Cass Paley Passes Away

LOS ANGELES—AVN Hall of Fame director Cass Paley passed away on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 72. Paley had been on life support for more than a week after being placed into a medically induced coma. He recently had undergone dialysis and then contracted pneumonia about 10 days ago and was breathing through a respirator, fellow Hall of Fame director and close friend Luc Wylder told AVN. Paley was taken off life support at noon on Wednesday.  “Cass had not been well for a while,” Wylder said. “He had several surgeries and each one of them had their own complications.” Paley also suffered a stroke many years ago, Wylder added. “Pneumonia was the final factor involved in his death,” Wylder said. “So many of us are shocked because we talked with him not that long ago and he seemed happy and was doing well.” Born and raised in New York, Paley directed 185 features under the name Wesley Emerson, amassing scores of credits for pioneering studios such as VCA Pictures and Video Team, though he also helmed projects for at least a dozen other companies, including Wicked Pictures, Odyssey Group, K-Beech Video and Jill Kelly Productions. Wylder met Paley in 1991 when the filmmaker was directing the iconic all-girl series No Man’s Land for Video Team—the studio founded by the late Christian Mann—and Wylder’s ex-wife Ariana was cast in one of the initial volumes.  “That’s how we met,” Wylder recalled. “He was one of Russ Hampshire’s editors [at VCA Pictures] and he directed for Christian. I remember it like it was yesterday.” Wylder said their bond was such that his son grew up around Paley. “Cass was one of the most likable people in the business,” Wylder continued. “It wasn’t just me, everyone who met Cass adored him. He was one of those kinds of people.” Alexandra Silk agreed. The AVN Hall of Fame performer/producer, who is Wylder’s wife, told AVN, “He was my teddy bear.” “I don’t know why this one hurts so much. This one just really stings, I guess I loved him so much,” Silk said Wednesday. “We have to feel it all… You have to keep him alive by cherishing the good memories, that’s one way to keep him alive.” Silk continued, “My relationship with Cass was lots of hugs and lots of love. We used to share an office together. It was good to have the privilege of sharing many, many good times, and it’s a privilege—really for me, a present to have his presence. “He was one of a kind.” Silk explained that Paley “lived life on his terms.” “He enjoyed music and women and food, even if he knew it was bad for him he had the guilty pleasures of life,” she said. “He was over for Thanksgiving meals all the time… I loved him.” Paley also was “a true historian,” Silk added. “He has archives and archives of people that he interviewed, and he really interviewed some amazing people,” Silk said. “I know he loved interviewing people, that was his gift. “He always wanted to put something together with all of that footage, but he never did. We were in the middle of working on a project for him but he didn’t get the chance… “He wanted to interview one more person, Vanessa del Rio, and then he said Luc Wylder can interview me, and everything would be finished. And Luc was going to interview him… “We celebrated New Year’s and we were talking about how in 2022, we’re finally going to get that interview of him. It teaches me to seize the moments when you can because you don’t know if you get tomorrow.” In addition to helming almost 40 volumes of No Man’s Land for Video Team between 1994-2004, Paley called the shots for 20 movies of the star-driven Deep Inside series for VCA Pictures from 1993-96, delivering showcases that spotlighted a who’s who of adult entertainment in the mid-90s. Paley passed away with his longtime life partner, Hall of Fame adult film star and makeup artist, Kelly Nichols, by his side as she had been every step of the way. “We actually produced his last film that was distributed by Adam & Eve—it was just last year,” Luc Wylder said. “He had given us a bunch of footage and we put it all together and sold it to Adam & Eve.” Paul Fishbein, the founder of AVN who now produces mainstream projects for his Plausible Films label, collaborated with Paley on two of his documentaries that centered on the history of adult. “I knew him when he worked for VCA,” Fishbein said. “He was one of the pseudo hosts on X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time (2015) and then he was a co-producer on X-Rated 2: The Greatest Adult Stars of All Time (2016).” Fishbein recalled how he traveled with Paley promoting X-Rated 2 in 2016. “I had never spent more time with him and he was just a really great, friendly and fun guy with a lot of knowledge about the history of the industry,” Fishbein said. “When we went to New York to shoot interviews it was a lot of fun. It was cool to see him interact with the stars of the past like Vanessa del Rio and Annette Haven. He had relationships going way back.” Fishbein said perhaps the project that Paley would most be remembered for was his critically acclaimed 1998 documentary, Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes. Paley produced and directed the film, which won Best Feature Documentary at the 1999 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. “That documentary was really good… Lion’s Gate bought it at one point,” Fishbein said. “He was trying to get it back and restore and re-release it. “Cass was one of the good guys of the business. Everybody liked Cass—he was a friendly, jolly guy.”