Taboo American-Style Part 3 - Nina Says, ''I'll Do It My Way,'' And Becomes An Actress

Tom Byron

Aliases: Tom Bryon
Age: 49
Born: 1961-04-04
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Origin: Houston, Texas, USA

Tom Byron was born as Thomas Bryan Taliaferro on April 4, 1961, in Houston, Texas; and is an American pornographic actor and director. He is of Italian descent. He is sometimes credited as Tom Byrom, Tommy Byron, The Icon, or The Great White Hope. A member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame, he is one of the most recognizable actors in the porn business.

When Byron first started acting in hardcore films, in May 1982, he played mostly the young schoolboy or "coming of age" roles due to the fact that he looked like a teenager even though he was in his early to mid 20s. He starred alongside Traci Lords in many movies including her first one in early 1984, 'What Gets Me Hot!" He was also known to have had an ongoing off-screen relationship with Lords, who was underage at the time.

Byron has confirmed the authenticity of a series of pictures which depict him performing oral sex on a transsexual.

He has changed his image several times throughout his career, going from clean-shaven adolescent to a hard rocker look. Later in his career, he took on the appearance of a clean cut "businessman." His late 1980s long-haired hard rock persona was no pretense, as Byron was at that time moonlighting as a struggling musician in Los Angeles with hopes of a career in music.

In August of 2002, Byron announced his retirement from performing to focus on his directing career, but in the fall of 2005, after just three years, he returned to performing in numerous scenes, most notably his House of Ass series for his own company Evolution Erotica. Byron has also performed for other companies as well.

Byron has directed over 70 films, his most notable being the Cumback Pussy series for Elegant Angel. Along with fellow directors Van Damage and Rob Black, and performer Tiffany Mynx, Byron left Elegant Angel in 1998 to form a new company, Extreme Associates.

His earliest video that can be dated with certainty is "Mounds Of Pleasure" from 1982.

IMDb lists 1400 movies but IAFDb lists 2276 movies acted in and 127 directed.

Awards

* 1984 CAFA Best Actor for Private Teacher
* 1984 CAFA Best Supporting Actor for Sister Dearest
* 1985 AVN Best Couples Sex Scene - Film for Kinky Business
* 1985 XRCO Stud of the Year
* 1985 XRCO Video Stallion
* 1990 AVN Best Couples Sex Scene - Video for The Chameleon
* 1991 F.O.X.E Male Fan Favorite
* 1992 AVN Best Actor - Video for Sizzle
* 1992 F.O.X.E Male Fan Favorite
* 1996 XRCO Best Actor (Single Performance) for Flesh
* 1996 XRCO Best Anal or DP Scene for Car Wash Angels
* 1997 XRCO Best Actor for 'Indigo Delta
* 1997 XRCO Best Anal Scene for Behind the Sphinc Door
* 1997 XRCO Male Performer of the Year
* 1998 AVN Best Actor - Video for Indigo Delta
* 1998 AVN Best Gonzo Series for Cumback Pussy
* 1998 AVN Male Performer of the Year
* 1998 XRCO Best Gonzo Series for Whack Attack
* 1999 AVN Male Performer of the Year
* 1999 F.O.X.E Male Fan Favorite
* 2000 AVN Best Supporting Actor - Video for LA 399
* 2008 AVN Best Actor - Film for Layout
* 2008 AVN Best Couples Sex Scene - Film for Layout
* 2010 AVN Award - Best Supporting Actor - Throat: A Cautionary Tale
* 2010 XBIZ Award - PEOPLE’S CHOICE - Male Porn Star of the Year

Joey Silvera

Age: 58
Born: 1951-12-20
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian

Joey is a man with experience. He's performed in over 1280 films.

Gloria Leonard

Age: 70
Born: 1940-08-28
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Caucasian

Paul Thomas

Age: 63
Born: 1947-04-17
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Origin: Winnetka, Illinois, USA

The son of an upper-middle-class couple from tiny Winnetka, Illinois, Thomas (ne Philip Tobus) studied political science at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and starred on Broadway in HAIR and JESUS CHRIST SUPER STAR (and in the Norman Jewison movie version) -- all before age 22.

In 1973 PT signed with the William Morris Agency and moved to Hollywood, landing parts on such TV shows as "Mannix," and "Police Story." But he quickly tired of the Hollywood rat race. Discouraged he signed on for the musical BEACH BLANKET BABYLON in San Francisco. There he met pornographers Jim and Art Mitchell (BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR) in 1974, and the meeting changed his life. "It was the era of porn chic," he recalls, so he had little apprehension about acting in adult films.

As an actor in sex films, Thomas' perception of the adult industry was that of an extension of the hippie lifestyle he had come to embrace in San Francisco. "It was a different time," he recalls. "Doing porno movies then was a celebration and a rebellion against the establishment." Thomas worked with all the big names in adult films, from Seka to Traci Lords. At the age of 35, he switched from acting to directing.

Since 1986, Thomas has been the "auteur in residence" at Vivid Video. He shoots 20 projects a year, including eight films. He also has directed rated R-rated movies that have the same plot and character driven elements that have made his adult features so recognizable and popular. "He makes real movies," says Paul Fishbein, publisher of Adult Video News. "If you take the sex out of his movies, you still have an interesting film," Paul Thomas is one of the few directors shooting "big budget" porn (like BAD WIVES and BAD WIVES 2)on film.

A the 2002 AVN awards Paul Thomas' creative "sexual vision" has helped garner him and Vivid an unprecedented 61 nominations and 6 AVN awards including Best Film and Best Director for FADE TO BLACK, with no surprise Paul Thomas has also won the award for Best Non-Sex Performance. He has been selected by AVN as Director of the Year three times, and was elected to the AVN Hall of Fame. In 2005 he won the AVN Award for Best Director for "Jenna Jameson Is The Masseuse," which also was selected as best adult film.

In a profile of Thomas in early 2005, the BBC said --: "Now 53-years-old, Thomas is virtually unique among his porno peers as someone who not only had mainstream ambitions but the talent to realize them. The young Paul Thomas starred as Peter in the film "Jesus Christ Superstar" as well as on Broadway, before tiring of the constant auditions and falling into a more lucrative, less demanding means of making a living. Famed for making plot-driven sex films, he is now regarded as the Fellini of adult entertainment and is now under contract to Vivid Video. It is the biggest company in the business, and one of the only producers in America which requires its male performers to wear condoms on the set."

Thomas told AVN in an interview after taking multiple awards for his 2002 movie "Fade to Black"-- "It's not like there's any limit to material. The choices are endless. It seems like everything in porn has been done, but only 1 percent has been done right. Most of my very best material is from my own life. You've got to keep a little bit of an edge, you don't want to get too relaxed. You have to be careful. When you get too familiar and too comfortable, you lose the edge."

photo courtesy of ClassicPorn.ca

Carol Cross

Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Caucasian

Carol Cross, sometimes also known as Gwendolin Roth, Carrol Cross or Gwendolyn Roth, is an American porn performer most famous during the 1980's, with nearly 40 titles to her credit during the mid 80's. Helped along by the VHS boon, Carol was a staple on the budding media, allowing her to climb from unknown new cummer straight up to well known talent. With all natural curves, and a wholesome fresh look Carol was a shoe in for roles in youth oriented titles like "First Time at Cherry High," and "Pleasure of Innocence," before retiring in 1986.

Raven (i)

Age: 46
Born: 1964-07-31
Gender: Female