Ron Jeremy

Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953) is an American former pornographic actor and actor.

Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", Jeremy was ranked by AVN at No. 1 in their "50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list. Jeremy has also made a number of non-pornographic media appearances, and director Scott J. Gill filmed a documentary about him and his legacy, Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy, released in 2001.

Jeremy was accused of sexual assault more than a dozen times between 2017 and 2020, for incidents stretching back to 2004. Upon further investigation, in August 2021, he was indicted on 30 sexual-assault counts involving 21 victims including 12 counts of forcible rape. He was initially jailed awaiting trial, but in January 2023, a judge found him mentally unfit to stand trial due to "incurable neurocognitive decline"; he was released to a private residence in November 2023.

Early life

Ronald Jeremy Hyatt was born in Queens, New York City, to a middle-class Jewish family from Russia and Poland. His father, Arnold (born 1918), was a physicist and professor at Queens College, CUNY, and his mother a book editor who had served in the O.S.S. during World War II, as she spoke fluent German and French.

He graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. After high school, Jeremy attended Queens College (part of the City University of New York), where he majored in theater and education as an undergraduate and completed a master's degree.

Pornographic film career

Jeremy left the teaching profession (he called it his "ace in the hole") to pursue a legitimate acting career on Broadway. He said that he learned then what it was like to be broke, making no money as an actor who "starved Off-Broadway". He soon found work posing for Playgirl after his then-girlfriend submitted his photo to the magazine. He utilized this opportunity as a springboard into the adult film industry, which he viewed as a reliable means of supporting himself.

Jeremy had the nickname "The Hedgehog" bestowed upon him by fellow porn actor William Margold in 1979 after a situation on the set of the porn film Olympic Fever. Jeremy flew in from New York to shoot the movie. Expecting warm California weather, he wore only a T-shirt and shorts and brought no additional clothing. During the long motorcycle ride to the set, located near Lake Arrowhead, in the California mountains, the weather deteriorated to blizzard conditions, which chilled him to the point of near hypothermia. Upon arriving at the set, Jeremy was immediately whisked away to thaw out in a hot shower. When he finished, his skin had taken on a pinkish hue from the temperature extremes, and all the many hairs on his body were standing on end. Margold's comment upon seeing Jeremy at that moment was "You are a hedgehog, my friend. A walking, talking hedgehog." Contrary to popular belief, the nickname had nothing to do with his weight, as he was quite physically fit at the time.

Jeremy is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Appearances in Adult Films"; his entry on the Internet Adult Film Database lists more than 2,000 films in which he has performed, and an additional 285 films which he directed. By way of comparison, John Holmes, the next highest-ranked male star on the AVN Top 50 porn stars, has 384 acting credits listed on the IAFD.

One joke that made the rounds within the industry at the time was "the kinkier acts some actresses would not perform were bestiality, sadomasochism, and sex with Jeremy" because he had an atypical appearance for a porn star.

In 2006, Jeremy began a series of debates on pornography opposing Pastor Craig Gross, founder of anti-pornography website XXXchurch.com, visiting various U.S. and Canada college campuses as part of the "Porn Debate Tour".

Non-pornographic appearances

Film

Outside the adult film industry, Jeremy worked as a "special consultant" for the 1986 film 9½ Weeks. He appears in the 1996 horror film They Bite in a role making a film-within-a-film (Invasion of the Fishfuckers) – another horror film, both in the same vein as Humanoids from the Deep. He also served as a consultant on the 1997 film Boogie Nights—which chronicled the emergence of the fictional porn star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg, loosely inspired by the life of porn star John Holmes, who had been a co-worker of Jeremy's)—and the movie The Chase, in which he has a small cameo as a news cameraman. He played the monster "Blisterface" in ABC's children's show Bone Chillers. He also appeared in the 1999 film The Boondock Saints, played a bartender in 2002's Spun and acted in 2003's Zombiegeddon. He was an extra in Ghostbusters, played a male strip-club announcer in Detroit Rock City, and had a cameo in Killing Zoe and in the porn spoof, Orgazmo. In addition, he appeared in several productions released by Troma Entertainment, such as Terror Firmer, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead and Tales from the Crapper.

He was the subject of a feature-length biographical documentary, Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy, released in 2001 and widely distributed on DVD by mainstream retailers. In that same year he is briefly seen in the heavy metal band Fear Factory's DVD Digital Connectivity. In 2003, Jeremy appeared as himself in, and lent his name to, the comedy film Being Ron Jeremy, a parody of Being John Malkovich. Jeremy is a frequent interviewee in documentaries about the porn industry, or related subjects such as Fuck: A Fuckumentary.

In 2007, he appeared in the comedy film Finishing the Game as himself. Jeremy starred in 2008 in the erotic horror film I Am Virgin, which was released in 2010.

Jeremy has a cameo in Crank: High Voltage, playing himself as a protester angry at the low salaries porn stars get. Another 2009 cameo was in "Stripper: Natasha Kizmet". He once again appears as himself in the 2009 release One-Eyed Monster, a horror film parody predicated on the premise that an alien force takes over Jeremy's penis and begins killing people in the woods.

Jeremy is the Lead Antagonist/League Owner in the sports comedy Tetherball: The Movie and appeared in the western comedy Big Money Ru$tla$ featuring Insane Clown Posse in 2010.

Television

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jeremy made regular appearances on Interludes After Midnight, a New York public access cable TV program, which promoted a local swingers club and featured guests discussing swinging while nude on camera.

In 1980, Jeremy competed on the game show Wheel of Fortune, using his real last name, as Ron Hyatt. Among his winnings was a trip to Mazatlán.

Jeremy appeared in the second season of The Surreal Life, during which he developed a close friendship with Tammy Faye Bakker despite her devout Christianity and disapproval of pornography, and returned to the franchise for the ninth season of The Surreal Life: Fame Games, in which he finished second to Traci Bingham on the season finale, which aired on March 25, 2007. Jeremy also appeared in a segment on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. Additionally, he made appearances on Penn and Teller's Bullshit! in episodes regarding penis enlargement and circumcision. In 2005, he appeared on the UK reality TV show, The Farm. Jeremy also made a brief cameo on Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, in the episode "YouTube VS Porn", in a short segment where people on the street were shown a video of hardcore pornography, and Jeremy was the only one disgusted by the video.

Jeremy was seen in the Robot Chicken episode, "A Piece of the Action", in which he was voiced by Michael Benyaer. In the episode, he and several others parody The Surreal Life and The Lord of the Rings. The segment lampoons his penis size by having his character unseat a knight on horseback using nothing but his erect penis. Jeremy appeared as himself in the 2001 Family Guy episode "Brian Does Hollywood", in which he is a presenter at an adult industry award show in which Brian Griffin is a nominee. Comedian Kathy Griffin went on a date with him in the third season of her reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Jeremy has also appeared in a part on the Comedy Central show Tosh.0.

In 2003, Jeremy appeared on The Frank Skinner Show and performed a duet ("I Got You Babe") with former Cabinet minister Mo Mowlam. Jeremy appeared on Chappelle's Show as himself in a spoof called "What if the Internet was a real place?", in which he asks Dave Chappelle if he would like to see some of his films. Jeremy also appeared as a guest commentator on the Fox News Channel late-night news and comedy talk show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld in 2007. In the "Super Karate Monkey Death Car" episode of Newsradio, Jeremy can be seen sitting in the audience at Jimmy James's reading, along with Brian Posehn. Jeremy appeared in Tosh.0 as the falling prom girl's date. Jeremy appeared on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, as himself, in Bourdain's "Food Porn" (Season 5) and "Food Porn 2" (Season 6) episodes. Jeremy appeared on Silent Library in 2010. In the show, he was the "Mystery Creature" that was concealed underneath a sheet in a cage, the contestant has to feed him carrots while being blindfolded.