PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Veteran adult filmmaker Shaun Costello passed away earlier this month at 79, according to family members and industry friends and associates.
A noted director during the 1970s “Golden Age of Porn,” Costello had recently been rediscovered by mainstream cult movie buffs and recognized as an exploitation auteur.
After his retirement, he continued writing profusely on his blog, which he continued to update until a few months ago, and also published several books about his involvement in the adult industry.
An armed forces veteran from Queens who fell into the “loops” — short adult films — business after returning to New York, Costello directed and produced over 70 adult feature films during the 1970s and early 1980s, including “Midnight Desires,” “The Passions of Carol,” “Waterpower,” “Beauty,” “Fiona on Fire” and several hit titles starring Vanessa del Rio, including “Dracula Exotica,” “That Lady from Rio” and “China Doll.”
Costello was known for bold, on-a-shoestring stealth adaptations of mainstream stories, such as Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol" ("The Passions of Carol"), Otto Preminger's noir thriller "Laura" ("Fiona on Fire") and disco-vampire movie "Love at First Bite" ("Dracula Exotica").
Costello very notably did not use his real name for his industry efforts, directing instead under a multiplicity of pseudonyms. His identity was only revealed under unfortunate circumstances, when in the mid-2000s a fan released a pirated box set of over a dozen films, titled "Avon Dynasty: Shaun Costello Collection." Only two thirds of the films were Costello titles, and in highly unreliable picture quality. Also, the filmmaker had never worked for the Avon production company.
"Without that box, my identity would have never been linked to pornography, and my private life would be intact," he later told an interviewer. "I would have preferred it that way."
In 1983 he began a career directing commercials for New York ad agencies, for which he was awarded a Clio. He also directed the 1973 documentary “Four Days at Troon,” and the award-winning 1990 short “Writing for Time” during the first Gulf War. In 1991, Costello also produced the cult horror movie “Popcorn” under the name Warren Evans.
Costello wrote the books “Wild About Harry,” a biography of legendary adult performer Harry Reems; and “Risky Behavior: Sex, Gangsters and Deception in the Time of ‘Groovy,’” his 1970s memoir. A third completed tome, childhood memoir “The Last Time I Saw Jesus,” was unpublished.
After a spell as what he described as “possibly the worst real estate broker in the history of the Hamptons,” Costello fell upon hard times. In a career-spanning 2016 interview with cult horror and exploitation site Body Count Rising, Costello spoke frankly about losing his home in 2015, and how he recovered from that situation after three and a half months living in various homeless shelters.
“Through the VA’s HUD/VASH program I was able to finally wrangle a HUD voucher for a very nice two bedroom apartment, where I still live. To accomplish what I did took relentless tenacity. Everyone says ‘No’ to you over and over again. The trick is not believing them. I just kept hammering away at the system until I found a crack in the resistance. During this process I found out who would help and who would not.”
Costello added that he felt obligated to share that knowledge with other vets, by writing a candid account of his ordeal.
“Now I work on my blog in the mornings, and drive an Uber cab in the afternoons,” he told Body Count Rising.
Costello reportedly passed away in the first week of July, although news spread among veterans of the adult community only Monday.
“I’m so sorry to hear about his passing,” Vanessa del Rio wrote on her Facebook page. “He was my first director. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear this — may he rest in peace. He was known as ‘the naked director’ because he always got into the last scene, which of course at that time was an orgy scene. Fun was had by all — those were the days! He will be missed by many.”