Ron Jeremy

Early life

Ronald Jeremy Hyatt was born March 12, 1953, in Queens, New York City, to a middle-class Jewish family from Russia and Poland. His father Arnold, born 1918, was a physicist and professor at Queens College, CUNY, and his mother was a book editor who served in the O.S.S. during World War II, speaking fluent German and French. He graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, then attended Queens College, where he earned a bachelor's and a master's degree, majoring in theater and education.

Pornography career

Jeremy left teaching to pursue a legitimate acting career on Broadway, where he said he learned what it was like to be broke, "starved Off-Broadway." His then-girlfriend submitted his photo to Playgirl, leading to posing work that he used as a springboard into adult films. He initially used his surname Hyatt but switched to his middle name Jeremy after his grandmother Rose, listed in the phone book as R Hyatt, received nuisance calls from the Playgirl spread.

The nickname "The Hedgehog" was bestowed by fellow actor William Margold in 1979 after a shoot for the film Olympic Fever: Jeremy flew from New York in a T-shirt and shorts, expecting warm California weather, but a blizzard near Lake Arrowhead chilled him to near hypothermia; after a hot shower, his skin was pink and all his hairs stood on end, prompting Margold to say, "You are a hedgehog, my friend. A walking, talking hedgehog." A common industry joke was that "the kinkier acts some actresses would not perform were bestiality, sadomasochism, and sex with Jeremy" due to his atypical appearance.

In 2006, he debated pornography with Pastor Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com, on a college campus tour across the U.S. and Canada.

Personal life

On January 29, 2013, Jeremy drove himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after severe chest pain; doctors discovered an aneurysm near his heart and operated the next day, releasing him three weeks later. In early 2023, The Daily Beast reported that Jeremy suffered from "severe dementia," as determined by mental health experts after his arrest. More than a dozen women publicly accused him of sexual assault, including groping and inserting fingers into attendees at fan conventions.

Sexual assault allegations

The Exxxotica national adult conventions permanently banned him in October 2017 after a June 2017 social media campaign by webcam model Ginger Banks. The Free Speech Coalition rescinded its Positive Image Award, presented to him in 2009. In June 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office charged him with four counts of rape and sexual assault, including an alleged rape of a 25-year-old woman in West Hollywood in May 2014, assaults on two women at a West Hollywood bar in 2017, and a rape of a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in July 2019.

Many alleged assaults occurred at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, where Jeremy was a regular. He pleaded not guilty to all charges on June 27, posting on Twitter: "I am innocent of all charges. On August 25, 2021, he was indicted on 30 sexual-assault counts involving 21 women. His trial was suspended March 17, 2022, after he was reported "incoherent" and unable to recognize his own lawyer, and he was transferred to a mental health facility.

On January 17, 2023, a judge found him mentally unfit to stand trial due to "incurable neurocognitive decline." On February 8, 2023, he was committed to a state mental health facility, with a progress report hearing scheduled for May 8, 2023. After months in jail awaiting assignment, a judge granted a request to release him to a private residence on November 17, 2023.