Actors - Al Parker

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	Actors - Al Parker

The Other Side of Aspen Al Parker, real name Andrew R. Okun, (June 25, 1952) - (August 17, 1992) was a gay American pornographic actor (porn star), producer, and director. He was born in Natick, MA, and was said to have died in San Francisco, CA of complications from AIDS.

Aside from his films, Parker is best known in gay culture as one of the icons of the Castro Street Clone era, a time when gay men held the well-groomed, lean, mustached physique popular in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood as an ideal.

Parker's career in gay film started when he was "discovered" by Rip Colt, founder of Colt Studios. Parker stood out among gay porn actors in the late 1970s.

With his lover Steve Scott (born Richard Cole), Parker founded Surge Studios, as a producer director, and actor. But, Parker actually began his film making career when he was signed by a company called "Brentwood Studios" to make the 12-15 minute loop films. These were easy to make films that were shot on single 8 mm film reels. This is according to Roger Edmonson's Book. Each reel contained one sex scene start to finish. They could be "glued together" randomly or even with some kind of a story line. The film loops were very successful. The sex loops were also used as previews for hustlers. Edmonson also writes that Parker said that the loops were the "best kinds of audition around for guys in the porn business."

Still Parker (Andrew R. Okun) wanted to be his own boss, so he and his boyfriend, Richard Cole, started "Surge Studios." "Surge Studios" started making larger budget "theme" features and not just the "film loops." Many of the films were shot out of Okun and Cole's home in Hermosa Beach, California. Some of the hallmarks of a "Surge Studio" films included well lit scenes, complex camera angles and slow motion "money shots" at the point of climax. 1984 would be Surge Studio's busiest and most profitable year with six films in production with one of them either starring in or producing or directing the effort.

"Surge Studios" also was a very "business conscious" kind of an enterprise. They did things like having the guys use condoms in their films and also some gadgets known as "Penis Pumps." Okun, his father, and some friends have been making Penis Pumps and other gadgets for years under two companies, which are named the "Boston Pump Works" and the "San Francisco Pump Works." These same gadgets and Penis Pumps were then advertised in the "Surge Studio" films, according to the Edmonson Book, "Clone." The Pumps were said to have made more money for Andrew R. Okun than either his videos or even his photos, so says Edmonson.

According to Edmonson, Parker and Scott had a very open relationship in which they frequently particpated in unsafe sex with numerous partners. When Scott died first of AIDS in 1986, Parker was devastated. Following Scott's death Parker continued in the Adult film business. Parker also began a relationship with Canadian porn star Justin Cade, however the relationship soon failed because Cade (who practiced safe-sex exclusivly in his personal life and adult film career) felt that Parker's continued behavior of multiple sex partners participating in unsafe practices was too self destructive. When told he would have to choose between his carnal desires and a relationship with Cade, the relationship ended. Still the two remained good friends.

Parker is the subject of Roger Edmonson's biography Clone: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker Gay Superstar, in which Edmonson traces Parker's penchant for risky sex back to Parker's "supposed rape" by an "unnamed German man," when Parker was 15 at knife point in the town of Natick, Massachusetts.

For a while after arriving in California, Parker was employed by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion West as a butler.

Al Parker was said to have been cremated and his ashes scattered to the sea at the celebrated nude section of San Gregorio Beach on Highway 1.

Incomplete Videography

Overload (1992)
Better Than Ever (1989)
Best of Brentwood 1 (1987)
Turbo Charge (1987)
The Best of Colt: Part 4 (1986)
Daddies Plaything (1985)
Outrage (1984)

:aka Christopher Rage's Outrage (USA)

Headtrips (1984)
One in a Billion (1984)
Rangers (1984)
Weekend Lockup (1983)
Games (1983)
The Other Side of Aspen (1983)
Flashbacks (1981)

:aka Al Parker's Flashbacks (USA: complete title)

Al Parker Is Wanted (1980)
Inches (1979) The Best of Colt Films: Part 10 (1991)
Best of Buckshot (Compilations) Chute, Timberwolves
Heavy Equipment (1977) Construction Man #1

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Al Parker ]

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Actors - Al Parker

Incomplete Videography

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