GoFundMe Page Set Up for Industry Veteran Mark Stone

LOS ANGELES—A GoFundMe page has been set up to assist Mark Stone, the veteran adult film director and co-creator of the AVN Awards Show, who is battling liver cancer. To help Stone with his extensive medical expenses, click here. Stone is one of the three originators of the AVN Awards Show, which on January 21 will hold its 34th annual ceremony in Las Vegas. He, along with AVN founder Paul Fishbein and Executive Producer Gary Miller, who is Mark’s brother, turned what was a corporate event in the 1980s into the show it is today that has become known worldwide as the standard-bearer for adult industry awards ceremonies. “He is the driving force behind the music and creative elements of the AVN Awards Show since the early days,” Miller said. “It was Mark who had the idea to turn it into an entertainment show.” A lifelong musician, Stone has been the musical director and producer of the AVN Awards since Day One, often making his presence felt on stage with his electric guitar under his arm as the excitable leader of the AVN Orchestra. In addition to playing live, he also quietly writes, produces and directs the Awards Show musical acts, such as the show-stopping number performed on stage by Tommy Pistol and Alexis Texas at the 2015 AVN Awards; and this past year’s singing performance by Anikka Albrite and Joanna Angel. A native of Rochester, N.Y., who started in adult in 1982 as a salesman, Stone is also well known as a go-to videographer and director, helming more than 100 movies during his 26-year career behind the camera. Those credits include more than 50 movies for Wicked Pictures dating back to 1995 as well as 40-something for Moonlight Entertainment, a gonzo studio he co-owned in the ’90s.