Kurt Marshall, who died in 1988 at twenty-two after a mere sticky handful of performances in four videos, was the triumph of the golden-haired aesthetic in gay smut.
Blonds have come and gone within the pantheon of porndom but Kurt Marshall set forever the standard. He was the perfect Hitler-Jugend gone insatiably raunchy and saucy.
And yes, Kurt is an obscure figure, but so what? Let others consider the departed titans now off in Porno-Valhalla (Scott O’Hara, Jon King, Joey Stefano, et al) or those minor figures reposing in unmarked pine boxes in the Potter’s Field of Pornotopia.
In a more perfect world, poets would have written sonnets to Kurt’s thrilling languor. He would have been cast for a life-sized nude gilt (as though he wasn’t golden enough) statue holding up the proscenium arch at some very private, all nude production of Parsifal.
It would be easy to imagine little (not really, I think he was over six feet tall) Kurt in lederhosen and one of those corny green felt hats with the feather, perhaps skipping out of said lederhosen to get porked on a goatskin blanket atop the Jungfrau and afterwards repairing to some cozy chalet for a hearty supper followed by litres and litres of Riesling.
Also, in spite of being so tall with a long face that (even with unearthly, ever-so-slightly slanted blue eyes — cornflower? robin’s egg? — full lips and dimpled chin) just misses being horsey or even fox-like. Kurt is one of the few smut performers so incredibly beautiful that he would have been sensational in drag, a cross between a young Joanna Lumley (our favorite blond from Ab Fab) and Carole Lombard.
Graceful, long-limbed, and possessed of a sensationally greedy butthole, Kurt was an ecstatic sexual vision. Yet when he opened his mouth it was a surprise to hear him sounding so monotonously mid-American. Still, his vocal delivery was reasonably masculine, that of a Twink all grown up, the ephebe whose balls have dropped completely.
Kurt Marshall was born James Allen Rideout, Jr. in Maine. His short resume reads like this: Letters in track and diving in high school, entered porn to finance his B.A. degree, college dropout, HIV+ but died two years after diagnosis from the debilitating effects of drugs on his internal organs, which couldn’t possibly have been as luscious as his external ones. All of these facts gathered from the obit in San Diego Gay Times on 11 November 1988.
Kurt’s best performances are in the marvelous Other Side of Aspen 2, where he provides the linking narration and is (natch) gang-banged at the end. This particular scene is a banquet of hallowed dead beauty and sexiness since Scott O’Hara, Tony Bravo, and Chris Lance also figure in it.
In Night Flight he is seen throughout the picture “waiting for Charley to come home” (in Etta James‘ immortal phrase). The absent lover is an airplane pilot or some such nonsense and we see Kurt lolling and writhing about in frantic horniness on the rug in front of the gas logs or on the bed and finally at the end, or almost, the boyfriend turns up (and it’s the awful Joe Gere).
Kurt is actually a top for a bit and not half bad at it. That sounds a bit more condescending than I actually mean to be — most of the really exciting fucking in porn is done by those more frequently on the other end. Finally Gere puts Kurt’s legs in the air and starts to eat his ass out and Kurt just explodes all over, with this curiously feline expression on his face and a minimum of ostentatious gyration.
It’s a sublime moment.
I’m tempted at some point, once impotence sets in permanently, simply pop this scene on and turn off the sound and play the Fauré Requiem and just worship instead of wanking.
Kurt Marshall made only four videos during his short career. All of them are available for puchase and remain big sellers.
Splash Shots: Memories of Summer Bottoms for Tom Mitchell, then for Jim Bentley and Brian Maxon.
Sizing Up Bottom for Mark Miller.
The Other Side of Aspen 2 Oral scene with the creepily masked Mystery Skier and then a crazily edited orgy where he gets fucked by a bunch of different guys.
Night Flight Tops Joe Gere in a fairly ho hum scene.
Still miss you darlin…
FOR THE REST OF YOU
if you haven’t seen these films you should. Its a chunk of history. As short (in terms of a film career)as his was, it was worth every moment! XO XO
Blondes are the cutest guys on the planet! And I think I have a weakness for culy blond hair on a masculine body… sigh
Though, as you probably won’t find suprising, I’ve never heard of the guy. Like him though.
A Blonde God
This hottie is one of my first porn faves. He is an Aryan god in the good way, the way we all wish we could admit to having a thing for. RIP…
he has a nice dick and body
When Kurt bottoms for Tom Mitchell in Falcon’s classic “Splash Shots: Memories of Summer” you realize how amazing gay sex can be! He and Tom had some serious chemistry and that scene, after their tennis match together, was simply one of the best gay porn sequences in gay porn history. Kurt knew how to work the camera and even more so how to work his co-star. He was a beautiful young man who was taken from us way to soon. He was just simply amazing, either on film or in photographs. God bless you Kurt! Thanks for the few, but amazing, films you left us!
What a beautifully written and very moving tribute. Thank you Jon. How wonderful it would be to see other porn stars who maybe appeared in just a few filme, but nonetheless played a part in the history of gay porn, commemorated in this way.
When Kurt made the “Other Side of Aspen II” video for Falcon Studios he wouldn’t blow Sergio Canali or Johnny Bravo because they were uncut and he though they were unclean and stinky. Who says blondes are dumb?
A still of Kurt naked poolside and glaring, come across when I was a young teenager, is the source of my everlasting hanging-ball fetish.
Governor apologizes for calling Cubans, Puerto Ricans ‘very hot’ on tape
he’s right- Try getting cute with a HATIAN PORN STAR
ABOUT HIS ETHNIC BACKGROUND.
lIKE TAKING AWAY ALCOHOL FROM AN AMERICAN INDIAN.
Kurt was one of my favorite early porn stars. (I’m now 53) Sizing Up is an amazing video,but Kurt’s scene is not my favorite. His scene in Splash Shots 2 is my fave. I lived in San Francisco during the 80s and once saw him in his car on Russian Hill. I have seen a lot of porn stars in my day, but he was one of the few who looked exactly the way he did on film. It gave me goose bumps.
I’d spread for that beatiful cock!
me shocked jof kurts demise so untimelty prey my good wishes for his soul
Kurt Marshall is my favourite porn performer of all time. One of my greatest regrets is that he did not leave more work behind him. However he did make a FIFTH film. This film is called Ramcharger and was produced by Mustang Studio’s and MVP 001.
One of my regrets so far is that I have never been able to get a copy of this film to add to my collection. Kurt Marshall is sited as a performing in this film is the following websites: (link) (link)
I wish I could SUCK UP HIS MIGHTY COCK…YUM YUM …And swallow loads and loads of his sticky CUM…And how I would love him to rough ride me…
He looks too real to even think he is dead…I would like to swallow his balls too…
Thanks for this tribute. I had a crush on this man since I saw him as a young pup myself in the early 1980s. Wow. He got double-penetrated in one movie–was it Splash Shots, or Splash Shots 2 (which, if it is, is a SIXTH Kurt Marshall film). Anyway, this is terrific that you did this. Now do one for Jason Cruise!
Best,
Jon
I remember seeing Kurt Marshall for the first time as a teenaged pup too and being entranced. Yeah, the languor! How could one man combine such beauty and heat? I remember him in tennis shorts, in ski clothes…It’s terribly sad he died what must have been a painful and stigmatized death. Steve Henson was another guy from that 80s/early 90s era who packed a certain punch, though one very different than Marshall’s.
Goodness!!! Heavens!!!I am jealous of all you fine people. I thought I was the only one who would want him to do all things rough to me.
Well…take it this way…lay your hands off him…Do not touch…He is all mine…
Anonymous, thankyou, thankyou, THANK YOU!!!
I have been looking for a working link to Al’s Gay PornStar Parade website for the past 3yrs. (link)
It used to be linked at tlavideo.com, but now that link only goes to some weird hetero porn site.
Someone had suggested it had been taken down due to copyright bs.
It is one of the best sites to figure who is who, esp if you can’t quite match a name to a face in some old porn movie that only list actors’ names in the credits but neglects to connect them with faces.
So it’s good to know Al’s Parade hasn’t vanished.
Stunning…!
One of the all-time greats, despite just four films.
What a hot rod. I want to take him to the moon and back in my pink rocket ship.
I love blond pubic hair, and sexy young studs!!!1!
WOW i cat belive all the letters how much everyone wants this most hottest guy on the plannet… Kurt Marshall… I recently bought a copy of Slash Shots and i have never ut the cover down and ever had got his face ad the best looking body out of my mind.. Yeh i know i am 25 years of age but still i am round his age now… If he was still alive now i wouldnt knock him back if he asked me out on a date… i have never in my life seen anyone more hotter i mean any por actors they have nothing on Kurt. Well except most are still alive.
OMG!!!!!!!!! THE BEST!!! I HAVE ONLY SEEN HIM IN SPLASH SHOTS :MEMORIES OF SUMMER…YUMMO..gee whizz im thinking that he died at the age of 22yrs(in 1988) he must have been infected when he was in his teens (soooo sad) And 1988 was a long way off 1996 when HAART (highly active anti-retrovial therapy) came on the market which now has prolonged sooo many lives.
we sooo need to see and END TO THIS UGLY VIRUS!!!! because they dont make guys as HOT as KURT MARSHALL every day.
p.s i have saved the pic and its now my desktop background ..well for a few days. To think i was only 10yrs old in 1988..but i love all the CLASSIC PORN.in a way its our HISTORY (hehehe) cheers ANDREW (SYDNEY AUSTRALIA) xxxooo
Kurt was one of my favorites, and I date from the days of Kip Noll (I’m 46). I saw a hot scene with Kurt getting plowed in a locker room, I thought the movie was called Spring Break, which would be a seventh film, but maybe that wasn’t it. He was a hot hungry bottom, and I have shot many loads over that scene!
He was a truly beautiful and sexy star and I will never forget him.
the best the human race has to offer.
even his pubes are light blond.
america should’ve been taxed to take care of this blond guy.
I also remember some scenes of Kurt in a locker room being plowed by a hot stud just before they ran out to join their buddies in some Olympic type games. Seems like the movie was called something like that….The Olympians. Very HOT scenes in that video. Some buddies watched from the stands while others were down on the field. I remember hearing Queen sing “We are the Champions” in this video. Seems like there were quite a few more than four videos Kurt made….. thankfully. He was gorgeous.
i would suck on his balls all nite long
i can ride his dick all nite long while i suck him up he can eat me out
I saw him late one afternoon on the beach on Fire Island. He was playing with a dog and looking very boyish. As beautiful as he looked on film, it did nothing to prepare you for how breathtaking he was in person. And a year later he was dead.
Like Matt gunther and Joey steffano we mii u all guys