AVN Hall of Fame Director Patrick Collins Passes Away

LOS ANGELES—AVN Hall of Fame producer/director, Patrick Collins, co-founder of Elegant Angel, passed away on Sunday morning. Collins, who had struggled with various health issues in recent years, died in his sleep at his home in a suburb of Los Angeles. He was 73. “I loved Patrick, he was a very good man,” AVN Hall of Fame executive David Joseph, who was close friends with Collins for more than 20 years, told AVN. “I had a really good relationship with Pat, I just saw him two weeks ago. I went to see him at the hospital and he looked OK. “He was always nice to me, he was always very helpful. And in the business he was kind of a genius.” Elegant Angel became one of the adult industry’s top gonzo studios with Collins at the helm, producing iconic series such as Buttwoman, Slutwoman, Big Wet Asses, Big Wet Tits, Sodomania and the annual Performers of the Year titles en route to winning more than 130 AVN Awards. Collins stepped away from the day-to-day operations of Elegant Angel in 2013, but the studio continued to produce dozens of volumes of its popular lines under different management. The ownership changed hands a couple times before Adult Empire acquired the studio in 2022—and to this day the brand remains among the most recognizable in the industry. AVN founder Paul Fishbein remembered how Collins was a premier director during one of, if not the greatest era in porn history. “He and I were pretty close for a while, he was a friend,” Fishbein said. “He was one of the prominent people of that post-Clinton, ’90s gonzo phase. He was one of the faces of it along with [Evil Angel founder John] Stagliano and he continued that model, where he gave new filmmakers breaks. First, to shoot their own stuff, and then to own their own stuff. “He was sort of in the same mode as John in that, ‘Let’s give these people a chance.’ … Not greedy at all. And Patrick had his own vision for the stuff he did. “He was a strong personality, an interesting guy. I always liked him.” David Joseph, who owns US Arcades, Rock Candy Toys and Bedroom Products and has produced hundreds of movies for Red Light District, told AVN he and Collins went on countless lunches over the years. “He was a great director—one of the best ever,” said Joseph, who added that Collins loved jazz music, smoking cigars and 49ers football. “He had a strong personality, but he was honorable. Honest, but tough … he might’ve talked loud but he had a good heart.” Collins got his start in adult in 1989, becoming the sales manager at Evil Angel, whose founder Stagliano knew him socially. The two launched Elegant Angel together in 1990 as an Evil Angel subsidiary and their initial releases were girl/girl titles directed by the late Bruce Seven.Then using the pseudonym Roscoe Bowltree, Collins directed his first movies—Buttwoman Does Budapest (1992), Hungarian Connection (1992) and Depravity on the Danube (1993). He would go on to perform in and appear in non-sex roles in more than 100 titles as Bowltree, according to IAFD. As Collins established himself as a director in 1996 he branched off from Evil Angel, setting up Elegant Angel as an independent studio.He thrived with the edgy vignette series, Sodomania, which soon became Elegant Angel’s signature line.  Collins would go on to provide opportunities to several future stars both in front of and behind the camera. He gave legendary performer Tom Byron his first break as a director in 1996 with the Cumback Pussy line and in 2002 launched the directing career of Mason, who went on to win AVN Director of the Year in 2015 and now is in the Hall of Fame. Collins also signed notable directors Rob Black—who went on to launch Extreme Associates—and Nicky Starks, and offered future Hall of Fame shot-caller Axel Braun his first directing deal in 2002. The studio won Best Gonzo Release three times under Collins: Buttwoman vs. Slutwoman (2011), Tori Black Is Pretty Filthy (2010) and Brianna Love Is Buttwoman (2008).  Elegant Angel's Blowjob Adventures of Dr. Fellatio won Best Oral-Themed Series in 2000-01, while Glazed and Confused took home AVN gold in 2006. The epic Wasteland captured AVN Movie of the Year in January 2013. Meanwhile, the studio won Best Anal Sex Scene three times—in 2011 for Asa Akira & Manuel Ferrara in Asa Akira Is Insatiable; in 2009 for Sunny Lane & Ferrara for Big Wet Asses 13; and in 2008 for Bree Olson & Brandon Iron in Big Wet Asses 10. Big Wet Asses earned the Best Anal-Themed Release trophy twice. Braun, who went on to become the winningest director in history, considered Collins like a “father figure.” In 2003, a year after Axel landed his Elegant Angel directing contract, Collins made him the general manager. It was while Braun was the GM that he directed Elegant Angel’s first and only feature shot on 16mm film, Compulsion, leading to the Best Couples Sex Scene - Film award for Ashley Long and Kurt Lockwood and Braun’s first win for Best Screenplay at the 2004 AVN Awards. “That movie won awards all over the world, single-handedly changing the trajectory of my career, and I am forever grateful to Pat for taking a huge gamble on such an expensive project, but most importantly for his friendship and mentorship,” Braun said. “We traveled together all over the world and became very close. He was a remarkable guy and I learned so much from him. “The last time I saw him was at the AVN Awards in 2011, after I won a landslide of trophies, including my very first Director of the Year award. … He came up to me with teary eyes, gave me a bear hug and said, ‘I always knew you were gonna get to the top, and you fucking deserve it. I’m so happy for you, kid!’ “His words meant so much to me, and I will never forget him.” Braun said Collins inspired him to write Compulsion in April 2003—and he cast the man himself in a critical non-sex role as Big Charlie. “I had this character in mind that was a heightened version of him, and the nucleus of my story began forming around it,” Axel recalled. “Pat had never acted before, but his charisma was undeniable. … He hit it out of the park and delivered a truly epic performance.”