Industry Pioneer Russell Hampshire Passes

LOS ANGELES—Russ Hampshire, the pioneering adult video producer who founded VCA Pictures, has passed away. Hampshire had been in hospice care after being taken off dialysis for kidney failure. He died at his home, according to veteran industry executive Kelly Holland. “That’s a major chapter closing,” Holland said. Hampshire’s VCA Pictures was one of the first studios to present bigger adult films for mass consumption. He also helped build the careers of several adult entertainment industry luminaries, including the Dark Brothers, Jim Holliday, Michael Ninn, Eon McKai and the late John Leslie, Antonio Passolini and Jim Holliday. He was a defender of free speech and was staunch supporter of the Free Speech Coalition. Hampshire sold VCA to LFP in 2003. VCA was among the first adult studios to produce big-budget, story-driven feature films in the 1970s-80s, finding success with movies such as Insatiable, which sold 12,000 copies on its first day of release. In the 1990s Hampshire served one year in jail for the interstate transportation of obscene materials. VCA produced or distributed numerous classic adult films, including New Wave Hookers, The Devil in Miss Jones 2, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Café Flesh, and Debbie Does Dallas 3. This story is developing.