Scotty Schwartz writes me: Gene.. Upon hearing about our loss of John Leslie all I could do was cry.
John was one of the true pioneer's of the industry. One of the finest actors the adult industry has ever had and from his work in the original "Talk Dirty to Me" he planted himself as truly a legend in the business.
John turned to directing in his later years in the business and he excelled in that as well. His contribution to the industry was overwhelmingly shared with his MANY awards for directing & Best Actor
Awards at the AVN shows and of course being in the AVN Hall of Fame as well.
The 1st ever adult non-sex role I had was in "Beauty and the Beast Pt. 2" back in 1990. Paul Thomas called me and asked me if I would do it, I didn't do adult films, but I asked anyhow who was in it, he rambled off names of all these hot women and for giggles I asked which guys were in it... He said 1 name, John Leslie .. that's all it took.
Being a fan of John's, all I wanted to do was say "THANK YOU" to him for being one hell of a good actor and he started to give me compliments as he was thrilled that I was doing the film with him as he was a fan of mine... that started our friendship that lasted several decades.
They say "Only the GOOD die young", well, John Leslie was truly one of the GOOD guys.
I'll miss you my old friend,
Scotty Schwartz
