Page 40 - AVN Januray 2017

WHO’S WHO
MARK STONE PASSES AWAY
Director, musician helped create AVN Awards Show
HE WAS ALWAYS
LOOKING FOR
THE HUMOR
IN LIFE. ALL
THOSE COMEDY
BITS YOU’VE SEEN
OVER THE YEARS, MOST OF THEM
WERE CONCEIVED, WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND
DIRECTED BY MARK.
—GARY MILLER
IN MEMORIAM | By Dan Miller
MARK STONE, the veteran adult film director and beloved member of the AVN
family who was one of the original creative forces behind the AVN Awards Show,
died December 1 from liver cancer. He was 61.
hospice care.
New York, starting his adult industry career in 1982 as a salesman.
will hold its 34th annual ceremony on January 21 in Las Vegas. Stone, along with
AVN founder Paul Fishbein and Executive Producer Gary Miller, who is Mark’s
younger brother, built what began as a corporate event in the 1980s into the
entertainment show it is today that has become known around the world as the
premier adult industry awards ceremony.
video adult industry,” Fishbein said Thursday. “He was really talented, was a big
part of helping grow the AVN Awards, and was a creative and original voice in an
industry that rewards imitators.”
and producer of the AVN Awards since its inception. He not only worked behind
M
Stone, who was diagnosed with stage four of the disease in August, had been in
Born Mark Miller in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Stone grew up in Rochester,
He later became one of the three originators of the AVN Awards Show, which
“Mark was a larger-than-life character and a big part of the birth of the home
A gifted musician who played electric guitar, Stone was the musical director
the scenes on the production, he became a signature part of the live show as the
charismatic leader of the AVN Orchestra.
“He was my brother and my best friend in the world,” Gary Miller said. “We
came to L.A. together to pursue musical careers originally and then wound up in
the adult industry.
“He loved being the creative person doing the different productions that he did,
but his real passion was the music and he loved doing that show for everybody.
He loved putting together the music for it. For him it was never about the money;
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it was always about doing something great and doing something big that everybody
enjoyed.”
In addition to performing live, Stone also wrote, produced and directed the AVN
Awards Show musical acts. Two of his recent production numbers included the
terrific performance on stage by Tommy Pistol and Alexis Texas at the 2015 AVN
Awards; and the outrageous duet by Anikka Albrite and Joanna Angel this past
January.
In recent years Stone also performed with the porn biz rock band Gangbang,
which featured Evan Stone (vocals), Barrett Blade (bass) and Dale DaBone (drums)
jamming at various adult industry parties. Stone also led the band playing at the
32nd annual XRCO Awards in June in Hollywood.
“He was a musician ever since he was 10 years old,” Miller continued. “He was
an awesome, amazing guitar player, as anyone who’s ever been to one of his shows
would attest to. That was in essence who he was. His passion and love was always
music.”
But Stone also had a flair for comedy that came through in some of his campy
porn movies as well as the scores of comedy bits he produced for the AVN Awards
Show that have long featured some of the biggest stars in adult.
“He was always looking for a laugh,” Miller said. “He was always looking for the
humor in life. All those comedy bits you’ve seen over the years, most of them were
conceived, written, produced and directed by Mark.”
An accomplished videographer and director who helmed 100-plus adult films
during his 26-year career behind the camera, Stone was a seasoned shooter for
Wicked Pictures, directing more than 50 movies for the couples-friendly studio
dating back to 1995.
He shot 12 volumes of Wicked’s Hook-ups series from 2002-06 and six editions of
Reform School Girls from 2006-10. His most recent title that hit the streets in April
(Continued on page 42)