OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Veteran performer, producer and adult industry activist Dave Cummings passed this past week at 79.
Cummings, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, passed at his home in Oceanside on October 5, 6 or 8, according to different sources.
“We lost a good one last night,” his nephew wrote on a Facebook post. “His distinguished service in the U.S. Army spanned over two decades and involved many key assignments as an Instructor at West Point and in many hot spots including a courier tasking into Cuba in the middle of the Missile Crisis, patrolling the Russian side of the Berlin wall, Military Attaché to Saudi Arabia and war taskings in Vietnam where he was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism during an attack on his infantry company.”
Cummings was active in the adult industry from the mid-1990s until 2012. His iafd page lists over 250 credits as a performer (some for non-sex roles) and around 50 as a director.
Fond of calling himself “the oldest active porn star,” after entering the industry as a 54-year-old, Cummings was involved with long-time industry players like Sin City and Fat Dog Productions. He is noted for his collaborations with directors Bobby Rinaldi and Luc Wylder.
The New York Times featured him in the mid-2000s as one of the big players in the “growing niche” of mature performers. “Mr. Cummings directs as well as acts in his movies,” wrote the Times. “They frequently play on dirty old man fantasies, with titles like ‘It’s a Daddy Thing,’ ‘Sugar Daddy’ and one just three months ago featuring a 19-year-old woman and a group of older sex-film stars. Mr. Cummings is on the cover of the DVD, leaning on a walker.”
But in 2009, Cummings, an articulate defender of sexual expression who was instrumental for years in the Free Speech Coalition’s fight against the 2257 regulations, made an eloquent plea about his status as an icon of senior sexuality:
“In my 69-year-old opinion, sex between consenting adults, or with oneself, is a God-given gift to mankind that is natural, normal and healthy,” Cummings told XBIZ at the time. “And by healthy, I mean not only sexually but also emotionally and physically.
"Sex provides focus, stress relief, increased productivity and a myriad of other beneficial effects for normal humans.”
Cummings went on to say that “pornography is legal, obscenity is not” and questioned the legality of the proposal.
“I wonder if prohibiting my right to work based upon age/occupation is constitutional,” he said. “Is Massachusetts also restricting employment to church ministers, physicians, legislators, politicians, volunteers and public safety folks who are over 60?"
