Jeff Stryker is an American porn star who has starred in bisexual, gay, and straight adult films. He lives in California.
Early life
Jeff Stryker grew up in Springfield, Illinois. His father was a car salesman and his mother was a nurse. At age 13, he was sent to military school by his parents, who got a divorce while he was away.
Pre-film career
Jeff Stryker worked as a stripper and delivered balloon-o-grams before a local photographer sent shots of him to gay adult film director John Travis in California.
Film career and sexuality
Stryker is primarily known as a performer in gay pornography films, although Jamie Loves Jeff was one of the biggest selling heterosexual adult movies of all time for its producer, Vivid Entertainment. He describes himself as sexually "universal". He has also said, "I don’t define myself as anything." He also tried acting, starring in a 1989 Italian-produced horror film called After Death, in which he was credited as Chuck Peyton. Later in the American DVD release, the name Jeff Stryker was used as well. A trailer interview was added with Stryker's describing the experience he had while shooting this movie in Manila. Stryker also starred in the short film by German cult director Rosa von PraunheimCan I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? Stryker also appeared in a 1995 German television movie Der schwarze Fluch starring James Brolin, as well as the 1988 Italian feature Dirty Love.
Stryker was featured in a 1991 portrait by artists Pierre et Gilles.
Merchandising
The Jeff Stryker Cock and Balls, a dildo fashioned from a cast of his penis, is widely sold in sex stores. The dildo was academically analyzed in a paper presented at the 1995 Bowling Green State University Conference in Cultural Studies: Lesbian Pornography and Transformation: Foucault, Bourdieu, and de Certeau Make Sense of the Jeff Stryker Dildo, by Mary T. Conway, then a graduate student at Temple University. The sex toy is notable not only for being popular, but also as Stryker and the manufacturer of the item litigated for the rights to its likeness as part of Stryker's intellectual property. The case eventually reached a mutually acceptable resolution. In a 1999 Salon article written by Jeff Stryker, a New York journalist and the porn actor's namesake, the dildo is even described as an object of higher culture. It was mentioned in Allan Gurganus' 1997 novel Plays Well with Others, where the novel's narrator cleans up a closet filled with dildos, the premium find being "a Jeff Stryker, a monster, but somehow Roman in its genial fluted civic beauty." Stryker has released a compact disc of country music that he performed, and in his pornographic video Bigger Than Life, he performed a rock song of the same name.
American comedian Margaret Cho's routines involve her love for his films. In her show, Assassin, she discusses in detail the many places one can use the dildo. Stryker had given Cho his commercially produced action figure.
Stryker later sued Health Devices Inc. and California Publishers Liquidating Corp. for over $1 million for breach of contract and piracy when they sold a bootleg dildo of his genitals without paying him sufficiently. The case was heard before a judge in Los Angeles, who eventually brokered a deal whereby the case was dismissed upon payment of $25,000 to Stryker and the return and right to reproduce all items which Stryker endorsed. Stryker has had arguments with Kulak's Woodshed, a folk-music nightclub, that is next door to his office. He claims that the club causes disturbance normally associated with large late-night urban venues: noise, drugs, unruly patrons, vandalism, graffiti, public urination and parking headaches. James Britton, who operates a floor covering business on the other side of the club, also complains that the club has damaged his business. In January 2009, the L.A. Weekly reported that Stryker blamed the nightclub for preventing him from completing his autobiography, as the noise and crowds disturbed his concentration. “ been put on perpetual hold until I can get myself back together,” he told the newspaper. “I got a $25,000 advance on but could never complete it.” But Paul Kulak counter claims that Stryker has made threats to him and the club's customers: “He constantly reminds me he’s a firearms expert and will hide behind his back door when I dump the trash. Once, he started making mechanical gun clicks. I could see he had a pistol in his hand as he was dry-firing it... I’m willing to risk my life to keep this going.” Stryker responded to Kulak's claim and was quoted as saying, "That guy is so out there!"
Stage shows
Stryker appeared in A Sophisticated Evening with Jeff Stryker in Los Angeles, Summer 2006 and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Summer 2007. The show was produced by comedy writer Bruce Vilanch. In the show, Stryker performed a comic monologue about his life and adventures in adult films, conducted a "porn acting demo" comedy skit with an audience member, and danced in a nude finale where he greeted the audience. From 1999 through 2001, Stryker performed in a stage show called Hard Time, a comedy send-up of gay porn prison films. In the finale, Stryker danced nude. After the play, Stryker met with the audience at the door. The show toured several cities including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston.
Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? 1999 comedy short by Rosa von Praunheim
After Death 1989
Dirty Love 1988
Circus of Books, a 2019 documentary by Rachel Mason, features an interview with Stryker. The film focuses on the Los Angeles bookstores and porn shops Circus of Books, operated by Karen Mason and Barry Mason. Stryker worked with the Masons and did book and video signings at the shop.
