The 1990s is when porn truly went global.
The nineties was a decade defined by its music, fashion and popular culture as well as its more liberal politics. It was an era when even the President himself couldn’t keep it in his pants with the notorious Lewinsky/Clinton scandal of 1998.
After the boom in the porn industry of the 1980s when VHS opened up the home movie market, the nineties marked the arrival of two trends we now take for granted: DVDs and online porn. Both offered higher quality ways to enjoy your adult content in privacy.
In our 1990s porn guide, I’ll take you through a decade that saw the emergence of what we now consider contemporary porn. From the rapid expansion of hardcore and fetish content, to the legendary 90s porn stars who would go on to become bonafide adult industry Hall of Famers. Jenna Jameson, anyone?
If you enjoy this guide, don’t forget to check out the rest of my series, covering the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s!
Porn in the 1990s: The Arrival of Online Porn
Any adult film released between the years 1990 and 1999 can be classified as 90s porn although some later releases in 2000 and 2001 feature footage that was filmed in the nineties.
The style of this decade is not dissimilar to contemporary porn but can be split into distinct periods. Movies shot in the early 1990s were distributed on VHS whilst advances in technology by the end of the decade meant that porn could be viewed on DVDs (or online).
With better quality pictures and sound, this innovation also gave directors and producers far more ways to reach their audiences by offering interactive content such as Directors Commentary, subtitles and bonus material.
By the mid to late 1990s, the internet was also revolutionizing how people could access porn and instead of heading down to the store or ordering by mail-order, audiences could instantly watch adult content.
Well, as instantly as you might expect over a dial-up modem…
The emergency of today’s most popular adult VOD services can be traced back to the end of the 90s when porn made its giant leap online… from which it would never look back.
Along with these developments for the mainstream porn industry, the way amateur content was being filmed and distributed was also revolutionized in the nineties. With cheaper access to home video equipment and an easy way to upload and share this content, regular Joes were getting more adept at making home porn movies.
Big Budgets and Big Porn
Though the 1980s had seen the invention of the gonzo style of point-and-shoot porn production grow in popularity, the nineties didn’t do away with the more traditional style of big-budget, plot-driven movies.
Far from it, studios in the nineties were still profiting from a booming demand for its product and plenty of films were being shot on huge budgets with elaborate sets, costumes and exotic locations.
Though the costs involved were a long way off rivaling the Hollywood mainstream for their production values, there were some pretty expensive films made during this decade. The 1997 movie Conquest starring Jenna Jameson cost an estimated $150,000 to make whilst the 1995 film Uninhibited blew a cool $1.2 million.
Popular Culture Gets a Parody Porn Makeover
Adult parodies continued to be a big genre in the nineties and, following on from the success of the eighties porn industry in which ripping off the latest Hollywood blockbuster could turn a huge profit, this decade saw reinventions of classics such as:
- Titantic – Titanic Orgy (1994)
- Forest Gump – Foreskin Gump (1994)
- Pulp Fiction – Pulp Friction (1994)
- It’s a Wonderful Life – Tits a Wonderful Life (1994)
- A Tale of Two Cities – A Tale of Two Titties (1990)
- Cliffhanger – Cliff Banger (1993)
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Buffy the Vampire Layer (1996)
A Dramatic Uptick in Hardcore and Fetish Content
The advent of the internet made it even easier to reach audiences when it came to distribution whether this was offering ordering online or (by the end of the 1990s) streaming and digital downloads. Studios could more readily offer niche content that catered to kinks and fetishes.
Hardcore was also getting harder and although mainstream studios were still producing content that would titivate the wider (and more vanilla) audiences, demand for extreme content was on the rise. Titles like The World’s Biggest Gangbang (1999) was just one example of this drive to create pornos that were bigger, better and more hardcore than anything that had gone before.
Softcover content whilst still in demand with some audiences was rapidly being replaced by more explicit material. Remember that this is a decade when mainstream Hollywood movies were depicting more X rated content and films like Crash (1999), Color of Night (1994) and Sliver (1993) were all showing more flesh and graphic (simulated) sex.
Even erotic thrillers like Red Shoe Diaries (starring David Duchovny) were being broadcast on cable TV.
As well as the content, the source of porn was also being changed by the internet. Whereas the industry had once been dominated by the U.S. and Western Europe, with the internet came global distribution opportunities for Asian content creators as well as studios from Australia and New Zealand.
Notable 1990s Porn Stars
So, with all this porn content hitting various media channels, who were the top porn stars of the 1990s?
It’s a tough question to answer on a subjective level. This is the decade where we truly became spoiled for choice. We saw a rapid emergence of adult content for just about every taste imaginable. Below I have drawn up two shortlists of the most influential adult stars of the nineties — one for women, one for men.
Best Female Porn Stars of the 90s
There are literally thousands of female porn stars who worked in the 1990s, some more famous than others, all for very different reasons.
Names like Lisa Ann, Tera Patrick and Asia Carrera have gone down in the history books as some of the most celebrated female porn stars of all time. Others like Annabel Chong, Lola Ferrari and Jasmin St. Claire will be remembered for different reasons.
Lisa Ann
One of the most watched porn stars in the world, Lisa Ann started her porn career in 1994 when she starred in Cinesex 2. She continued working in the industry up until 1997 when a prominent AIDS scare in the porn world forced her to rethink her involvement. During her hiatus she spend several years as a stripper as well as running her own day-spa.
Fortunately for us she returned to the blue movie business in 2006. Though she starred in a couple of good movies and deserved greater recognition, it wasn’t until 2008 when she starred in a film as Sarah Palin for Hustler. The movie parodied the U.S. Vice Presidential candidate and was called, Who’s Nailin’ Paylin?
Her comeback was hailed as a huge success and she won several awards to acknowledge her reappearance including the 2007 XRCO Best Cumback and the 2007 Adam Film World Guide Award for Porn Cumback of the Year.
There is no doubt that the noughties were her decade and she is perhaps the most well known porn star of the century as a result of her numerous adult movie appearances. She once again retired from the industry in 2014 but continued to make appearances on live sex cam sites before returning to our screens in 2018 filming with Evil Angel and her own website thelisaann.com.
Though it was the Palin film which really put Lisa Ann on the global porn map, her work in the 1990s can’t be ignored.
You can catch some of Lisa Ann’s early works in titles like Sin Asylum, Tits a Wonderful Life and Trained by Payne. All filmed in 1994, even those unfamiliar with her work will recognize just why she has spent two decades at the top of the industry.
Juli Ashton
Juli Ashton started working in the industry in 1994 and has over 120 credits on the Internet Adult Film Database. She hasn’t made any new content since 2005 but she does still run her own website which generates an income from her back catalog of work as well as new nude photographs.
Her best work can be seen in the 1996 movie Head Trip for which she won an AVN Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also in the 1995 film New Wave Hookers 4. Shortly after both these movies she won the coveted XRCO Award for Female Performer of the Year (1996).
Co-host of the Playboy Night Calls program from 1996 to 2006, Ashton also directed some content for Wicked Pictures in the late 1990s.
She was inducted into the Hall of Fame at XRCO in 2011 and at AVN in 2012.
Rebecca Bardoux
Entering the porn industry in 1992 at the age of 29 Bardoux was a latecomer by many people’s standards to adult film. Yet she excelled over the decade in a number of roles including the cult classic, Sodomania 2: More Tails (1992) and in a parody of Lucille Ball in the 1993 film I Love Juicy.
She got her break in the porn industry through her friend and fellow male porn star, Sean Michaels. Bardoux was working as a stripper at the time and established performed Michaels recognized her potential.
Well connected, she was also once married to the fellow porn actor and star of many nineties adult films, Jake Ryder, and she has made over 340 films during her career.
Transitioning into the MILFs and Cougars category in the early noughties, Bardoux was inducted into the AVN, XRCO and Night Moves halls of fame in 2007, 2014 and 2011 respectively.
She has since moved on to a career in stand-up comedy and remains was an outspoken proponent of the porn industry. She was active in the campaign against Measure B (the legislation that requires porn stars to wear condoms) and has been a guest speaker on several mainstream media outlets.
An energetic performer with a lot of class, Bardoux’s work demonstrates her insatiable appetite for sex and you can really get a sense of this on some of these 90s examples of her work:
- Beaver and Butfface (1995)
- Lessons in Love (1995)
- Seymore Butts Goes Deep Inside Shame (1994)
- Gang Bang Wild Style (1993)
Asia Carrera
Few stars of the 1990s have reached such a global audience and remain as memorable as Asia Carrera. Active from 1993 through to 2003 Carrera made more than 400 films over her career in porn.
With Japanese heritage on her father’s side, she became the first Asian performer to take home the coveted AVN Female Performer of the Year award in 1995. The same year she went on to marry her partner, Bud Lee, an acclaimed director of adult films and a member of the AVN. The pair divorced when she retired from making porn movies in 2003.
With her stunning looks, voluptuous curves and enhanced breasts, she cut a fine figure on the home movies screens of the 1990s and played memorable roles in all of her films whether starring or just as a cameo.
Her finest work can be seen in the 1999 film Search for the Snow Leopard for which she won an AVN for Best Couples Scene in 2000. That same year also saw her nominated for Best Actress. However, Carrera herself favors Appassionata (1998) and Betrayal (1995). The former is a classical piano feature film complete with 17th Century orgies.
Also a member of both the XRCO and AVN Halls of Fame, Carrera runs her own website (AsiaCarerra.com) which aims to keep her legion of fans happy. Alas, she has no plans to return to porn and, these days, can be found being a pretty normal suburban mom….oh, except for the fact that she is a ‘Pastafarian’.
A member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti – don’t believe me? I found these hilarious pictures of her posing for her drivers’ license photo wearing a pasta strainer. You couldn’t make that stuff up.
If you only catch her in one porno then check out the 1995 release of A is for Asia which shows off her first on-screen DP, anal and facial. Most of her work is alongside some of the top names in the porn scene of the 90s including co-stars Jenna Jameson, Kylie Ireland, Ashlyn Gere and Heather Hunter.
Chloe
The 1990s had quite a few porn stars who were simply known by their first names (like the Madonna’s and Cher’s of the adult industry), Chloe has filmed over 550 porn titles.
Known for her deep and wide capacity for penetration, she is perhaps best known for a controversial scene in the Seymore Butts movie Tampa Tushy Fest 1 (1999). Appearing with Alisha Klass, the scene of her receiving a double fisting won the pair an AVN award in 2000 for Best All-Girl Sex Scene – Video.
Quoted in an interview with the author Martin Amis, she has said of being penetrated:
“For vaginal I prefer a girthy kind of dick…..For anal I prefer a longer, thinner kind of dick…..No. Come to think of it, I get two thick ones. I like to feel crammed.”
AVN Female Performer of the Year 1999, Chloe has hosted the AVN Awards (2003), has endorsed a line of sex toys, has appeared on both VH1 and MTV and has hosted her own radio show.
As well as being inducted into the XRCO, AVN and Night Moves halls of fame, she is a multiple award winner of titles from Unsung Siren and Best Anal Sex Scene to Best Group Sex Scene and Orgasmic Analist. She has even won a Best Director award for her work behind the cameras.
There’s plenty to get your teeth stuck into in Chloe’s back catalog but our favorite titles are Bliss (1999), Torn (1999) and Fantasy Lane (1998).
Annabel Chong
Infamous for her starring role in the 1996 porno movie The World’s Biggest Gangbang, Annabel Chong is a Singaporean born, American porn star.
The movie purports that Chong has sex with 300 men but subsequent analysis of the footage suggests that she had sex 251 times or the same 70 men multiple times. Irrespective of the number of men, her feats were impressive and the whole thing took over ten hours to film.
One of the highest grossing films of all time, reportedly Chong was never paid the $10,000 fee she had been promised for making the movie.
Shortly after the film was released, she participated in making a documentary about her porn career (specifically the gangbangs) and co-created Sex: The Annabel Chong story with a film student, Gough Lewis. The feature documentary was a big hit at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and earned her yet more headline grabbing attention.
Before her BIG break on this record-breaking film, Chong started out in the business in 1994, mainly working with director John T. Bone. Bone and Chong collaborated together on plenty of gang bang sex movies including Sgt. Pecker’s Lonely Hearts Club Gangbang and I Can’t Believe I Did the Whole Team.
The movie for which Chong is famous went on to inspire a whole series of similar ‘record breaking’ gang bang movies yet the genre is really only owned by one nineties porn star.
She has now fully retired from the business but was voted #41 in the Top Fifty Asian Porn Stars of All Time by Complex magazine in 2011.
Lola Ferrari
Also known as the woman with the largest breasts in the world, Lolo Ferrari (born Eve Valois) cut an imposing figure on screen. With an eye-watering breast size of 180cm, each weighing 2.8kg, she had a total of 22 breast enhancements over a decade. Her mammoth mammaries earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as well as cementing herself a career in porn.
During the 90s, she starred in titles like Double Airbags (1996), Planet Boobs (1996) and Mega Tits (1998).
Prior to getting into the adult movie business she was a model and an escort but her porn career and world record earned her global notoriety.
She was a regular guest on shows like Eurotrash as well as the stripping and cabaret circuits of Europe. She also released several music singles including one called Airbag Generation in 1996.
Though not the finest performer of the nineties, she is certainly a memorable one and it is well worth catching Lolo Ferrari Special – The Biggest Tits In The World (1997) to see what all the fuss was about.
Ashlyn Gere
Appearing in more than 240 porn films, Gere was a B movie actress before she hit the world of adult movies. She was active from 1990 to 2003 but most of her work is from the early and mid-nineties after she ramped down her on-screen career in favor of exotic dancing.
Female Fan Favorite for the FOXE Awards three years running (1992, 1993 & 1994) Ashlyn Gere earned several awards during her time at the top including 4 AVN Best Actress titles, XRCO Starlet of the Year 1991 and the H’Dor Best American Actress gong.
All of her work is pretty special and demonstrates a very natural talent and authenticity as well as a clear love for the job. However, if you want to catch her best scenes then her work with Mike Horner in Body and Soul (1995) is a good watch; it earned them both an AVN award.
Other titles that are worth checking out include Chameleons (1992), The Masseuse 2 (1995) and Chameleons: Not The Sequel (1993) which she stars with Rocco Siffredi and Deidre Holland.
Taylor Hayes
One of the preferred performers to be cast by Adam Glasser (Seymore Butts), Taylor Hayes started working in porn in 1995. Although she took a brief spell out in 1997, she continued making films until 2002.
Initially working as a glamour model and exotic dancer in Texas, she moved to Las Vegas where she began to mix with members of the porn community. It is rumored that she had a brief fling with the infamous John Wayne Bobbit.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1995 to focus on her adult movie career, she was the first Vivid contract star to have a dual contract and, although she was signed with them exclusively at the time, they allowed her to work with the production company, Shane in 2001.
She has over 100 credits to her name including a dozen or more feature length films. Hayes has won several awards for her work on screen including:
- 1999 AVN Award – Best Group Sex Scene
- 2000 XRCO Award – Best Actress, Single Performance
- 2001 AVN Award – Best Actress, Film
- 2001 XRCO Award – Best Actress, Single Performance
- 2002 AVN Award – Best Couples Sex Scene, Film
- 2002 AVN Award – Best Group Sex Scene, Film
Most of her work in the 90s was with VCA, Ultimate Video or Seymore Butts with memorable roles in The Masseuse 3 (1998), Orgasmatic (1998), Blown Away (1999) and Sex Lies (1999).
Taylor Hayes was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2007.
Houston
Real name Kimberley Halsey, with this Houston, there is definitely no problem. The third member of the 90s club that participated in one of the decade’s defining record breaking Gangbang genre, she reportedly had sex with 620 men for the movie, The World’s Biggest Gangbang 3: The Houston 620 (1999).
Filmed at the height of her career, it is claimed that Houston made a million dollars in 1999.
She started working in the industry in 1995 and was a regular on the circuit for Nitro Productions until around 2002 when she went quiet. After a ten-year break, she returned to our screens in 2012 performing for Brazzers, Naughty America and Jules Jordan.
A member of the XRCO and AVN Halls of Fame, Houston was once described by Salon magazine as a ‘surgically enhanced cartoon bombshell… [who] looks like the love child of Jessica Rabbit and Bart Simpson’.
She has had silicone breast implants and a labia ‘trim’ (ouch) and sold the ‘offcuts’ for a reported $10k.
Don’t miss her career defining gangbang movie but also check out Airtight 2 (1998); also filmed by Metro, it features DP, anal and facial action.
Heather Hunter
The first African-American contract girl for Vivid Entertainment, Heather Hunter got her start in the business in 1988. Working in New York as a dancer and a regular guest on the Robin Byrd Show, Hunter was spotted by the 80s porn star Hyapatia Lee.
Lee suggested that Hunter would be a great adult performer and she didn’t take much persuading. Her first film, Heather Hunter on Fire, was produced in New York and she made several low-budget movies before heading west to L.A. She quickly became known as the Halle Berry of porn and was a popular choice for casting directors during the 1990s.
With 95 credits to her name, she worked throughout the nineties before retiring from porn in 1999. Hunter went on to pursue a career in the music industry as well as concentrating on her painting, writing and photography.
Inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2003, she is known for her lesbian and interracial scenes. Some of Hunter’s best work is in Mission Erotica (1997), Bad Girls 10: In The Cage (1998) and Designer Genes (1990).
India
Another 90s porn star who went by a single moniker, India started out in the adult movie business in 1998 and went on to star in more than 200 titles. Working exclusively for Video Team she went on to be nominated for the AVN Best New Starlet award in 2000 for her work in 1999.
Starting out as a stripper, her lithe body is that of a trained dancer and her exotic dark looks made her a popular performer on the circuits of Los Angeles.
She was also a rapper and hip-hop artist prior to her porn career and returned to this in 2006 when she released her debut album Role Play. India has also worked with artists like Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule and Madonna, appearing in several music videos for the latter.
Whilst most of her best work is in the noughties, you can catch some of her earlier action in porn films like Black Carnal Coeds (1997) and Smack Dat Ass (1999).
Kylie Ireland
Before starting out in porn, Ireland attributes much of her knowledge of the porn industry to her part-time job at high school working for a chain of video stores. She got her break in 1994 working with Randy West on a film called L’il Ms. Behaved before appearing alongside Jenna Jameson in the series focusing on newcomers, Up and Cummers 10.
She quickly rose to popular attention winning three awards in 1995 including the AVN title for Best New Starlet and the NightMoves award for Best Actress. After making her first five films, she moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on her film career. During her first year in L.A. Ireland made 80 porn movies before she returned home to Colarado.
1996 would be the peak of her career and she launched her own website making her one of the first porn stars to have their own live sex show on the internet.
Named one of the top porn stars of 1997 by Playboy magazine and voted in the top 50 performers of all time by AVN, Ireland has over 500 credits as a performer on the Internet Adult Film Database including more than 30 as a director.
Known by a modern audience in the role of MILF, her early work in the 1990s will be a revelation to any fans who haven’t seen her back catalog. Filmed when was in her mid 20s, the best titles to catch Ireland’s trademark anal action in are:
- Cashmere (1998)
- Timeless (1997)
- White Lightning (1999)
Jenna Jameson
The ultimate Queen of Porn, Jenna Jameson is one of the richest women in the business and has been crowned the World’s Most Famous Adult Entertainment Performer. Now a TV personality and highly successful businesswoman as owner of the brand ClubJenna, Jameson is reported to be worth over $5 million.
She started out in the adult entertainment business by working as a dancer in the infamous Crazy Horse Too strip club in Las Vegas and was quickly earning up to $2,000 a night.
However, she was to earn a lot more in the porn industry as she (and the world ) was to discover by a happy turn of events. After her boyfriend cheated on her, she decided to appear in a softcore porno movie as retaliation and in 1993 she made her debut in the world of blue movies.
The following year she pestered the director Randy West to appear in a one of his films, turning up on set demanding to star in a scene with Kylie Ireland. West was happy to oblige and was wowed by her first girl/girl scene and her work featured in some of his new starlet anthologies for 1994 (Up and Cummers 10 and Up and Cummers 11).
West was instantly very taken by her talents and was convinced, even at this early stage, that he had found another star. In his words, ‘I figured she’d be the next Ginger Lynn’.
By 1996, three of the top industry bodies had given her the Top New Starlet/Newcomer awards and Jenna was on her way to becoming the biggest name of the porn film world.
Famed for her oral technique, Jameson has won over thirty-five awards for her work in the adult entertainment business including multiple titles for Best Actress, Favorite Porn Star and Female Fan Favorite. She is, of course, a member of the XRCO, NightMoves and AVN Halls of Fame as well as winning the XBiz Businesswoman of the Year 2006 and the F.A.M.E Favorite Performer of All-Time award in 2007.
Despite her talents on screen (and off), Jameson never did anal, DP or interracial. She retired from making porno movies in 2008 but did still appear on live cams from 2013 onwards. She also appears at certain adult industry events and continues to promote her range of sex toys and her websites.
Rolling Stone magazine once said of Jameson that she ‘put the star in porn star’ and there are certainly few other performers that have reached the fame that she has.
Though not as prolific as many of her colleagues (she made around 170 movies), her work has an enduring appeal and you won’t be disappointed with any of her performances. However, if you want to see some of her finest work then don’t miss the following nineties porn movies starring Jenna Jameson:
- Blue Movie (1995)
- Wicked One (1995)
- Jenna Loves Rocco (1996)
- Conquest (1997)
- Sexe de Feu, Coeur de Glace (1998)
Shanna McCullough
Of mixed German, Irish, French and Swiss descent Shanna McCullough has over 570 performer credits to her name on the Internet Adult Film Database. Her career spans three decades with her first video appearance in 1983 and her last movie being released in 2010.
She won the AVN Best Actress award in both 1988 and 1999 for the films Hands Off and Looker respectively. Both are excellent examples pf McCullough in action and, filmed ten years apart, really show off the styles of each decade.
She has also taken home the Best Supporting Actress awards from AVN in 1997 and 2000 (Bobby Sox and Double Feature) as well as being inducted into the XRCO and AVN Halls of Fame. McCullough was also recognized by the Free Speech Coalition in July 2000. She was given a Lifetime Achievement award for her work with the organisation in promoting equality, opposing censorship and advocating freedom of expression within the adult industry.
Like many porn stars, she worked as a stripper before getting a break in the world of porn and she briefly returned to this line of work in the 90s.
Her best roles are undoubtedly in those that she received her AVN awards for but you can also see her giving fine performances in the Seymore Butts movie Gluteus To The Maximumus and the Wicked Pictures film Pornogothic.
Jasmin St. Claire
Also known for her work in the professional wrestling world and as a journalist for the metal/rock scene, Jasmin St. Claire was the woman behind the sequel to the Annabel Chong gang bang feat (see above).
Disappointingly her star turn in the 1996 film World’s Biggest Gang Bang 2 was later exposed as being a big con. The video promised 300 sex acts with 300 men in 24 hours yet St. Claire revealed that only about 30 men were used on the shoot.
Positioned strategically for filming purposes, only about a dozen of the male performers actually had sex with St. Claire in the movie.
She became known as a bit of a gang bang queen and filmed a follow up called Jasmin’s Last Gang Bang in 1998. In all she appeared in over seventy porno films during the nineties and was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2011.
With her unusual and exotic Brazilian/Russian looks, she polarized popularity for porn’s superstars. Her dark hair, Latina features and acerbic personality was completely at odds to the archetype superstars of porn of the time. Famously dethroning Jenna Jameson for a while at the top of the bestselling charts for the industry she was known as ‘America’s most controversial sex symbol’.
The world certainly needs more intelligent and anarchic porn stars like Jasmin St. Claire and her three years in the industry doesn’t seem enough to fully appreciate her talents. Thankfully, she hasn’t completely disappeared from the public eye and her return to mainstream acting a few years ago has seen her cast in several TV series.
If you catch only one film of St. Claire’s then make it Just Jasmin (1996).
Gina Wild
Real name Michaela Schaffrath, Gina Wild was a popular European porn star of the 1990s earning two Venus Awards; Best New Starlet (1999) and Best German Actress (2000).
Addicted to sex, she also worked in one of Frankfurt’s brothels even after she had retired from porn.
Now with a reputable mainstream acting career, Schaffrath sold off her stage name in 2005 to try and move on from her porn past.
If you fancy catching some Euro-porn from this period then Gina Wild is certainly someone to stand up and take notice of. Though she wasn’t prolific, she deservedly won her awards. Catch her in action in Sperma-Klinik (1999) in which she demonstrates her talents for anal, DP and facials.
Best Male Porn Stars of the 90s
The girls are only one half of the equation and the nineties were the making of many legendary male porn stars both in the USA and in Europe.
Notable names from the eighties like Peter North and Ron Jeremy were still starring in home movie releases and feature films whilst newcomers were snapping at their heals in the shape of Rocco Siffredi, Lexington Steele and Evan Stone.
Ben Dover
Real name Simon James Honey, the pornographer Ben Dover is one of the most famous adult industry exports from the United Kingdom. As well as being a prolific producer and director, Dover has also starred in many of his own movies.
Over his five decades in the business, he has been known by many names including Steve Perry, Sly Fondle, Lindsay Honey and, more affectionately, The Old Fucker.
He actually started out in the adult entertainment business in the late 1970s working as a male stripper using the stage name ‘Hot Rod’. Responding to an advert in a specialist performing newspaper, Honey was introduced to an agent who introduced him to European porn producers.
During some photo work for Private Magazine, he met Lexington Steele and Mike Freeman who gave him an insight into the industry and the kinds of money that could be made.
By the early 1980s, Honey had set up a home studio photographing his then wife, Linzi Drew, and filming hardcore movies. Running a fairly profitable home movie business for several years, the pair were arrested in 1990 for ‘publishing obscene material for gain’. Following release from prison, Honey was commissioned by Berth Milton Sr at the Private Group to start filming feature length videos.
After working for Private for a couple of years, Honey was inspired to start out on his own and in the summer of 1994 he started production on what would become Ben Dover.
The moniker, Ben Dover, was inspired by John Stagliano’s “Buttman” and the series featured Honey as the on-screen ‘cameraman’ or narrator. Sometimes he was involved in the sex as well but this was more rare. Filmed between 1995 to 2002, the Ben Dover series was filmed in the gonzo style and was very popular in the U.K. as well as in the U.S.
With a mix of that classic British tongue in cheek sense of humor and hardcore action, Dover spawned a whole library of eponymous titles including:
- Ben Dover In London (1994)
- Ben Dover’s Ben Behaving Badly (1996)
- Ben Dover’s British Anal Invasion (1997)
- Ben Dover’s London Calling (1998)
- Ben Dover’s Spicy Girls (1999)
- Ben Dover’s Porno Groupies (1999)
Manuel Ferrara
Although Ferrara didn’t start out in porn until 1997 he pretty much dominated the later part of this decade in Europe and has since become one of the most recognizable stars in the business. Still performing until recently, he has appeared in over 3500 videos during his career.
He didn’t get started in the mainstream U.S. industry until 2002 when John Stagliano cast him in the movie Fashionistas.
Ferrara has won more than sixty awards to honor his contribution to the porn industry including Best Male Performer (AVN) four years in a row. All of of his work from the nineties is in French and other European productions but they are worth watching.
Ron Jeremy
Ron Jeremy, the hardest working man in the porn business, came to the industry in the late 1970s when he was just 26 years old. With his trademark mustache, shoulder length hair, pot-belly and hairy chest/back, he is the least porn-star looking man you will ever watch on film. However, he was blessed with a sizable cock and a natural on-screen charm that has made him a popular performer.
This ‘everyman’ appeal has earned him fans both from the audience and within the industry itself and, although the peak of his career was during the 1980s, he continued to make porn through the 90s.
By the middle of the decade he had managed to cross over into the mainstream media and was working on film and television appearances as well as notable consultancy work for Boogie Nights.
Having appeared in more than 2,000 titles during his career he is in the Guinness Book of World Records for Most Appearances in Adult Films.
Voted #1 in the AVN’s Top Porn Star list in 2002, there are few more famous porn stars than Ron Jeremy.
Of his many films, those that are well worth watching from the 1990s include the Elegant Angels series of films in which he stars as the eponymous Dr Fellatio. Other good films featuring Jeremy include:
- Gluteus To The Maximum (1997)
- Texas Dildo Masquerade (1997)
- Intense (1996)
- Mystified (1991)
Unfortunately Jeremy’s career has been tarnished by recent accusations of sexual assault.
Sean Michaels
Voted 14th Top Porn Star Of All Time by the AVN in 2002, Sean Michaels is a celebrated performer and director of the 1990s.
He originally started working in porn in 1985 after a career in nursing and, latterly, as a model.
Michaels is an inductee of the AVN, XRCO and NightMoves halls of fames as well as being the recipient of several adult industry awards including:
- AVN Best Group Sex Scene (1996)
- AVN Best Anal Sex Scene (1998 and 1999)
- AVN Best Group Sex Scene (1999)
- XRCO Award – Best Anal Or D.P. Scene (1999)
A powerful performer with a strong and commanding presence on-screen, Michaels has over 2,300 performer credits to his name as well as over 200 directorial nods. There aren’t many female porn stars of the 90s that he didn’t work with
His signature style is in anal and DP action as well as the obvious interracial pornos with his best movie being the award-winning Tushy Heaven (1998) filmed with Seymore Butts (see below). Other works of his that are well worth a watch include Enchanted (1997), Wild Goose Chase (1991) and Butt Banged Bicycle Babes (1994).
Peter North
Voted as the 15th Top Porn Star Of All Time according to an AVN poll in 2002, Peter North started working in porn during the 1980s. Initially starring in all-male action shot for a gay audience under the name Matt Ramsey, North worked through the nineties and into the noughties as both a performer, director and producer.
In total he has more than 2,000 acting credits to his name in the porn industry and has directed more than 70 adult films; notably (during this decade) his series Anal Addicts and North Pole.
He was famously involved in the Traci Lords scandal of 1986 when it was revealed that she was underage at the time she performed some hardcore sex scenes with him.
Voted the F.O.X.E. Male Fan Favorite three years in a row from 1990-1993, he was also the winner of the Legend of Erotica award in 1997 as well as starring in the XRCO Best Group Scene 1993 (Slave to Love) and the AVN Best Group Scene 1998 (Gluteus to the Maximums).
North is a prolific performer who has been inducted into the Halls of Fame at both XRCO and AVN.
Ed Powers
Now a famed director and producer of adult movies, Ed Powers was first a performer who started appearing in movies during the late 1980s. He has over 1,000 film credits to his name as an actor, most of which occur during the nineties.
He is best known for his film series Dirty Debutantes and Bus Stop Tales which feature amateur female performers. Perhaps one of the first porn industry producers who latched on to the appeal of discovering newcomers and filming amateur content, these titles are the precursor to this popular genre of porn that is common today.
Taking his camera to the streets and talking women into having sex (or masturbating) on camera, Powers is still active in the industry.
At 5’ 6” he isn’t your typical male porn star and is known for his ‘regular’ looks and build. Now in his mid 60s, he is cornering the young/old market of porn proving a ‘classic is never old’.
Powers was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame in 1998 and won the 1996 AVN ‘Reuben Sturman Memorial’ Award.
Steven St. Croix
Originally working as a production assistant in the industry, St. Croix performed in his first scene in Deep Throat 6 when a male star failed to turn up for filming. Whilst his debut happened by chance, he proved himself a natural performer and went on to earn more than 28 industry awards and 1,500+ performer credits.
He took a break from porn at the end of the 90s to focus on a mainstream acting career and found work in Baywatch as an extra as well as performing in music videos for Jon Secada and Gloria Estefan. St. Croix returned to the industry in the noughties.
His most notable performances are those for which he won some of his gongs including:
- XRCO Best Actor 1994 for Dog Walker
- AVN Best Actor 1995 for Chinatown
- AVN Best Actor 1998 for Bad Wives
St. Croix has been honoured with induction into the XRCO and AVN halls of fame as well as being the recipient of a NightMoves Lifetime Achievement Award (2013) and an FSC Positive Image Award (2012).
He has also directed a dozen titles including some movies for Wicked Pictures, Vivid and Penthouse.
Rocco Siffredi
Hailed as the 10th Top Porn Star Of All Time in the 2002 AVN poll, Rocco Siffredi is certainly one of the most recognizable, influential and prolific members of the industry.
Known as the Italian Stallion, Siffredi started his career in Europe and is as famous and as well loved in his native home of Italy as Ron Jeremy is in the USA.
He first appeared in an adult film in 1985 when he was cast by a French porn director in the film Attention Fillettes. He appeared in quite a few movies around Europe in the late 1980s but it wasn’t until he was cast by John Stagliano in one of his Buttman films that Siffredi gained international attention.
With his trademark intensity and love of performing rough (and sometimes surprising) sex, Siffredi quickly gained a huge fan following. Mainly working with Evil Angle during the 1990s as a performer he has gone on to be a successful producer and director in his own right (Rocco Siffredi Produzioni).
Siffredi has appeared in well over 1,300 adult movies and has received over 70 awards for his work including AVN Male Performer of the Year (1993, 1996 and 2003), Male Foreign Performer of the Year (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019), Hot d’Or Award for Best European Actor (1996 & 1997), NightMoves Best Actor (1997) and XRCO Male Performer of the Year (1993).
He is in most of the notable films of the nineties and there are far too many to list but if you only catch a couple of his movies then make sure you don’t miss him in action in:
- Buttman’s Ultimate Workout
- Face Dance
- Buttman’s European Vacation
- New Wave Hookers 3
- Jenna Loves Rocco
- Kink
Of course, Siffredi is a member of the Halls of Fame at AVN, XRCO and NightMoves.
Vince Vouyer
Winner of the 1997 AVN for Male Performer of the Year, Vince Vouyer (real name John Lefom), was another prolific performer of the 1990s.
1997 was certainly his year and he also took home the AVN Best Couples Sex Scene for his performance in Conquest in which he starred with Jenna Jameson. Other gongs from the same awards night include:
- Best Actor
- Most Outrageous Sex Scene
- Best Group Sex Scene
He also took home the Hot d’Or Award for American Best Actor.
With more than a thousand performer credits to his name he has been active from 1994 through to the present day and is also a respected director. He has worked on more than 200 films behind the camera and his Breakin’ Em In series has also won plenty of awards.
If you watch him in anything to get a sense of his style make sure you check out Show (1996) and Shock: Latex 2 (1997).
Best Porn Films of the 90s
Reading through our list of top nineties porn stars, it’s like a Who’s Who of the modern porn industry. These are some of the top porn stars of all time. So you’d think the 90s would have some tasty movies to watch too, right?
Correct!
With all these stars knocking around the nineties, I thought I’d take you on a year-by-year tour of the top porno flicks throughout the decade. There are hundreds of thousands of movies to choose from, and many are special or memorable in their own way.
I’ve selected those that stand out for their impact — at the time, or over the years.
1990
In a year that saw the foundation of the World Wide Web, few people in the porn industry would know just how things would change over the following ten years. DVDs would still be another five years off in the future and porn was still only available in VHS/Betamax video format.
Still, there was plenty to choose from but my selection for this year is The Masseuse. Starring the 1980s porn legend Hyapatia Lee, this shouldn’t be confused with the Jenna Jameson film of the same title from 2004.
This 90s original is based on the story of a (surprise, surprise) masseuse whose client demands increasingly more explicit extras.
There are actually only four sex scenes in the movie and the action very much plays second fiddle to the narrative here with the cast showing off some great acting skills. It is this that makes the film stand out as an early 90s production insomuch that the genre of porn was very much still adhering to relationships, story line and filmography.
By the end of this decade the gonzo style of filming was much more in vogue and plot was fast losing ground to explicit sex scenes.
Produced by Vivid Entertainment it spawned a sequel in 1994, The Masseuse II which starred Ashlyn Gere, Asia Carrera and Steven St. Croix.
Other films from 1990 that are well worth a watch include:
- Between the Cheeks 2
- All That Sex
- House of Dreams
- Unauthorized Biography of Rob Blow
- The Tease
- Backdoor Desires
- Deep Throat 4
- New Barbarians
- Oh What A Night
1991
Ranked by the AVN as the 7th Greatest Adult Tape of All Time, Buttman’s European Vacation is certainly one of the most decorated movies from 1991. In award-season the following year, this John Stagliano title picked up four gongs:
- AVN Best All Sex Release
- AVN Best Couples Sex Scene
- AVN Best Group Sex Scene
- XRCO Best Video
Although part of the infamous Buttman series this particular film spawned two sequels, Buttman’s European Vacation Part II (1992) and Buttman’s European Vacation Part III (1995).
The original stars Rocco Siffredi alongside Stagliano as they take the action across some great locations in Europe including Amsterdam, Paris, Cannes and Rotterdam. The film also stars a mix of Euro porn stars including the French actor, Christoph Clark, Deborah Wells (Hungary) and Zara Whites (Dutch).
The film is one of the first Buttman titles and was instrumental in both launching the international career of Rocco Siffredi as well as developing the gonzo style of pornography. It was of course a play on the 1985 film National Lampoon’s European Vacation.
Other great films from this year include:
- On Trial Part 1: In Defense of Savannah
- On Trial Part 2: Oral Arguments
- Wild Goose Chase
- Realities
- Man Bait
- Taboo 9
- Malibu Spice
- The Only Game in Town?
- Bad
1992
Face Dance is another John Stagliano movie and yet another award winning choice, taking home the 1993 Best Film of the Year as well as being recognized in the XRCO Hall of Fame for Top 500 porn films.
Shot with a big budget, it features Rocco Siffredi as he makes his way to America to star in a Hollywood movie. Stagliano was able to hire a dozen women to work on the film and the results were able to fill two feature length films so this title is actually in two parts.
Face Dance features quite an elaborate story line and explores the industry from the perspective of a newcomer to Los Angeles. It includes some more perverse sexual scenes (given the time it was filmed) and incorporates a nine-way orgy.
80s legends Tom Byron and Joey Silvera also play roles in the movie as does Stagliano (Buttman).
Other great movies from 1992 that are well worth a watch include:
- Hidden Obsessions
- Anything That Moves
- Roman Goddess
- Fresh Tits of Bel Air
- Two Women
- Sodomania 1: Tails of Perversity
- The Secret Garden Part II
- Chameleons
1993
Another selection from the AVN Top 500 Adult Films of All Time, Slave to Love starring Peter North, Sean Michaels, Jamie Gillis, Brittany O’Connell and Sierra. It was directed by the 70s and 80s adult movie director Alex De Renzy. He was responsible for launching the careers of Juliet Anderson (‘Aunt Peg’), Desiree Cousteau and Annette Haven.
Winner of multiple awards, his films were all driven by the story line up until his final swan song in the 1990s when he started churning out quick sex shorts. Slave to Love was one of the last of his finer films and follows the coming of age story of the central character (played by Sierra) as she takes on an older and more experienced lover.
The movie features some excellent scenes which include anal, facial, lesbian and interracial with the final action taking home the XRCO Award for Best Group Scene 1993.
Other good titles released in this year include:
- Sorority Sex Kittens
- House of the Rising Sun
- Hard to Stop
- Sins of the Night
- Backdoor to Sweden
- Rocki Roads’ Wet Dreams
- The Bottom Dweller
- I Love Juicy
- All the Girls Are Buttslammers
- The Secret Garden #1
- Nothing to Hide II: Justine
1994
One of the first films starring Jenna Jameson, my selection for 1994 is the Cameron Grant movie The Dinner Party. It also features the talents of Asia Carrera, Debi Diamond, Kylie Ireland and Celeste. An ‘erotic feast of an orgy’, the film won an AVN for Best Girl-Girl Scene (1994) and was honored in 2005 when it was chosen by AVN as one of their Top 10 Choice Couples Movies.
It’s one of a small stable of films that seems to have been filmed with more of a female audience in mind and very much fits in with the current rise of the Feminist Porn genre.
Both Carrera and Jameson shine in the movie but it is the award winning scene with Celeste, Misty Rain and Debi Diamond that makes The Dinner Party so memorable (you can watch it here). It spawned two sequels which were good but not better than the original which is definitely worthy of the word ‘classic’.
Other titles released this year that are well worth a watch include:
- Bad Habits
- Citizen Shane
- Hookers of Hollywood
- Blue Bayou
- Dog Walker
- Up and Cummers: The Movie
- Pussyman 5: Captive Audience
- Depraved Fantasies
- Sex
1995
Though not actually released until 2006, the hardcore, big-budget and all-action film Uninhibited (watch it here) was actually produced and filmed in 1995. Directed by Buck Adams and starring Rocco Siffredi, it cost a cool $1.2 million to make and remains one of the most expensive porno films of all time.
Almost as explosive as a Hollywood movie of the time, the action follows a homicide cop called Gun (Siffredi) who goes undercover to infiltrate a drug cartel and a whole world of vice and beautiful women.
Filmed in 35mm and hailed as a landmark in adult film making, Uninhibited may be a product of the noughties but the stars and style are all very much of the nineties.
If you want to watch some other films that defined this year then the following are also definitely worth a watch:
- Latex
- Betrayal
- A Clockwork Orgy
- World Sex Tour 1
- Ben Dover’s Banned in Britain
- The Voyeur 5
- Sex II: Fate
- Blue Movie
- New Wave Hookers 4
- Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story
1996
Another big budget film, Conquest starring Jenna Jameson, Juli Ashton, Tom Byron, Vince Vouyer and Asia Carrera takes porn to the high seas in a lusty tale of low morals.
Directed by Greg Steel and Brad Armstrong, the movie won several AVNs including Best Couples Sex Scene and Best Trailer; it was also voted onto the Top 500 Adult Films of All Time by AVN in 2007.
Jameson plays the daughter of a pirate who has been murdered by a privateer and follows her as she avenges his death. It features some stunning scenes shot on location in Hawaii that was going to be based on the classic shot from the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity. This was dropped in production as the performers didn’t want to get sand in their eyes!
However, there is some beach action that had to be filmed behind a giant curtain to prevent the pubic from sneaking a peak at the hardcore action.
It’s a romp of a movie that typifies the change that was happening in the nineties of the adult film industry not only parodying Hollywood films but attempting to emulate their scale and impact.
Some other good films from this year include:
- The Pyramid 2
- Private Gold 13: Pyramid 3
- Bobby Sox
- Satyr
- American Tushy
- The Pyramid 1
- Shock (I)
1997
Although I haven’t included Pamela Anderson in our top porn stars, I did want to pay homage to her work in the nineties on the adult entertainment scene. She famously rose to public attention in the role of C.J. Parker in Baywatch as well as her numerous appearances in Playboy.
However, she also starred (unwittingly) in the most controversial adult movie of the decade when private videos of her and her husband Tommy Lee were stolen and then leaked. The furor happened in 1995 and clips of the action were to be found changing hands all over the internet.
Trust me when I say that this was a huge deal at the time and there wasn’t a single newspaper that wasn’t covering the fallout. It really was the first time that such intimate and private footage was so globally available and was an early example of porn going viral; and this was hardcore material for a prime celebrity.
In 1997 Vivid Entertainment obtained the rights to distribute the sex tapes and Pam and Tommy Lee: Hardcore was the result. The truth was that most people had already seen all of the good scenes before this legal version became available and the full 75 minutes of footage was just lip-service to those already infamous scenes.
However, it remains a defining event of the nineties in the adult industry and is one of the most notorious precursors to that popular genre of porn; celebrity sex tapes.
Other good movies released in 1997 include:
- Bad Wives
- Flashpoint
- Cafe Flesh 2
- Orgazmo
- The Last Fight
- Red Vibe Diaries: Object of Desire
- Zazel: Philip Mond’s Scent of Love
1998
Re-released in 2007 as Flashpoint X when it was chosen by the Adult DVD Empire as the Best Classic DVD, Flashpoint is a visually stunning porn movie from the late 90s.
Starring Jenna Jameson, Asia Carrera, Sydnee Steele and Brittany Andrews, it’s another film that could have been made for women and features Jameson in the lead role as a firefighter being framed for arson.
Directed by Brad Armstrong, there’s a lot of pyrotechnics, blistering action and stunning sex scenes including an orgy, anal and facial. There are also some non-sex cameos from the likes of Veronica Hart, Tod Hunter, George Kaplan and Frank Bukkwyd.
Flashpoint is one of the highest selling porn movies of all time and cost around $220,000 to make. It won the 1999 Hot d’Or Award for Best American Movie and was also awarded the Best Overall Marketing Campaign by the AVN in the same year.
Fun fact: the interior shots of this movie were filmed in the same location as the firehouse for the 1984 film Ghostbusters.
There were lots of great porn movies made in 1998 with my selection of those that are worth another watch being:
- Appassionata
- Looker
- Euro Angels Hardball
- Eyes of Desire
- Ancient Secrets of the Kama Sutra
- The Texas Dildo Masquerade
1999
There were quite a few definitive movies released in 1999 which I could have chosen, but I’ve gone with one that really hit the headlines and made history.
The World’s Biggest Gangbang starring the infamous Annabel Chong was one of those movies that defined the era more than most. Aiming for bigger, better, wilder and more notorious, this John T Bone movies was filmed in a Hollywood studio with a simple stage designed to look like a Roman playground.
Chong was reported to have had sex with 300 men but, in reality, only performed a total of 251 sex acts with around 70 guys. She did however set the record in this filmed event of the decade,
It was one of the highest grossing porn movies released in the nineties yet (it is reported that) Chong was not paid the $10k she was promised to appear in the film. According to a documentary she made after the movie’s release, she received no money at all from The World’s Biggest Gangbang.
Some other great films from this year include:
- Dark Garden
- Virtual Sex With Jenna
- Kelly The Coed
- Just Jasmin
- Hell on Heels
Notable Porn Directors in the 90s
The 90s marked the beginning of a trend where the top porn stars would often spend just as much time behind the scenes in production roles. Rocco Siffredi, Vince Vouyer, Ben Dover and Peter North were just a few of the names to get behind the camera in major directing roles.
Looking beyond those crossover stars, who were the major porn directors of the 1990s?
Andrew Blake
Active in the industry from 1989, Blake is a multi-award-winning director who has been working in porn for over three decades.
Initially working for Playboy and Penthouse, he struck independently in the early 1990s using his own production company, Studio A Entertainment for most of his releases.
Developing his signature style which includes fetishism such as latex, bondage and lesbian sex, Blake’s work is characterized as decadent, artistic and stylish. With high-production values and quality technique, he has been compared to the fashion photographer Helmut Newton with one critic saying of his work:
“It’s a whole different genre of explicit erotic filmmaking evident from the first frame — pure high fashion, glossy candyland fantasy. It is luxuriously designed from nip tip to toe. And it’s stylish as hell.”
His debut movie, Night Trips (1989) was the first porn film to win a mainstream award and Blake took home the Silver Award for Non-Theatrical Release at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.
His work is highly memorable but his best output is definitely from the later part of the 1990s and you should definitely check out High Heels (1999) for which he won the 1999 AVN award for Best All-Sex Film.
‘Seymore Butts’
Real name Adam Glasser, Seymore Butts was the pseudonym created in the 90s to launch a range of hardcore gonzo-style porn movies.
Glasser was a one-time performer himself during the 1980s, making a handful of appearances including a scene in one of John Stagliano’s Buttman movies.
His films have earned him two AVN awards for Best Gonzo Series (1999 and 2000) plus a 2013 XBiz nomination for Director of the Year. He has become well known to modern audiences with his reality TV show Family Business which follows Glasser and his mom and cousin as they help run the Seymore Butt porn empire.
He has produced hundreds of movies but one of the most notorious is Tampa Tushy Fest, Part 1 (1998) which was at the center of an obscenity trial in 2002.
Alex De Renzy
Director behind our 1993 top film selection Slave to Love, Alex De Renzy was a noted adult film director of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
De Renzy’s early work can be described as artistic and very much of the porno chic era, focusing on a strong narrative and a powerful intimacy with the on-screen action.
By the early 1990s he was only making a few of his hallmark films and instead was abandoning this style in favor of low-budget movies made quickly and with little artistic merit. He made most of these under the pseudonym, Rex Borsky.
His best work of the decade was undoubtedly in Slave To Love but you can also get a sense of his earlier style in films like Rapture (1990), Steamy Windows (1991) and Two Women (1992).
His later films were very much focused on anal sex and gangbangs which were becoming more popular and he churned out dozens of movies like Anal Co-Ed, Anal Sensations and Anal Taboo (all 1993) as well as Gang Bang Wild Style I, Gang Bang Wild Style II and Gang Bang Nymphette (all 1994).
Working with plenty of notable performers in his role as director, he is credited with launching the careers of Annette Haven, Desiree Cousteau and Juliet Anderson. De Renzy was posthumously inducted into the halls of fame at both XRCO and AVN following his death following a stroke in 2001.
Marc Dorcel
A French-Hungarian director and producer, Marc Dorcel is a bit of a legend, not only in Europe but also, in the U.S. His films are distributed this side of the Atlantic by Wicked Pictures with releases being popular across North America and Europe.
Famous for his ‘porno chic’ series of films, he was the first director to employ female porn stars under contract in the late nineties. A multi-award winning-director, Dorcel has won:
- AVN Award Best American Release in Europe (1995, 1998, 1999)
- Hot d’Or Award – Best European Director (1995 and 1996)
- Hot d’Or Award – Best European Film (1996 and 1999)
He was also honored in 1998 by the Hot d’Or association for special achievements in the European adult industry as well as being given a Lifetime Achievement Award by FICEB Ninfa, a French National Prize at the Venus Awards. His film company has also won the XBiz European Studio of the Year Award for five years running (2011-2015).
In recent years, Dorcel has been pioneering advanced filming techniques with the use of 3D and 360 degree films.
An inductee in the Hall of Fame at AVN, his best films from this decade include:
- Citizen Shane (1994)
- Parfum de Mathilde (1994)
- Princesse et la Pute/The Princess and the Whore (1996)
Jules Jordan
Entering the industry in the late 90s, Jules Jordan has gone on to become one of the establishments in the Los Angeles porn business. Owner of the JulesJordan.com label, he now produces, directs and stars in his own line of porn movies.
He got his break in the industry in 1997 when he was hired by International Video Distributors. Initially employed in sales, the owner Frank Kay gave him a chance to shoot some films for their Pleasure and Rosebud labels. By 1998 he had produced his first feature length film Live Bait. The movie gained a huge audience due to the appearance of the pro WCW wrestler, Chastity.
His work reinvigorated sales for the company and he moved on to sign a deal with Evil Angel in 2001 producing award-winning titles such as Feeding Frenzy and Ass Worship.
When he left to set up his own production company he was their best-selling director.
Though all of his best work is more recent than this decade, his signature style in the gonzo genre was developed in the nineties and has earned him his place in the AVN and XRCO halls of fame.
Bud Lee
Famously married to both Hyapatia Lee and Asia Carrera, Bud Lee took his name when he married the former in 1980 (its Cherokee tradition that the man takes his wife’s surname).
It is to his first wife, Hyapatia, that Bud credits his knowledge of the industry and he says that she taught him everything he knows about making movies.
Working throughout the 1980s, he hit his peak during the 1990s directing some of the best movies of this decade. Obviously quite of these starred his wife of the time Asia Carrera who he was married to from 1995 to 2003.
With more than 250 film credits to his name, his best work can be seen on titles like Appassionata (1997), Wild Flower (1998) and Reflections (1998).
Viv Thomas
Active from 1996 to present, Viv Thomas is a British producer of porn movies and specializes in foot fetish and lesbian content. He was pretty active during the late 1990s with an output that catered for a strong demand for this niche material. Titles at this time include:
- Every Woman Has a Foot Fantasy
- Simply Soles: Footsy Feet-ures
- Bubblegum Babes
- Leg Sex Dream
- Leg Sex Nympho
- Leg Sex Spy
He moved his operation to the continent following the UK’s decision to limit where hardcore R18 content could be sold and he has worked exclusively with Central and Eastern European models ever since.
An AVN award winner, Thomas’s films are artistic in style and, although they feature hardcore scenes, has a reputation for producing work with high-production values.
Where to Watch Porn From The Nineties
The 90s marks a clear dividing line between what I’d call contemporary porn and classic porn.
It’s still modern enough to be found on the major tube sites like PornHub or XVideos, but it’s rapidly getting buried under a pile of newer and glossier releases. Not surprising, really! We’re almost 25 years past the end of the 90s porn era. My my, how time flies…
There are some great tube sites out there that specialize in retro porn movies, including a good selection of films from the 90s. Below are the sites I would recommend:
Best 90s Porn Sites
- The Classic Porn – Specialising in classic porn movies from the 1960s to 1990s, their library is top-loaded with 90s releases. I really like the feature to browse classic by year of release. Great for capturing the transition periods in the porn industry (and very helpful during the research for this guide!).
- Hall of Fame Stars – This site showcases porn from only the most famous adult stars, with a content library built exclusively around scenes from actors and actresses in the AVN Hall of Fame. You can find videos featuring some of our top 90s stars, including Jenna Jameson, Asia Carrera, Rebecca Bardoux and more.
- Private Classics – Home to Europe’s biggest porn archive, Private Classics brings you glossy magazine prints and retro porn movies from a period spanning the 60s to the early 00s. Their first VHS release is from 1993.
- Adult Empire – It’s not cheap, but Adult Empire might just be the best stocked porn library in the world. Use this site to browse the back catalogs of hundreds of 1990s adult stars. Or simply stream digital versions of the top 90s porno videotapes. Adult Empire is about as comprehensive as it gets. (You can learn more about how it works in our full review).
That wraps up our guide to the 1990s Porn Industry. Thanks for reading!
Are there any top stars I’ve missed? Or classic movies you think deserve a mention? It’s almost guaranteed! This was a decade of massive change and rapid growth in the sheer volume and breadth of content available.
If you enjoy this guide, don’t forget to check out the rest of my series, covering the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s!
