LOS ANGELES — Veteran producer/director Jake Malone committed suicide Tuesday morning by jumping off a bridge in Long Beach, Calif. He was 61.
Malone, whose legal named was Parker Schurman, most recently was a producer/director for Evil Angel and had directed and performed in more than 100 titles in an adult industry career that started in 2003. But he had been on an extended hiatus from the industry and battling drug addiction in recent months, friends said.
Evil Angel general manager Christian Mann said in a statement, "I learned this morning that Jake Malone is the man who jumped to his death from the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach earlier today. Jake had been back in the United States for only a few weeks following a hiatus in Thailand where he tried unsuccessfully to set up a guitar repair business and become a permanent resident."
Mann continued, "A brilliantly talented man as a pornographer, photographer and musician, he was also a perpetually troubled and self destructive soul who could not escape the demons of his years long addiction to drugs. Even though Jake had ceased directing movies a couple of years ago, we considered him a member of the Evil Angel family. I spoke with Jake a couple of weeks ago. We talked about getting together for a visit now that he was back in the U.S. It was clear to me than that he was suffering from depression and in the throes of active drug addiction. I've lost a friend, as have many other people in our business.
"Our industry lost one of its most talented and humorous creative personalities. He referred to himself with pride as a pornographer — and that he was."
Dion Giarrusso, the owner of Combat Zone and Filly Films who was one of Malone's closest friends, had just exchanged text messages with Malone Monday.
"I knew Jake Malone a long time, we go way back," Giarrusso said Tuesday. "He actually got me my first job at Elegant Angel. He introduced me to [founder] Patrick Collins."
Giarrusso said he recently went a long period without being in touch with Malone, and then saw a picture of him on Facebook in which he appeared in a state of clearly declining health.
"He looked horrible, so I reached out to him and he came to see me like two days after that and he was living with me. He was living at my warehouse," Giarrusso said. "We were taking care of him, feeding him and getting him to the clinic in Tarzana to get him off [the drugs] and get him on the right track."
Giarrusso said that last Friday he loaned Malone money so he could get his belongings out of storage.
"He texted me yesterday and asked me if he could come over to the office and check his email because he had no computer," Giarrusso said.
He continued, "I loved the guy. I knew him a long time and we'd been through this a few times. I wish I could’ve done more. ... I really hope he can find love and happiness now in a better place."
Giarrusso said that Malone had also recently lost a brother.
"I owe him my success in this industry," Giarrusso said. "He gave me my opportunity. My plan was to bring him back. I knew he wasn’t going to pay me back. My plan was once he got clean he was going to come and be an in-house director for Filly Films."
Evil Angel director Joey Silvera in February saw Malone in Thailand and helped him get back to Los Angeles by paying for his airfare.
"Even right up until the end he told me he lived to shoot, that's all he knew how to do," Silvera said. "As a producer, I always was looking to see what he did next because there was always an edge to his stuff."
Evil Angel founder John Stagliano agreed. "Jake was very talented," Stagliano told XBIZ. "The first scene he ever directed won an award."
Veteran producer/director Juan Cuba, another close friend of Malone's, also said he owed his career in adult to him.
"I'm so devastated right now," Cuba said. "I never would’ve had a career if it wasn’t for Jake Malone. Parker was one of the most brilliant, talented people I’ve ever met in my life. He was one of my best friends and he was the reason why I got into porn and the reason my movies did so well at Red Light District. He was and will be an inspiration to me always."
Cuba said Malone taught him how to shoot camera and would even work as a production manager on his shoots.
Malone's work for Evil Angel, where he signed a production and distribution agreement in the summer of 2006, included six volumes of the "Fetish Fuckdolls" series and nine volumes of "Bitchcraft." He previously directed and performed in a few dozen titles for Red Light District and Platinum X Pictures, and a handful of titles for Elegant Angel.
"He wanted to be at Evil Angel. It was his dream because he knew he belonged there," Cuba recalled. "We were so happy when he got there. ... The person I knew wasn’t the person that jumped off that bridge. The person I knew was a kind, loving brilliant artist and beautiful person and not the broken person that jumped off that bridge. I’m going to miss him. He meant the world to me."
Malone, who was originally from West Palm Peach, Fla., attended Santa Fe Junior College in Gainesville. He was an avid guitar player and song writer who had played with numerous established musicians. He is survived by a daughter.
