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The Life of Al Parker

Al Parker was a gay pornographic actor in America who also produced and directed a number of gay porn films. Parker was born and raised in the Greater Boston area in Natick, Massachusetts. He was actually born Drew Okum, but years later changed his name to Al Parker because it sounded like more of a manly name. In 1969, his parents loaned him their brand new Mustang so that he could attend the Woodstock music festival. The only reason his parents even let him do this was because he had convinced them that Woodstock was a classical music festival and not rock and roll. While Al Parker was at Woodstock, he had many different experiences that would end up shaping the rest of this life. He had several homosexual experiences at the festival and the most notable was in the back of a van. This was a theme that was recreated frequently throughout his adult film career in a variety of ways.

Parker went to high school in Natick, Massachusetts which is a medium sized town outside of Boston. Immediately after graduation, Parker moved to Los Angeles where he quickly landed a job operating the film projector booth at Hugh Hefners Playboy mansion. Parker really enjoyed his time working at the Playboy mansion; he met a lot of people there and many of them became very influential in the rise of his career. At the Playboy mansion, he was discovered by Rip Colt who is credited for changing his name, Drew Okum, to Al Parker. Rip Colt believed that this new name sounded like a much manlier name and that was the image that he wanted Parker to portray in order to really make it. After making these changes, Al Parker starred in many of the 8mm shorts that Rip Colt produced.

After some time in the gay porn industry, Parker began a very open, long term and loving relationship with Steve Taylor. Steve Taylor was in the same industry as Parker and that made their relationship much easier because they both understood what their career required of them. Together, the two of them started Surge Studios which was a gay adult film production studio. Steve Taylor died suddenly from complications with the AIDS virus and this made the interest that Parker had in their studio plummet quickly. Not long after losing his partner, Al Parker tested positive for the virus which completely changed his life. Tragically, his life ended abruptly on August 17, 1992 in San Francisco, ending a long battle with AIDS. Parker had a long and influential career in the gay porn industry where his legacy continues to be seen years later.

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