Jack-of-All-Trades

We were saddened to hear of the death of porn legend and HIV/AIDS activist Jack Wrangler yesterday. In tribute, here is an entry we ran last fall on a surprisingly fascinating documentary about his life.

Sure, the tale of the handsome showbiz hopeful who fails to make waves in Hollywood but becomes a sensation in the adult-film industry is a clichéd biography by now. But what if that tale involved Jack Wrangler, the first self-packaged superstar of pre-condom gay porn? What if he starred in 85 man-on-man flicks before crossing over, with great success, to straight porn? And what if this self-professed gay man met a woman, an aging cabaret singer 20 years his senior, and they got married and lived happily ever after? That’s the story told in Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon.

“You can’t make this s*** up,” quips Michael Musto in the relentlessly entertaining documentary, which falls somewhere between a homo-history lesson and an episode of That’s Incredible. Everything we want in a movie is here: showtunes, aged divas, hairy hunks, gaudy fashions, vintage porn footage and Bruce Vilanch. Wrangler, his golden locks now grey, leads us through it all, as earnestly and effusively as a lounge singer.

Weirdest of all, Anatomy packs an inspirational twist. A man of no regrets, Wrangler lived life on his own terms. We should all be so lucky.


Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon is available on DVD now from TLA Releasing.