LOS ANGELES—Paul Thomas, the AVN Hall of Fame filmmaker and actor who was widely regarded as one of the greatest adult movie directors of all time, has passed away.
He was 76.
Known simply as “P.T.” in industry circles, the native of Winnetka, Ill., spent his entire adult life entertaining, whether he was on-screen, on the stage or behind the camera.
He retired from adult in 2012, a few years after stepping away from directing for Vivid Entertainment Group, the iconic studio that he called home for nearly 25 years.
Thomas became one of the most decorated filmmakers in X-rated history while at Vivid, winning the AVN Award for Best Film or Best Director 12 times, a remarkable five of each in the 2000s alone.
Steven Hirsch, the co-founder and CEO of Vivid, tells AVN that P.T. was an integral part of the studio’s track record of industry excellence.
“First of all, P.T. was a huge part of our early and even later success,” Hirsch says. “He directed numerous movies for us—and award-winning movies. P.T. always believed in storyline. The storyline was most important, he was definitely not an all-sex movie director and there was a time when that wasn’t that popular, but P.T. stood by it and I think it paid off.
“It paid off for Vivid and it also paid off with all the awards and nominations that he got.
“He was also a big part of our early relationship with Playboy. He was the original contact there and then we took over subsequently, and it’s how we were able to move from shooting on video to shooting on film. And that was pretty rare back in those days, but again it allowed P.T. to have a different look to his movies than anyone else.”
Hirsch continues, “He believed very strongly in the power of acting and storytelling and that was of utmost importance to him, sometimes more important than even the sex. He was super talented and really easy to work with. He listened and he was a real company guy.”
Thomas won the AVN Award for Best Director – Film for Vivid a record seven times, beginning with Justine in 1994. He went on to win the industry’s top film directing award for Bobby Sox (1997); Fade to Black (2002); Heart of Darkness (2004); The Masseuse (2005); The New Devil in Miss Jones (2006); and Layout (2008).
In January 1991, he received the Best Director – Video award for Beauty & the Beast 2 for VCA Pictures, where he was under contract before joining Vivid.
In 1992, Thomas & Vivid were honored with AVN’s Reuben Sturman Memorial Award for their loyalty to the adult industry; and in 2007 he was enshrined on the Hustler Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside other porn legends on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood.
Hirsch remarks, “He shot exclusively for us for many years and he was a very competitive guy who put everything he had into the movies, not only from a directing standpoint but he also oversaw all the editing. He would spend hours upon hours in the edit bay, making sure that his visions came through.
“And he loved winning the awards. We all did—and P.T. made that a reality. He was an extremely important part of our success. He helped shape the early identity of the company.
“And he was always looking for the next big story, working with writers and working with editors.”
Hirsch adds, “I trusted P.T. to do what he thought was best and the proof was in the pudding with all the awards and accolades.”
Thomas, who made his adult industry debut when he was 24, racked up almost 900 performing credits and directed close to 400 adult movies, according to IAFD. He also helmed productions for Fantasy Home Video, Western Visuals, Las Vegas Video, Metro, Coast to Coast, New Sensations, Hustler—and more than a dozen titles for Dorcel just prior to his retirement. He performed from 1974-86, before beginning his career as a director.
Prior to adult in the early ’70s, Thomas appeared in the stage version of Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway as well as in a touring production, playing all the male roles except Peter.
In 1973, he also was cast as Peter for the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. A year later, Thomas landed a role in the long-running musical, Beach Blanket Babylon, in San Francisco.
AVN founder Paul Fishbein says P.T. built a one-of-a-kind legacy on and off screen.
“I’m really sorry that P.T. passed,” Fishbein tells AVN. “He represents the end of an era. He was truly the last link to the Golden Age of adult films, literally the last guy to shoot on film. When Vivid was producing all of these big-budget features on film, P.T. directed them all and created some modern classics.
“What I liked most about P.T. was that he really looked at making adult films in the same way a director in mainstream would. That meant he gave as much credence to the writing, acting and sets as he did to the sex. That spoke to our mutual love of movies.
“In fact, the sex was often the last thing he worried about. He once told me that it was his job to direct the movie and the performers’ job to have hot sex. And more often than not, he made a great adult film that many times stood on its own merit when the sex was cut down for a cable version.”
Fishbein continues, “I first met P.T. in 1985 on the set of Hal Freeman’s Layover in San Francisco, which was the first adult set I ever set foot on. He was still a performer at the time and I was very nervous. I was writing AVN’s first on-the-set piece and he immediately befriended me, gave me great on-the-record stuff and helped make that first experience memorable.
“Also, he talked me into being an extra in the film, where I played a drunk falling asleep on an airplane while people were having sex next to me. My first and only appearance, clothes on of course.
“My heart goes out to P.T.’s wife Judy and his whole family. He was a true original and a real character.”
Retired AVN Hall of Fame director Axel Braun recalls meeting Thomas on his Day 1 in adult.
“I met P.T. the very first day I arrived in Los Angeles in 1990,” Braun tells AVN. “My father [Lasse Braun] took me to the apartment that Henri Pachard had arranged for me, and right next door, his son Ralph Parfait had an editing studio. We walked in, and Ralph was cutting a movie. Behind him, on a couch, a guy was watching—and masturbating. My father turned to me and said, ‘Axel, this is Paul Thomas.’
“And P.T., without missing a stroke, casually switched hands and extended his right hand to me, ‘Oh hi, you can call me P.T.!’ What an absolute legend.”
Braun continues, “I still remember the day I got my first call from Hustler: ‘Axel, this is Drew Rosenfeld. Paul Thomas spoke very highly of you, and I wanted to see if you’d be interested in shooting for us.’ He had recommended me without even telling me.
“I ended up working with them for twelve years, and Drew ended up being the best man at my wedding. Over the years, P.T. and I shared countless lunches down in the Marina, where he lived. He was such an incredibly entertaining storyteller that the sun would set before we even realized how much time had passed.
“I could go on and tell a million stories about P.T.—but none of them would truly capture the crazy, talented, and beautiful human being he was.
“‘You’re the new P.T.!’ he used to tell me all the time as my career started to take off. But as flattering as that was—and as much as I may have achieved—I know he was wrong. There will never be another P.T.”
Shylar Cobi, who worked closed with Thomas as his production manager for over a decade, tells AVN, “He was the best boss I ever had.”
“I learned so much from that man—everything about production, how to treat people and how to deal with people in general,” Cobi says. “He was a fantastic director and the way he brought performances out of people was just amazing.”
Cobi, who left the adult biz around 2014, says he last talked with Thomas about a year ago—when they discussed Burning Man.
“We won a lot of awards together and we had a great time,” Shylar continues. “I started working for him before my son was born, I was in my late 20s all the way through to my mid-40s. We made some big movies and we were right there when Vivid was at its peak and it was big. It felt great and he was a big man with all kinds of talent, I looked up to him.”
Cobi recalls how his wife Katherine had been P.T.’s production manager before he took over in late 1999 when she was pregnant.
“Before that I was a PA, sound guy. We were old school, still shooting on 16mm and using a production board with the strips. He taught me how to use that board,” Shylar continues.
“I was just telling somebody a story about when we pitched the Devil in Miss Jones remake that we were at some Vivid party and we broke down the budget on a bar napkin and pitched it to Steven and once [Jenna Jameson] got attached we got it made. That whole era was great before the internet. It was fantastic, it felt like a real family.”
Shylar tells AVN he considered P.T. like a father figure.
“I loved him, I really did,” Cobi says. “P.T. was the one that actually solidified my career in porn. He was the one that took it from a job here and there to something that was full time.”
Thomas appeared in the original production of the musical Hair in the late 1960s and got fired from it, Shylar recalls, “because in the middle of that stage production the cast would come out naked and take a bow and he would always come out with hard-on.”
“He was an excellent piano player, he could sing and he was an adonis,” Cobi tells AVN, adding that some of P.T.’s porn friends from the ’70s era gave him the nickname “The Hamster” because his pop-shots were so small.
“He was a talented director with the way he would bring out the performances of some of these young girls. It was amazing to me. I would always be able to get cheaper rates for girls who wanted to be in a P.T. movie, especially the ones who were into the acting.
“It was him and agent Reb [Sawitz], they really taught me how to be a man more than my father did, that’s for sure. Those two guys were just great role models for me. I enjoyed getting up to go to work every day, although it was a 24-7 job, it was great being part of it with P.T. Everything he did to me seemed like magic… I’m gonna miss him.”
AVN Hall of Fame performer Christy Canyon, who got into adult in 1984, tells AVN that P.T. was part of her career just about from the beginning.
“He was such a piece of my youth, a huge part of my youth and my time in the business,” Canyon says. “We worked together a few times in scenes and then I became a Vivid Girl in 1990 and he was my director most of the time, so for a good 25 years he was such a staple in my life.
“Over time you start losing touch with people but I would see him at functions and we would hug and it was like such a piece of home hugging P.T., just so many good memories from the ’90s. What a great era that was, one of my favorite eras of the business. Everyone was just happy and got along. So this is just like losing a part of my past, a piece of my wonderful history in this beautiful, illustrious career of mine for 41 years.”
Canyon, who was a Vivid contract star for eight years, tells AVN P.T. had generational talent as a filmmaker.
“He was a brilliant director with a vision like no one had ever seen before,” Christy continues. “He went more for the storyline and the aesthetics of it. When it came to the sex scenes he didn’t care about them as much, he wanted it to be more cinematic.
“He probably directed half of my Vivid movies. He was adorable, wonderful, magnificent. He was a genius. We always had this beautiful friendship even if we didn’t hang out. It was just a bond you have with someone you’ve known for decades that will never go away.”
Marc Kramer, the veteran production manager and studio exec, tells AVN he learned just about everything that shaped his three-decade journey in adult from working for P.T. when he was starting out in the late 90s.
“He was definitely one of the pioneers and one of the best directors that I’ve ever worked for,” Kramer says. “The foundation of my career as a producer and production manager was taught to me by him.
“I started out as a PA and I worked my way up to production manager and he also taught me how to be an assistant director.”
Marc says that P.T. also became a friend off set; he would help Thomas with various tasks around his house for many years.
“He was the top director back then,” Kramer recalls. “The other thing was he would not direct sex. He would say, ‘If you don’t know what to do, why are you here?’ A lot of directors will be like, give me seven minutes in this position or whatever, and he never did that. He would tell them just do what comes naturally, I shouldn’t have to tell you what to do.”
Kramer even married his ex-wife at P.T.’s former home in Pacific Palisades over 20 years ago.
“It was a pleasure working for him, I loved him like a father, too, that’s the type of relationship that me and Shylar had with him,” Kramer adds. “P.T. was a gentle man, very good natured. He never raised his voice, never yelled at anyone, he never dealt with people like that. He was always very kind and would talk to the actors and actresses about what he was trying to get accomplished in any particular project we were doing.
“P.T. was kind of eccentric but he was that good of a director, that good of a man,” Kramer continues. “He looked out for his crew and his cast and always made it a fun experience when we did his movies. One of the best times in my career was working alongside him and never knowing what he was going to do next.”
(Press Release originated from AVN.com)
