| Born | May 13, 1959 Brooklyn, U.S. |
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| Other names | Paul David Seiderman, Arthur West, Jerry Rillios |
Jerry Butler (born May 13, 1959) is an American pornographic actor. He was one of the most popular male performers in the 1980s, making more than 500 films in his career.
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Butler was born Paul Siederman in Brooklyn to a Jewish father and a mother of half German/Irish and half Cherokee Native American descent.[1] His paternal grandfather, Sam Siederman, was the half-brother of Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky.[1]
Butler initially tried his luck at mainstream acting, performing in a variety of off-broadway plays such as the character Donald in David Mamet's play American Buffalo and as Hank Halloway in The Gay Dracula. He also had a few walk-ons on the long running soap One Life to Live (1978) as well as an uncredited appearance in Frank Henenlotter's famous horror classic Basket Case (1982).
He was generally unhappy with the constant pressure to sleep with men in exchange for parts, and began to slowly grow tired of the wasted effort.
He first got into hardcore in 1981 after answering an ad in "Backstage Magazine" looking for hardcore actors. He went in to audition for a non-sex role and after a little persuading, ended up leaving with a hardcore sex role in the film Young, Wild and Wonderful (1981).
His stage name was inspired from hearing the Jerry Butler song "Only the Strong Survive" on the radio while he was picking up his first paycheck. Butler was touted as the most talented male actor in his day with exceptional turns in Chuck Vincent's bigger budget adult efforts Roommates (1981) and In Love (1983), the latter winning him Hustler's Best Actor Award.
During his adult film career, Butler made appearances in three more mainstream films, playing a comedic role in Preppies (1984), the dramatic lead in psychological thriller Deranged (1987) both directed by Chuck Vincent, and in the horror film Evils of the Night (1985) with Aldo Ray, John Carradine, Tina Louise and Julie Newmar.
In 1987, Jerry Butler married former child star Lisa Loring who was best known for playing Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family television show (1964). They met on the set of the adult film Traci's Big Trick (1987), where Lisa was working as a make-up artist. In the ensuing years of their marriage, Loring voiced her dissatisfaction with Butler's involvement in pornography, and eventually Butler began secretly participating in porn shoots, without her knowledge. In an interview with NBC's Dateline in the 1990s Butler described himself as "addicted to the lifestyle" and ashamed of his clandestine behavior in his marriage.
Butler released an autobiography (as told to Robert Rimmer and Catherine Tavel) called Raw Talent in the early '90s, giving an insider's account of the porn scene. He was very forthcoming in the book, giving very intimate details of some of his fellow co-workers in the business, and citing the existence of widespread drug abuse in the industry. This angered many of his colleagues, including Ron Jeremy who, in his own biopic film, specifically registered his displeasure with how Butler portrayed Jeremy in the book. Butler and Loring divorced in 1992, which was also the year he began to drop out of the hardcore industry, and evidently by choice virtually disappeared for many years.
Butler re-surfaced in 2003 to host but not act in a porn film entitled Sexy Sluts: Been There, Done That (2003), which was directed by underground rapper, Necro. Butler was also a featured guest on Necro's album The Sexorcist (2005). Currently Butler works as an usher and concession stand cashier at the pornographic movie house "Cinema Blue" in Birmingham, Alabama. He is also working on a book- "The Revelations of the Porn Industry: The Money Trail". This is expected to be out in early 2012, and the aim of his writings is to expose pornographic money making giants like Vivid, Elegant Angel, and their exploitation of the younger generation in the quest for profit and exposure. Butler's writings will also document his own addiction to pornography amongst his other addictions and his issue it attempting to beat it, which he now has and is resuming a normal life.