If you have been in 1,700 movies, and starred in plenty of them, and have directed some of them yourself, and your name is well known for your brand of films, you can perhaps expect not only fame, but also a level of respect from peers in Hollywood, and plenty of further bookings in Hollywood movies. Only some of those expectations have come true for Ron Jeremy, but if you believe his forthright and funny autobiography (written with Eric Spitznagel) _Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz_ (HarperEntertainment), he's not at all bitter and he is very much amused by the turns his life has taken. After all, he has been wildly successful in what he does, and he is crazy about working in movies, or publicity stunts, or book signings, or hawking tee-shirts, or partying with the well-to-do. Ron Jeremy, you see, is "the top porn star of all time" according to one trade magazine, and it is hard to argue with the designation. And Ron Jeremy has a big penis. Not the biggest in porn; that honor probably goes to the late porn star John Holmes, but Jeremy's size was remarkable enough to secure him into his profession, whereupon his other attributes (like ambition) sustained him in a career that has been far longer than others in the field. (Of his co-stars, he jokes, "I'm a dinosaur compared to them. I was making porn when most of them were still zygotes.") It's a remarkable life, and he has enjoyed it all very much (including the estimated 4,000 women with whom he has had sex for films and for fun), and while his book won't please the prudish, he has well conveyed his sense of fun and a very likeable self-effacing image.
Red-staters may be dismayed to find that Jeremy didn't have a broken childhood and wasn't forced into the business to support a drug habit. He never smokes, seldom drinks, and never does drugs. And he loves his parents. During high school and college he acted and played music, and along the way he became an accredited special education teacher. (He loves children, and he loves small animals, and his book contains an invitation to help him in the fight against world hunger.) When he was 24 he and his girlfriend submitted photos she had made of him to _Playmate_, and after those came out in 1978, he did his first porn movie (after getting permission from his dad). Jeremy does not have the model's face or physique sported by other porn stars. He is tubby, and has a lot of body hair that led to his getting the trade nickname The Hedgehog. He says that even though he has put on weight for all to see, it has never stopped him from getting work, and thinks it may be part of his attraction; it's no surprise that the good-looking actors get plenty of sex, "But when people see me in a porno, they think, If _this_ guy is getting lucky in the sack, maybe there's hope for me!" His eagerness to do anything made him famous quickly. "I wanted to stay busy. I wanted to work. And if that meant leaving one set at midnight and driving to LAX to catch a red-eye to New York for another movie the next morning, I'd do it."
He has enjoyed his notoriety, and is too busy promoting it to complain (much) about its drawbacks. He is a sincere actor, but mainstream producers tend not to hire him because as soon as he shows on the screen, everyone in the audience will point to him as that porn star. When John Frankenheimer wanted to portray the porn movie world in _52 Pick Up_, he wanted Jeremy to invite him to see a porn shoot in progress. "You don't need to do it again?" Frankenheimer asked on the set. "What if the lighting is wrong? What if the continuity is screwed up? What if you don't have enough coverage?" Jeremy's answer comes with a shrug: "Hey, it's porn. Our audience is very forgiving." He also got consulting credit on the wonderful ensemble movie about making porn films _Boogie Nights_, although his acting scenes were cut (as often happens when he works on mainstream movies). He does get called upon to do TV roles, but usually he is asked just to be Ron Jeremy, hosting S & M shows, judging wet tee-shirt contests, introducing rock acts, or even participating in serious academic seminars on aspects of pornography. Just like when he started in the business, he seldom says no, and knows that he might be just a commodity. "If Ron Jeremy is a commodity," he explains, "then I've been my most enthusiastic salesman." Perhaps this amusing autobiography is all a part of the sales, but still, it is a hugely entertaining and candid report by a man who loves his work.
