One of the stalwarts of the so-called ‘golden age of porn’ (i.e. the seventies and early eighties), Ronald Jeremy Hyatt was born in Queens, New York City, and initially tried his luck as an actor on Broadway. Success did not find him, but after a girlfriend sent his pics to Playgirl and they were published, he found his way into adult cinema. Over the course of his working life, he would appear in more than 2000 films, despite not being, as they say, ‘conventionally attractive’. Through the nineties, he would cameo in Hollywood films, and became something of a celebrity.
He was accused of sexual assault more than a dozen times between 2017 and 2020, for incidents ranging back to 2004. After a deeper investigation, he was indicted on 30 sexual-assault counts involving 21 victims, including 12 counts of forcible rape. In August 2021, he was jailed to await trial, but was found him mentally unfit to stand trial due to “incurable neurocognitive decline” in January 2023, and released to a private residence in November 2023, where he remains to this day. Many of his accusers were awarded financial compensation after this finding.
