"Deep Throat" Movie Director Gerard Damiano Dead at Age 80

Gerard Damiano, director of "Deep Throat" movie the pioneering pornographic film, has died. He was 80.

Damiano was credited in the Deep Throat movie as "Jerry Gerard". The film starred (as though I need to tell most of you) Linda Lovelace (the pseudonym of Linda Susan Boreman).

Linda Lovelace died in 2002 in a car accident.

Damiano’s "Deep Throat" movie helped launch the modern hardcore adult-entertainment industry. It was shot in six days for just $25,000, and while box-office estimates vary wildly, numbers as high as $600 million have been cited, which would make "Deep Throat" one of the highest grossing films of all time --- and obviously, not just for porn films.

Damiano died Saturday at a Fort Myers hospital, his son, Gerard Damiano Jr., said Monday; Damiano Sr. had suffered a stroke in September.

His son said of Damiano:

“He was a filmmaker and an artist and we thought of him as such. Even though we weren’t allowed to see his movies, we knew he was a moviemaker, and we were proud of that.”

While "Deep Throat" movie had its own turn at fame, the name "Deep Throat" became widely known for two other reasons: one was as a character in the TV series, "The X-Files." The second, and better known, is as the informant's pseudonym used by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein while investigating the Watergate scandal.

Later it was revealed that "Deep Throat" was former FBI official W. Mark Felt. Richard Nixon's presidency was brought down by the Watergate scandal, you may recall.

Gerard Damiano is survived by his son and daughter. No formal services have been announced.

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