Editing John Holmes (actor) (section)

=== Film career ===
{{blockquote|John Holmes was to the adult film industry what [[Elvis Presley]] was to [[rock and roll|rock 'n' roll]]. He simply was The King.|[[Cinematography|Cinematographer]] [[Bob Vosse]] in the documentary ''[[Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes]]''.}}

Holmes began his pornographic movie career in the late 1960s while he was unemployed and recovering from his [[pneumothorax|collapsed lung]]. He frequented a men's card playing club in [[Gardena, California|Gardena]] where on one evening, he allegedly met a photographer while standing next to him at a restroom [[urinal]] who gave Holmes his [[business card]], telling him that he could find work in the underground [[adult film]] business. From 1969, Holmes did nude modeling for underground adult magazines as well as occasional [[stag film]]s.

In 1971, Holmes' career began to take off with an adult film series built around a [[private investigator]] named Johnny Wadd, written and directed by [[Bob Chinn (film director)|Bob Chinn]]. The success of the film ''Johnny Wadd'' created an immediate demand for follow-ups, so Chinn followed up the same year with ''Flesh of the Lotus.'' Most of the subsequent Johnny Wadd films were written and directed by Chinn and produced by the Los Angeles-based company Freeway Films.

With the success of ''[[Deep Throat (film)|Deep Throat]]'' (1972), ''[[Behind the Green Door]]'' (1972) and ''[[The Devil in Miss Jones]]'' (1973), [[porn chic|porn became chic]] even though its legality was still hotly contested. Holmes was arrested during this time for [[Procuring (prostitution)|pimping and pandering]], but he avoided prison time by reputedly becoming an informant for the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD).<ref name="library">{{cite web |title=John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders: Wadd the Informer |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/3.html |publisher=crimelibrary.com |access-date=May 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417013100/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/3.html |archive-date=April 17, 2008  }}</ref> Holmes' "handler" during his time as an informant was LAPD vice detective Thomas Blake. Of his involvement with Holmes, Blake said, "It was a pleasure working for him."<ref>Interview segment with Detective Blake in the documentary, Wadd:The Life and Times of John C. Holmes, 1998</ref>

By the late 1970s, Holmes was reputed to be earning as much as $3,000 per day as a porn performer.<ref name=amerson/><ref name=library/> Around this time, his consumption of [[cocaine]] and [[freebasing]] were becoming an increasingly serious problem. Professionally, it affected his [[Impotence|ability to maintain an erection]]. To support himself and his drug habit, Holmes ventured into crime, selling drugs for gangs, prostituting himself to both men and women, as well as committing [[credit card fraud]] and various acts of [[petty theft]]. In 1976, Holmes met 15-year-old Dawn Schiller, whom Schiller later claimed he [[Child grooming|groomed]], abused and forced into prostitution to support his drug habit.<ref>{{cite news|title=Holmes' Confession in Bathtub: Told Wife of Role in 4 Murders|date=April 14, 1988|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Robert W. Steward|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-14-me-1912-story.html|access-date=September 21, 2015|archive-date=March 12, 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140312035115/http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-14/local/me-1912_1_sharon-holmes|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Devil in John Holmes|url=http://longform.org/stories/the-devil-and-john-holmes|author=Sager, Mike|work=Rolling Stne|date=May 1989|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150917214413/http://longform.org/stories/the-devil-and-john-holmes|archive-date=September 17, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=MacDonell, Allen|title=In Too Deep|work=Los Angeles Weekly|url=http://www.laweekly.com/news/in-too-deep-2137087|date=October 2, 2003|access-date=September 21, 2015|archive-date=November 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103015233/https://www.laweekly.com/news/in-too-deep-2137087|url-status=live}}</ref>