but he was as close as the 1950’s would allow. The bodybuilder began his career posing nude for photographers Bob Mizer and Bruce of LA and appearing in posing strap film loops for AMG and Apollo studios. While his photos graced the covers of many physique magazines, major Hollywood film roles remained elusive. Most of his film and television appearances in the 1950’s were uncredited bit parts.

It was in the Italian “sword and sandal” films of the 1960’s that he found his greatest mainstream success, starring in Colossus And The Amazon Queen and as the title character in three Ursus films, among others. Back in the US, he continued to work primarily on television until his retirement in the late 1970’s.

Fury passed away at age 94 on February 24, 2023.

2) Pike Young, aka Sean Hensley was 29 years old when he passed away on February 25, 2023 in Florida. In 2013, the North Carolina native appeared in a half dozen scenes as “Sean” for FratX and also worked for BaitBus, Reality Kings and Pride Studios.

3) Eric Manchester, aka Ronald Liter was one of the top names in gay porn during the second half of the 1980’s. He was featured in dozens of films for the top studios of the day: Falcon, Vivid, HIS, Catalina and others. He appeared in Head of the Class and John Travis’s Powerline, both profiled here.

The Boyculture blog recently noted that Manchester passed away in San Francisco at age 58 on March 12, 2023. He was interred in his native Oklahoma.

4) Kaden Porter and his brother Kyle were identical twins from Kansas who began filming scenes at Broke Straight Boys when they were 19 years old. Kaden’s distinctive chest tattoo helped to differentiate the two. Although Kyle seemed to be more comfortable on camera, it was Kayden who appeared in more scenes, logging over a dozen titles from 2015-2017. Kayden later became a holistic health consultant, according to his online profile. He was living in Austin, Texas when he passed away at 27 years old on March 24, 2023.

5) Derek Sketer was also known as Derek Sky at Gay Castings, Paul at Sean Cody, and James at Corbin Fisher. He was born September 10, 1990 in Houston, Texas and made his first Sean Cody appearance in 2011. He filmed a dozen scenes over the next four years, also working for Gayroom and Man Royale. In October, 2025 the Men Of Porn blog posted that he passed away in March, 2023 at age 32.

6) Trevor Laster, aka Ethan Ewers passed away at age 31 on March 30, 2023. Photographer James Franklin posted on Twitter: “My dear sweet friend @thetrevorlaster committed suicide yesterday in Eugene, Oregon. His family is devastated. ” Trevor started doing porn at Helix Studios in 2010. Over the next 12 years, he worked for Raging Stallion, Broke Straight Boys, Chaos Men, Kink, Next Door Studios, Southern Strokes, Men and others. In 2019 he shifted his focus to more fan-based platforms like Onlyfans while still making occasional studio appearances.

Laster was passionate about fitness and worked as a personal trainer. He also garnered modeling work with brands like Andrew Christian and photographers Michael Stokes and James Franklin .

7) Marco Blaze, aka Juan Jose Garay was born in Argentina on June 10th, 1982. He was a performer on cruise ships before venturing into gay adult films in 2008. Appearances in titles for Kristen Bjorn, Cazzo, Alphamale, and several other studios led to an exclusive with Titan Media, where he was one of their most popular models in a dozen films from 2009-2014.

Social media posts announced his overdose at his home in Buenos Aires on April 6, 2023 after struggling with addiction for several years. He was 40 years old.

8) David Hurles first appeared in Guild Press gay porn magazines of the late 1960’s before moving behind the camera at the company. He went on to create Old Reliable Studios, an iconic record of “rough trade” through the 1970’s & 80’s. Originally from Cincinnati, Hurles made his way to California, where AMG’s Bob Mizer became his mentor. While Mizer focused on the more conventional prototype of beefcake, Hurles, as the Boyculture blog pointed out “fetishized the masculine and dangerous aspects… His work is identifiable from a mile away, a collection of seedy, weedy men who looked like they arrived for their shoots fresh from prison — or on their way there.”

Although the studio was very lucrative at the time, mismanagement and internet services were its downfall, and Hurles fell upon hard times. In 2008, he was permanently disabled by a stroke just as his back catalogue was getting rediscovered.

In 2010, a glossy book highlighting the best of Old Reliable was published. Outcast: David Hurles Old Reliable In Living Color featured Hurles’ best photography. A gallery showing of his photos was curated by his friend Dian Hansen and John Waters at New York City’s Marianne Boesky Gallery. The following year, Hurles was one of the subjects of John Waters’ book Role Models. He was reportedly delighted by the belated appreciation of his work.

After years of failing health, Hurles died in a California nursing home on April 11, 2023, aged 78.

Factory Video owner Scott Morris sometimes took a turn in front of the camera, including a scene pictured here with Sam Ritter (aka Stephen Geoffreys).

9) Scott Morris, aka Robert Todd Fulton was a founder and sometime performer at Factory video. He passed away on April 14, 2023 in his Cathedral City, CA home after a year long-battle with cancer of the tongue, head, and neck. He was 68 years old.

In 1998, Morris founded San Francisco Fetish Factory, an online fetish wear website that prompted an expansion into a gay male adult video company, Factory Video Productions, in the early 2000’s.

His work as an activist dated back to his teen years in post-Stonewall New York. Morris continued his work as a gay community activist, DJ and promoter in NY, Ft. Lauderdale, LA, Palm Springs and San Francisco. He was survived by his partner of 31 years, Gordon Fulton (aka Gord Reece).

10) Casey Tanner, aka Slade passed away on April 15, 2023 in San Diego at the age of 28. His partner confirmed that Casey had been suffering from health problems for years. His organs began failing after he contracted pneumonia a month prior. Originally from Ohio, he worked with Helix Studios between 2013-2016 before retiring from the adult industry and moving to San Diego with his partner around 2017.

Helix model Liam Riley posted on social media: “Casey Tanner was my best friend. He was one of the funniest, sweetest, caring humans. He was sweet enough to help me move all the way across the country — if that says anything for the person he was. He was always down for an adventure! I hope he knows he was loved by so many people. Thank you for being there when I needed you. I’ll keep a piece of this friendship with me for life. Fly high.”

11) Kyle Ross, aka Aaron Cumbey was 29 years old when he died in a single car accident in Florida on April 24, 2023. The tragic series of events preceding his death played out on social media.

One of the biggest stars at Helix, the Texas native won many awards and appeared in over 100 scenes before retiring in 2020. He then worked behind the scenes at Helix until earlier this year.

12) The porn world was shocked by the brutal murder of 52-year-old William Futral, owner of The Guy Site. Model Ludvig (aka Richard Lam) was arrested and charged with the murder several days later. Lam and Futral had been living together for several months. They reportedly had an extremely volatile relationship that began after Lam started working for The Guy Site in 2020.

Just for Fans owner Dominic Ford posted on social media, “I am absolutely gutted to hear of the murder of Bill… one of the kindest, gentlest people in our industry. He was always humble, appreciative, and soft-spoken. I’ve known him for 13 years. There was never a nicer man.”

None of the news stories have carried a single photo of the victim, choosing instead to focus on the muscular (alleged) assailant. The Guy Site is now shuttered.

13) Bryan Knight, the 6’6″ 300lb “gentle giant” died of a heart attack in his sleep on September 3, 2023. He was 39 years old. Although he had a complete physical two weeks before, his family had a history of heart ailments and his enlarged heart went undetected, according to Snake, his partner of 20 years.

Robby Lewis of Luxxxe Studios shared the news online a few days later: “Adult film actor and generally good human being Bryan Knight went to bed on Sunday, September 3rd and did not wake up. Everyone at Luxxxe Studios is saddened by this loss, especially JD Daniels, who was a close personal friend of Bryan’s.”

Knight began his adult film career in 2012 with Bear Films. He worked with various studios over the next decade, including Maverick Men, Pride Studios, Nasty Daddy, and RawFuckClub.

Knight was also a talented comic book artist. In The Velvet Collar, he drew on real-life experiences to create something that celebrated him and the people he loved in the adult film world.

14) Jason Nikas was 51 years old when he died on September 19, 2023 in Las Vegas after a long battle with cancer. The Arcadia, California native performed in gay and bi films under many different names – Johnny Guetar and Jason Wikes were just two of them. In trans roles, he was Ann Drogeny (get it?). For his work behind the scenes in porn productions, he used his real name: Patryk Strait, believe it or not. Nikas racked up more than 120 titles between 1992 and 2012.

Every once in a while there’s a performer whose face betrays them with glimpses of underlying… what? Sorrow? Pain? Something that reveals the scars of a life that has led them to sex work. Their time in the biz is usually short. The first time I ever remember seeing this was in the early 90’s with Jason Nikas. There was something in his facial expressions that evoked the word “shattered.” But unlike others, he stuck around for nearly two decades, going through the motions in scene after scene, never elevating any of them beyond the B-grade companies he worked for, which included Vivid, Leisure Time, and Robert Prion’s Galaxy Studios. Mickey Skee’s tribute to his friend and coworker gives a more well-rounded picture of someone who seems to have had a happier life than the one he exuded on screen.

15) Shane Erickson, aka Eric Anthony Crew was 38 years old when he died on September 26, 2023. His boyfriend Michael posted on a GoFundMe page “after searching for him for two days I finally found him… unresponsive and long beyond aid on the floor of a hotel room… I don’t even know what to say, he had been struggling for a long time with demons from his past. I did everything I could to be there for him and I couldn’t save him…”

The San Diego native made his first film appearance in 2005 and over the next 8 years worked for Falcon, Jet Set, College Dudes, Next Door, Kink, SX and other outlets.

16) Hank Hightower was mainstream gay porn’s quintessential leather bear in the 1990’s. The versatile performer made his debut in 1993 and worked with Stallion, Rawhide, Catalina, Vivid, Zeus, Brush Creek, Jet Set and other studios over a 15 year period.

His friend Jeff Yarbrough announced on Facebook: “Henry Robert Hightower passed away today, Nov. 1, 2023, at 3:30am. As per his wishes, he died at home surrounded by his two pups. He passed peacefully.” The California native was 57 years old and had been battling cancer.

17) Colt Man Luke Garrett, (aka Steve Rudig) passed away on November 4th, 2023 “after a difficult year of numerous illnesses,” according to his obituary. The Visalia, California native was 53 years old. During his years as a Colt model, his boyfriend was fellow performer Gage Weston. His film career was short: 2005-2008 with less than 10 films to his credit. But his status as an iconic Colt model made a lasting impression on fans, who always hoped he would return to the business.

See Also:
Gay Porn Stars We Lost (so far) in 2025
Gay Porn Stars We Lost in 2024
Gay Porn Stars We Lost In 2022
Gay Porn Stars We Lost In 2021
Gay Porn Stars We Lost In 2020
Alexis Arquette’s Lost Porn Flick
Remembering prolific pornographer Robert Prion
RIP Porn Star Turned Activist Terry DeCarlo
Costello Presley and 80’s Gay Porn Guilty Pleasures
George Platt Lynes: In Touch Magazine (1982)