Richard Holt Locke

Richard Holt Locke (June 11, 1941 – September 25, 1996) was an actor in gay erotic films of the 1970s and 1980s, who went on to become an AIDS educator and activist[1].

Richard Holt Locke
Born
Richard Holt Locke

(1941-06-11)June 11, 1941
East Oakland, California
DiedSeptember 25, 1996(1996-09-25) (aged 55)
Sacramento, California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesTy Winslow
Occupationpornographic film actor
Years active1975–1983
Height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
FamilyRobert H. Locke

Early life

Born on June 11, 1941, in East Oakland, California, Locke graduated from Pleasant Hill High School at eighteen, and spent the next three years in the army stationed in Germany as a tank mechanic. Returning to California, he earned a degree at Chico State University.[2]

Career

Locke's first gay film was Dreamer for the director Jim West in 1975. In a December 1992 interview for Manshots, recalling how he was asked to pick a screen pseudonym for billing, Locke said, "They asked me, 'What name do you want?, 'and I said, ‘My name.‘ I'm very proud of my work and everything I do. An artist signs his name to the canvas, and I sign my name."

Tall, well built, and ruggedly handsome, Locke became a popular film star before he even realized it, partly because he worked for auteur directors who marketed their movies as if they were mainstream Hollywood productions.

Filmography
  • Pool Party
  • Take One
  • Passing Strangers (1975)
  • Forbidden Letters (1976)
  • Daddy Dearest (1984)
  • Kansas City Trucking Co. (1976)
  • El Paso Wrecking Corp. (1977)
  • L.A. Tool and Die (1979)
  • Gemini (1979)
  • The Sins of Johnny X (1975)
  • Two Days in a Hot Place (1979)
  • Cruisin' the Castro (1981)
  • Sixty Niner
  • Best Of The Superstars (1981)
  • Heatstroke (1982)

Beginning in 1977, apart from his screen work, Locke put together a stage show and made personal appearances at gay theaters throughout the US.

Later life and death

Diagnosed HIV positive in 1983, Locke retired from stage and screen and became an activist against the virus. He took education at the American Red Cross and the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City, then used his name and celebrity to make personal appearances at sensible sex seminars around the country. Eventually, Locke moved back to Desert Hot Springs near Palm Springs, California. In 1975 he had settled on an old soldier settlement property and built a geodesic domed home, powered by electricity from his own windmill. He did volunteer work from the Desert AIDS Project and gave weekly messages at the Villa Caprice Hotel in nearby Cathedral City. When his health began failing in February 1996, he moved to an apartment in Sacramento to be close to his family and the medical facilities at UC Davis Medical Center.[3] Locke was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 1994 Gay Erotic Video Awards in Los Angeles. He returned to the screen in 1995 to play a non-sexual role in Jerry Douglas' The Diamond Stud, which was his last appearance.

He also wrote the books Locke Out, In The Heat Of Passion. He was working on two unfinished autobiographies, Living and Dying. His one-act play, Loving, was filmed in 1995 in Toronto for future release.

He died of AIDS complications on September 25, 1996, at UC Davis Medical Center near Sacramento, California.[3] Services were held on September 29, 1996, in Sacramento, with interment at Benicia Cemetery outside Oakland.

Awards
  • 1994 Gay Erotic Video Awards Hall of Fame
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See also
  • List of male performers in gay porn films
  • Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards
  • Gay Erotic Video Awards

References
  1. May, Meredith (October 12, 2007). "S.F. library requesting everyday photos from gay community".
  2. http://webpages.csus.edu/~boblocke/extext/My%20Brother%20the%20Porn%20Star.htm
  3. Robert Locke. "Queer Heroes".
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