Jon Dough Passes Away

Jon Dough Passes Away
By: Dan Miller
Posted: 5:00 pm PDT 8-28-2006
CHATSWORTH, Calif. - AVN Hall of Fame performer Jon Dough passed away on Sunday, Monique Demoan, his wife of 12 years told AVN.com. Dough, whose real name was Chet Anuszek, was 43.
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"I've been with Chet for 12 years. We have a four-year-old daughter," Demoan said. "We lived together. I found Chet yesterday. ... He did take his own life."
Demoan, who met Dough when she worked with him in Ed Powers' Dr. Butts 3, continued, "Chet was a very warm, loving person.
"We fell deeply in love. He treated me very well. He put me on a pedestal and gave me everything we need. I loved him being a big man, and being held in his arms. He made me feel very comfortable, very loved… He was everything to me. And I bear his only daughter."
Dough also had his own company, Jon Dough Productions, for his gonzo product, in addition to his Doughboy Video line that were his oral titles. Dough was known as one of the most reliable studs in adult, and had the type of longevity that only a small amount of male performers have enjoyed in the past two decades. His sense of humor came through in series such as Anabolic's Ass Creampies, a line in which the girls got a plate of whipped cream in the face after the scene. During his most recent interview with AVN in the winter of 2005, Dough jokingly sang a few verses of a song about himself he called the "Ass Cream Man."
Fellow AVN Hall of Famer Ron Jeremy remarked, "I met Jon Dough way back. We went to Europe a couple times together, and when you travel internationally with someone, you really get to know them.
"Jon was a great guy. He always had a good attitude, he was funny, and he was a fantastic performer. He would always defend his friends.
"Being in my seventh year as a contracted male performer for Metro, I understand that Jon paved the way for male contract performers, him being the very first guy, when he signed with Vivid. He paved the way for some of us, in that respect."
Adult performer Brian Surewood knew Dough for over a decade, even before Surewood began performing.
"He's always gave me phenomenal advice," Surewood said. "I worked next to him in scenes hundreds of times. We were good friends. I knew he was going through some problems. I tried to help him out before with his problems."
Dough, who grew up Pennsylvania, is also survived by his father and three sisters.
Producer/director Mike John said Monday he knew Dough for about 10 years.
"He was just a really, really solid guy with a big heart," John said. "We had a lot of common interests outside of the business. We used to go up to Mammoth snowboarding quite a bit, just regular stuff that people do."
John continued, "He had a lot of problems... He bounced around a lot with deals. He was a strong-willed guy. It's very surprising to me that he would go out like this. We all tried. He had a lot of people around him but I think he just isolated himself lately. I hadn't talked to him in two months."
John, one of the top gonzo shooters in adult, called Dough "a real innovator."
"A lot of the things he did went on to get copied wildly. We were just all sitting around talking, [Erik Everhard and Dan Silver] and a bunch of us and we were saying he was one of the only guys to span the generations. There's Tommy Byron, Marc Wallice, Ron Jeremy and Jon was one of those second generation guys. And to the last day, he was the only one who would get in the trenches with the new upstarts and show them what was up.
"As a shooter, he was always full of good ideas. ... He was the real deal. He lived it. In the end though, I think it just wore him down. I've talked him back a million times."
John said that Dough had aspirations of mainstream acting before he got into porn.
"He was doing some soap operas and he got an offer to do a Hustler layout. He could do it, it worked, and he got more and more calls. Before you knew it, he was in this," John recalled. "Chet was kind of a wild guy. He was the first contract guy ever [for Vivid]. That was something that had never been done before. Girls liked him and he was into having a good time."
Dough, who began performing in 1985 and has appeared in several classic adult films, has well over 1,000 titles to his credit as an actor. He has directed over 70 titles, most recently for VCA Excessive, Hustler, NJ Films and Anabolic.
Vince Vouyer, co-owner of Vouyer Media and a 15-year adult industry veteran, knew Dough for the last 14.
"Me and Chet weren't hanging out having coffee, drinking beer together-type-of friends, but we had a lot of respect for each other throughout the years," Vouyer told AVN.com. "We've always been good to each other. I've worked on a lot of projects with him over the years, some with Vivid, and he was one of the good guys in the business who I actually liked.
"Unfortunately, the past few years have been rough, and he's had some dependency problems. I don't know what led up to this. I haven't been in touch. I tried to put him in some scenes in the past four months. He had been available and then he wasn't available. He's been calling me and I've been trying to get him in some scenes, but I hadn't been able to reach him."
Vouyer added, "He was definitely a good woodsman. I've never seen him have bad days."
Producer/director Dan Silver, aka Dirty Dan, edited the last movie Dough shot, Ass Cream Man POV, in May. But Silver had known Dough since 1993, when Silver was a production manager for Vivid working with directors such as Paul Thomas and Bud Lee who were shooting Dough regularly. At one point Silver actually shot and edited the promotional trailer that touted Dough's contract as a Vivid Man. It was about 10 years later that Silver became Dough's editor.
"We spent a lot of time together in that editing bay and when you spend that kind of time together, he became more than just a client, he became a good friend," Silver said.
"... He had a great heart. He was one of the few people in this or any business that I would trust looking after my kids. When he had some hard times, I'd lend him money. Maybe that was a bad thing, but I couldn't say no."
Silver said that when he was directing for Hustler that Dough was his first phone call for male talent.
"He was the consummate performer and I needed a strong male talent for the nasty gonzo stuff I was doing. *There were very few people better than Chet. He could do a three-on-one no problem and he was always rock solid," Silver continued.
"If I had to summarize Chet in a couple words, I would say 'rock solid.' That's what's so unbelievable about his death. Here was a man, a big-hearted guy, a strong man physically. It's just so telling how insidious this drug is that it would make him so weak mentally. Even though we weren't shocked by this, I'm really kind of surprised by how deeply saddened I am by his passing. My hopes and my prayers are with his wife [Monique] and with his daughter."
AVN.com writer Thomas Stanton contributed to this story.

This came as quite a shock to me. Jon was one of those male performers that I always enjoyed watching and rarely fast-forwarded through his scenes, if ever. Not only was he a reliable stud and actor, but I always thought he had a great sense-of-humor onscreen. Seemed to be a fun and funny guy. Just another reminder that porn people are indeed real people with real problems just like anyone else. Never even knew his real name up until now. Well with a stage name like Jon Dough, what could I expect.

R.I.P Chet/Jon!

My first memory of John Dough was his amazing performance in John Leslie's "Dogwalker". Forget the sex, he did a lot of non-sexual stunts in that movie, including getting beaten up my goons.

My second memory is a very hot scene he did with Nina in another film, in which he bent her over a kitchen counter. The title escapes me, but it was 35-mm.

It's doubtful this suicide will get much notice outside the industry - after all, our enemies only pounce on the female suicides.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

My first memory of John Dough was his amazing performance in John Leslie's "Dogwalker". Forget the sex, he did a lot of non-sexual stunts in that movie, including getting beaten up my goons.

My second memory is a very hot scene he did with Nina in another film, in which he bent her over a kitchen counter. The title escapes me, but it was 35-mm.

It's doubtful this suicide will get much notice outside the industry - after all, our enemies only pounce on the female suicides.

Disgusting but true Sheldon. Unfortunately a lot of people in the industry still think the male talent or males in general in the industry don't really matter either. Just a harse reminder that everyone does matter. My heart goes out to his family and especially his daughter. Not right that a child should have to lose their parent so young!

This is extremely sad news. I didn't know Jon well, having merely shot him a couple of times back in my Vivid days, but he was always impressive as a performer and clearly a man of intelligence with much going on beneath a seemingly placid surface. Like everyone else, I'd heard stories of his battles with his personal problems, but you hear those stories about lots of people in this business and, thankfully, they usually turn out to be greatly exaggerated.

But clearly not in this case. How sad that no one could reach him or help him despite the great affection he enjoyed in this community.

And I absolutely agree that if he had been a female performer, both mainstream and adult media would have been all over this story. It's just not as sexy when tragedy strikes a man in the context of porn. I'm sure Nina will speak to this in greater detail and with greater eloquence, but this seems yet another example of porn, reflecting the society around it, devalues the emotional lives of men.

Tales of drug addiction, childhood abuse, rape and incest and other misfortunes are the typical stuff of porn gossip and so-called legitimate journalism when it comes to women in porn, but until something like this, or Cal Jammer's similar suicide years ago, momentarily attract some attention to the struggles of men in this field, they are expected to suffer in silence with whatever troubles their minds.

Porn bashers, right and left, who can't wait to wring their sweaty hands over the tragic condition of female sex workers seem to forget that much of the most demanding work of this industry is done by men, and those men have issues of their own. In all fairness, a kind of macho code in the business makes it difficult for men to air those issues, but that is no excuse for the failure of others to recognize them.

Ernest

[YogaDame]

Randy Spears has set up a MySpace page for donations to help defray the family's funeral expenses. Story at AVN

Sheldon,


Would that movie with Jon Dough and nina be "Hot House Rose Part II" ? Another film in which they performed together in was "Franky and Joanie".


Talon

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - A memorial fund designed to raise money for the burial of the late AVN Hall of Fame performer Jon Dough, aka Chet Anuszek, has been set up by his longtime friend and fellow Hall of Famer, Randy Spears, and his wife.

The link to help is at www.myspace.com/jondoughmemorial. Dough died Sunday at the age of 43. His wife of 12 years is Monique Demoan, who is the mother of his four-year-old daughter.
Spears has been one of Dough's best friends for the past 20 years.
"Chet’s [family] doesn't have any money. That’s when I thought I should do something so I can bury him properly," Spears told AVN.com Tuesday. "We’ve set up a Paypal account and this money will go to [Monique]. I put out a personal message to the fans in a blog that I consider it a personal favor for them to help."

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Just passing this around for those of you who would like to help out Jon Dough's Family with Burial Costs if some of you wish to do that.
As for any people in the Adult Industry feel free to leave a Memorial or Tribute Message to him at the link for his MySpace Memorial.



Thank You Very Much,


Eric Lomax in Van Nuys, Ca.

Actually, Ernest was very eloquent, indeed. He's spot-on when he says that the emotional lives of the men garner zero interest in the business or, usually, in the fan base.

It's just another example of the double standard: women are poor little creatures that must be protected from sex while men are soulless idiots who get what they deserve. "You're getting paid for sex, what more could you ask for?" seems to be the attitude.

It takes a lot for a hurting person to ask for help or to reach out. Just when you need support most, you feel you deserve it less than anyone else who ever lived. Even though there are many people who would have rushed in to help him, especially his wife, he couldn't do it. No matter how many times it happens, it's always sad and tragic.

I remember being in one of his first ever movies, up in the SF Bay Area. It was a g/g/b/b/ group scene and he was scared. He did all right for a new comer, but got much better as time went on.

I'll have to get over to the donation site and help out.

Sigh.

I am sad to learn about this story.

I think Nina put it well in her comment to the effect that when people need help the most, they do not ask for it.

How sad for his mate and child... how sad for us all.

Don

Yes, I remember Diedre Holland! I don't know why they split up, but her desire to leave porn and have a normal life might have had something to do with it. That, or she was ready to stop partying and he wasn't.

She's happily married to a German dentist and has two school-age kids.