Holmes always was unnaturally skinny.

[Link]

.....
"I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist; I'm not a slave to a world
that doesn't give a shit".

[Link]

Did you ever see Boogie Nights? It was based (very loosely) on Holmes. From E online, here's how it really went down:

In the mid '70s, Holmes discovered drugs.

To pay for that hunger, he began stealing-- anything he could. He'd break into cars, rip off old friends and lovers, even run up a tab of $30,000 on his wife's credit cards, then sell the merchandise for cash. Set his 16-year-old girlfriend to hooking.
By 1978, his out-of- control life in the fast lane had begun to take its toll--episodes of impotence began to hit.

So, what's a fella to do?

If you're John Holmes, and you're drowning in chemical dependency, you become an errand boy, a flunky for a drug kingpin and a heavy user. Enter, Mephistopheles (aka Eddie Nash)--nightclub owner and, according to law enforcement, devil incarnate .

This is where the story gets vicious.

Holmes owed money to a gang of druggies-- and to Nash.

Money, money--he needed it, pronto. So he became the planner, and point man, for a robbery of Nash's Hollywood home.

It was a heavy score: more than $100,000 in cash, jewelry that was later fenced for $150,000, plus a cornucopia of drugs--including eight pounds of cocaine.

Nash was furious

Cut to July 1, 1981. Five people are partying in a place on Wonderland Avenue in Hollywood, known to house the gang Nash suspected of ripping him off. But the party ends abruptly.

The cops would later refer to the scene as the "Four on the Floor" murders.

Four people slaughtered. Brains bashed in. Blunt instrument. Blood everywhere.

Only one survivor--who could not identify the killer, or killers.

But a boyfriend of one of the victims fingers Holmes, said it had been Holmes' plan to rip off Nash.

Holmes was the number one suspect in Wonderland. The cops figured he would roll over and finger Nash. After a lengthy jail stay, he went to trial--and on June 26, 1982, he was acquitted.

By not talking, though, he was jailed an additional 111 days for contempt.

He got out of stir November 22, 1982. All in all, he'd been behind bars a total of 11 months. The murders remain unsolved.

That period, though, away from drugs, apparently did Holmes some good. He began to have periodic resurrections for his erection.

There were a few more on-camera roles, including his last appearance in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress.

But the really bad news hit in the summer of 1985.

AIDS.

John Curtis Holmes had AIDS. He died March 13, 1988, penniless. Not quite the cuddly, touchy-feely ending of Boogie Nights.

"He was the Elvis Presley of porn," said private eye Nils Grevillius, who is writing a book on the Wonderland slayings with case detectives Bob Souza and Tom Lange (of O.J. fame).

If there is a moral to the story, it's a simple one. As novelist Bruce Jay Friedman once cracked: "Don't let that little frankfurter run your life."

[Link]

Seems like it was John's drug addiction running his life rather than his penis that led to his demise. Hence, that's why guys like Ron Jeremy are still going strong.

Pontus

[Link]