Writer Craig Modderno Passes Away

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Adult director Will Ryder has reported that entertainment journalist and author Craig Modderno died of cardiac failure in Hollywood on November 27 at the age of 68. A longtime friend of Modderno’s, Ryder penned the following tribute to the prolific writer and friend to the adult movie industry. With more than 3,000 bylines to his credit, ranging from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide and Reuters, Modderno also wrote feature interviews for Hustler magazine and Playboy, and in the 1980s he served as an editor of Penthouse. He co-authored the book I'll Be In My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Actors and Directors with Saturday Night Fever director John Badham. A frequent vistor on Ryder’s movie sets, Modderno enjoyed being around adult entertainment performers and was often spotted at industry events and parties. Standing six feet and four inches tall, he was a hard presence to miss. “Craig was one of my very close friends and I'm sad he's not with us anymore because he had fantastic stories and was always inviting me to cool events," Ryder said. “We would often meet up at restaurants and he would dazzle my dates with entertaining stories of Hollywood's insiders." Born in Washington, D.C., as boy Modderno traveled the world. His father worked for the U.S. Navy as a civilian food and beverage manager, with postings that included Naples, Italy; Key West, Florida; and Alameda, California. His mother was a Navy veteran of World War II. Modderno majored in journalism at American University in Washington, D.C., and as a teen worked in movie theaters in the East Bay area of San Francisco. He had a consuming passion for films, filmmakers, actors and popular music. "Craig could talk Hollywood like no other with an almost encyclopedic memory and he knew so many players in the film and music business," Ryder recalled. While a 19-year-old part-time rock music correspondent for the Oakland Tribune, Modderno was backstage at the historic Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California. Modderno filed a front-page bylined first-person account of what became known as “the Hippie Apocalypse,” in which an audience member was stabbed to death by one of the Hells Angels members hired to do security—an event recorded in the documentary Gimme Shelter. In the years to come, Modderno worked as a writer and talent coordinator for The Merv Griffin Show, filmed a lengthy interview with Dustin Hoffman that appeared in the documentary and anniversary re-release of The Graduate, and published interviews with celebrities from film, television and sports, from John Wayne to Paul Newman to Burt Reynolds to Shaquille O’Neill to Natalie Wood to Steve Hirsch. A longtime friend of former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Modderno was frequently in the Owner’s Box at the Forum and Staples Center with friends and colleagues for sports events and concerts. His sports enthusiasm led him to the press box at Dodger Stadium, where he often wrote for Dodgers Magazine, and when Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra attended a ball game on the same day, they both signed a baseball as a gift, one of his most cherished mementos. "When Craig admitted to me that he used to write many of the salacious Penthouse Forum letters back in the day, I had that same deflated feelingwhen, as a kid, I found out Santa Claus wasn't real," Ryder said. "He was a very unique guy." An often solitary man, Modderno never married and leaves no surviving relatives. A memorial service will be planned for the New Year.