Paul Barresi

Paul Barresi
Paul_Barresi.jpg Paul_Barresi.jpg
Born	1949 Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S.
🏳️ Nationality	American
💼 Occupation	Actor, Model, Director, Hollywood Fixer & Author
📆 Years active	1970s – present
Known for	Military Services in the United States Air Force
🌐 Website	https://paul-barresi.com
🥚 Twitter	https://twitter.com/PaulBarresi1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Paul Barresi (born 1949) is an American author, media personality, model, Hollywood actor, and former erotic film star, director and producer in the adult entertainment industry.  

Early life and military service

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, to an Italian American father and an Italian-Irish mother, Barresi was the second of four sons. He was raised with his brothers Thomas, Mark and Matthew, in a blue-collar Catholic household in the Italian American community of Saugus, Massachusetts, near Boston. His upbringing was reportedly strict and he has described experiencing a challenging home environment. Barresi developed an early interest in viewing movies as an escape from his fractured childhood.

His father, a World War II combat veteran who served in the Pacific, as a cannoneer with the 2nd and 3rd Marine Divisions, later worked as a civil servant for the U.S. government. By the time Barresi’s youngest brother, Matthew was born, the family had relocated to Annapolis, Maryland, for his father’s job at the United States Naval Academy.

While attending Annapolis High School, Barresi became an undefeated state wrestling champion. In 1967, following graduation, he was offered a wrestling scholarship to the University of Maryland, however, chose to enlist in the United States Air Force. Barresi served at various bases in the United States, including Bolling AFB, Washington DC, and overseas, at the height of the Vietnam war, with the 636^th Combat Support Group, including Clark AFB in the Philippines. He rose to the rank of Sergeant and was honorably discharged in 1972 at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California.

Work as a Hollywood actor, model, erotic film star & director in adult film

Following his four years stint in the USAF, Barresi took his first job in civilian life as a fitness trainer at California Health Club in downtown Riverside, California. His entry into Hollywood movies began unexpectedly in the summer of 1973, when he stumbled upon a movie being filmed at Riverside’s historic Mission Inn.

Driven by a lifelong dream of becoming an actor- as fate would have it- Barresi was approached by the film’s producer Ismail Merchant, who offered him a job as a production assistant [‘gofer’]. Barresi accepted and two weeks later, the film’s director James Ivory, offered him a role in The Wild Party, as the bartender, playing alongside of the film’s star, sex Goddess Raquel Welch.

During filming, Robert Carpenter, the art director of Playgirl  magazine approached Barresi with an offer to pose for the popular woman’s magazine. In March 1975, he was featured with aspiring actress  Cassandra Peterson, best known today as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Barresi’s natural muscular build and unique persona on film attracted many prominent photographers and producers in the world of adult entertainment, including master lensman Rip Colt, who invited him to join  his stable of elite Colt Men. Bearing a striking resemblance to Burt Reynolds, Barresi became an overnight success in the LBGTQ community, and was featured on the November 1975 cover of  Mandate.

In December 1978, handpicked by Larry Flynt himself, Barresi became the first man to ever appear on the cover of Hustler. The nude print modeling led to dozens of offers to star in erotic film. Barresi rose to the occasion and soon became one the highest paid and most sought-after male adult film icons of the ’70s and 80’s, starring in adult film classics including Co-ed Fever, Bad Girls II, All American Girls II, Diary of a Sex Goddess, LA Tool & Die, and Secret of Stage Five.

In 1992, using the name “Joe Hammer”, Barresi won the Gay Video Guide Award in the Best Specialty Release category for the fetish video Razor Close. He earned a 2003 GayVN Awards nomination for “Best Non-Sex Performance — Gay or Bi” for Long Strokes. He also won the 2007 GayVN award and a 2007 Grabby Award for “Best Non-Sex Performance” for his work in Velvet Mafia (parts 1 and 2). And in 2008, he was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame.

In the mid 1980’s, Barresi seized on an opportunity to produce and direct erotic movies in all genres. Adult Video News celebrated him as the “undisputedly king of military-themed videos.” While working behind the camera, Barresi became a member of the Screen Actors Guild [SAG], and toured the US and Canada in summer stock from Neil Simon plays, Plaza Suite, California Suite, and Last of the Red Hot Lovers, headlined by Paul Lynde. Subsequently, Barresi landed dozens of roles in movies and television productions, including Perfect, Spontaneous Combustion, JAG^[ and Father Dowling Mysteries.

Barresi’s rise in the adult entertainment industry never deterred his ambitions in Hollywood. However, he candidly told Entertainment Tonight of the difficulty crossing over into mainstream film: “No one really takes a porn actor seriously ... and no one really respects a porn actor.”

Throughout the 1990’s, Barresi continued to land roles in film and television, including The Killing Jar (1995), NYPD Blue, and Gabriel’s Fire (where he played Mariska Hargitay’s love interest, Chicago mob boss Dominick DiFranco. Even as his Hollywood career ebbed and flowed, he maintained a steady presence in the entertainment industry, finding ways to reinvent himself time and again.

Work as a personal fitness trainer and Hollywood Fixer

Barresi’s also worked as a personal fitness trainer, attracting high-profile clients such as record mogul turned now acclaimed film producer, David Geffen, comedic icon Joan Rivers, King of Late-Night Johnny Carson and then wife Alexis Maas, Three’s Company star Joyce Dewitt, and Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock. Barresi’s multifaceted career led to connections within the underbelly of Hollywood, where he became uniquely adept at mitigating high-profile celebrity scandals.” Over the past four decades Barresi has prevented dozens of Hollywood A-listers from becoming the subject of unwanted scandal, including Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Tom Cruise, Sharon Stone, Woody Allen, Magic Johnson, Barry Bonds, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 1993, Barresi began working as a private investigator under infamous Hollywood PI Anthony Pellicano. ^[16] By 1995, he was the first on the scene when the LAPD’s newly formed Stalker Unit took down one of Los Angeles’ most notorious organized crime figures. That same year, Barresi was lead security escort for then Chairmen of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his then wife Maria Shriver, at the Los Angeles Inner-City Games.

To this day, as reported in the New York Post, Daily Mail UK, and The Hollywood Reporter, Barresi is still called upon by many of Hollywood’s most renowned celebrities, who find themselves in sticky situations. Most recently, Barresi found himself at the center of the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard lawsuit. In 2019, he was hired by Heard’s legal team to dig up dirt on Depp. In his new self-published book, Johnny Depp’s Accidental Fixer, Barresi recalls interviewing 100 people ahead of Depp’s libel trials against x-wife, Heard, only to find that the majority were still on the star’s side.

Book

Barresi authored Johnny Depp’s Accidental Fixer: How a Hollywood Sleuth Saved a Pirate’s Honor, published on July 18, 2024.

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