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Professional name of John Robert Stillman in his roles as both former gay and straight porn star and current theatrical producer and director. He was born in Los Angeles, the son of producer Robert Stillman and a former dancer in Busby Berkely musicals. John himself starred at the tender age of nine  with Eleanor Powell in the television series "Faith of Our Children," a religious family show which ran for three years and won five Emmy awards. After attending Northwestern University, John Stillman had some early work on the stage and as a model and dancer, before appearing in a male strip show in the mid-70s under the name "Jack Wrangler." A career in gay porn films soon followed, and he rapidly became one of the first performers in gay porn to achieve star status and a cult following. Among the over 85  films he made were  Boots and Saddles,  Gemini, Heavy Equipment, High Riders, Junior Cadets,  A Married Man Who Had Them All,  Eyes of a Stranger, Jocks, Kansas City Trucking Co, Navy Blue (with George Payne), A Night at the Adonis(aka A Night at the Baths), Wanted (with Al Parker), and, fittingly,  Broadway Boys. He also continued peforming in theater, including Forever After, by Doric Wilson. In the early 80s, Jack Wrangler began appearing in straight porn films, most notably Devil in Miss Jones II and Debbie Does Dallas. Allegedly his first sexual encounter with a woman was on screen.  His autobiography, The Jack Wrangler Story, or What's a Nice Boy Like You Doing?, was released in 1984.

In 1976 Jack met 1940s singing sensation Margaret Whiting when she attended one of his one-man erotic shows in New York, and a relationship developed which became marriage in 1979. Jack was 33; Margaret was 55. When Jack confided to Margaret that he was gay, Margaret's response was "only around the edges, dear." Jack soon retired from porn and devoted his time to his first love, musical theater. A fan of Johnny Mercer, Jack was one of the co-producers of the cabaret Dream, which featured songs by the composer and included Margaret in the cast. Other performances he has written and produced include Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: the Jazz Concert,  The Valentine Touch, The First Lady and Other Stories of Our Times, and Irina Abroad! In 1998, Jack and his wife filed a mutli-million dollar suit against the city of New York when Margaret broke her hip after tripping over loose pavement. The media quickly pounced on the fact that their suit cited loss of sexual relations as one of the damages incurred from the accident. Both still remain visible in the New York theatrical scene and are highly active in supporting and promoting AIDS charities. But Jack Wrangler's main claim to fame remains his years as a gay porn star, not only because he set the stage for other masculine, rugged, and athletic performers that followed, but also because many gay men in the 70s and 80s cited Jack as an integral part of their coming out process, as his against-the-stereotypes onscreen persona helped to show them that a man can be gay and still be a man.

The Jack Wrangler Story

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