When Lee Ryder Met Rod Phillips, Then Rod Phillips Met Joey Stefano

By Josh Eliot

[Originally published 02/28/25]

The first time I remember seeing both Lee Ryder and Rod Phillips was in one of my favorite movies, The Biggest One I Ever Saw. You may or may not know that the two of them actually dated. I personally never worked with Lee Ryder, but I was videographer for a couple of Rod Phillips scenes in what turned out to be the last movie John Travis directed for Catalina Video before moving on with Scott Masters to start Studio 2000. The movie was called Hard Steal, and Rod was cast in the lead as a sexy cat burglar. Director John Travis had worked with Rod Phillips in the past and was developing his comeback. Around the same time, Chi Chi LaRue was on the set of Sharon & Karen when one of its stars, Tony Davis (Hard To Be Good), brought his friend Nick to the set and introduced him to Chi Chi. Nick's amazing looks took Chi Chi’s breath away and he immediately became obsessed with making this stunning new boy a star - a star named Joey Stefano.

Chi Chi’s first order of business was to show Joey off to all the major studios, including Catalina. Producer Scott Masters vowed to never let Chi Chi direct movies for Catalina, so Chi Chi left the company and started working for In Hand Video, building up his directorial resume. When Chi Chi introduced Joey to the Catalina GM, he got an instant green light to direct a movie for Catalina Video starring Joey Stefano, much to the horror and anguish of Scott Masters. Billboard was on the schedule to shoot as the Joey Stefano blockbuster for Catalina, but at the very same time John Travis was prepping for his movie Hard Steal. Part of the agreement for Chi Chi to direct Billboard depended upon him allowing Joey to also take a supporting role in Hard Steal. It was an easy yes for Chi Chi to agree to, but Scott Masters, as always, had the last laugh by refusing to let Chi Chi use his name as director; instead, he demanded Chi Chi come up with a more masculine name for the credits. This is where Taylor Hudson was born. Any Catalina movies with Taylor Hudson as director were all really Chi Chi LaRue. In addition, Scott Masters made me swear that I would never show Chi Chi how we lit and shot our underneath penetration and oral shots, fearing that he would use that technique in other companies' movies. Of course, I did not oblige his order and showed Chi Chi in great detail how we got perfect lighting on underneath shots. Masters was pissed when he saw the final cut for review, but I didn’t care because those camera angles made the movie and Catalina, as a company, look better.

I’ll get into the scenes that Rod Phillips shot in Hard Steal for his comeback, but before that we need to go back and explain how Rod Phillips started in the adult film industry in the first place. A young man named Darris Robert Pyron from Norco, California, when not traveling the world, worked mostly as a florist, with his highest profile job supplying special arrangements to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Darris always dreamed of owning his own flower shop, so he started modeling to save up the money for it. Darris took on the name Lee Ryder and burst onto the scene in 1982 with a solo j/o in Biker’s Liberty, later shooting a full scene in Huge, a music-enhanced movie directed by Matt Sterling. In 1983, he became a “gay-household” name, working in A Few Good Men, Huge II, All American Boys and the mega-hit Spokes for Falcon.

One day in Laguna Beach, California, Lee Ryder locked eyes with Gregory Leslie Patton in the Boom Boom Room gay bar. If you were gay and passing through Laguna Beach, you always made time to stop by the Boom Boom Room. The bar had a hotel attached, which made it very easy for the sex worker boys to connect with their clients. It was midday when Gregory popped in there to kill some time while his car was in the shop. Lee was 24 years old and Gregory was 21. As the story goes from the Rod Phillips (Gregory) interview in Men & Films (Bijou, 1987 - a recent Bijou re-release!), it was lust at first site. Lee Ryder worked his power of persuasion to get Gregory into the adult gay film business with their first role together in a Falcon Studios loop called High Voltage, in a threeway with Mark Hunter. Gregory took on the name Rod Phillips, "Rod" for his big dick and "Phillips" referring to a type of screwdriver. 1984 became a very busy year for the hot, new, in-demand couple, with Lee Ryder starring in Steve Scott’s Screenplay, plus The Biggest One I Ever Saw alongside his beau. Additionally, Rod Phillips made the films Boys Town: Going West Hollywood (Nova Studios) and Windows (Vivid Man). They were both in demand as sex workers and night club performers, but arguments over money, other sexual partners and jealousies resulted in them separating from their relationship and eventually leaving the business. Lee continued making a few movies like 2 X 10 and Sticky Business in 1985 and 1986, then retired. Rod left the business, then made his first comeback in the movies with Too Big For His Britches and Bare Tales in 1988. Dropping out of site after making those movies, he returned in 1990 to star in Plunge (Falcon Studios) and Hard Steal for John Travis and Catalina Video.

In Hard Steal, Rod was paired with Joey Stefano for one of the scenes, and while I’ve read that the two were dating at the time, my memory tells me that they met on our set and started dating afterwards. It makes the most sense to me, but Chi Chi LaRue, if anyone, would know the exact details for sure. I remember the chemistry with these two; Joey was acting very shy around Rod as he recognized him from his movies in the 1980s. One of Joey’s requests to Chi Chi was to work with actors like Jack Wrangler, Cole Carpenter, Eric Manchester and Chad Douglas, but Chi Chi had to explain that those movies were shot years ago and those guys are no longer in the business. I think the fact that Joey recognized Rod from that era really drew him towards him. For Rod’s part, you could just see in his eyes how he was instantly drawn to Joey, not taking his eyes off him even when they weren’t interacting. That’s what I remember and why I really think that was the day they met. They dated, as well, but for an even shorter time than Rod and Lee. Rod, at the end of the day, was really down to earth and not all about the “porn scene,” whereas Joey was up and coming and had lived and continued to embrace the party life. Little known fact: Sometime in 1991, Joey Stefano auditioned with Aaron Spelling's people, at their request, for the role of Matt Fielding, the gay character in the TV show Melrose Place. Doug Savant won the role and did a great job, even with all the limitations on gay characters at that time. Could you imagine Joey in that role?!

After breaking up with Joey Stefano, Rod Phillips left the porn scene only to return three years later for a small role in Chi Chi LaRue’s Hologram (1993). That was his last movie. On May 24th, 1993, Rod Phillips passed away at the age of 32. Rumors that he committed suicide are questioned in Live Journal, stating that he was diagnosed with HIV-related lymphatic prostate cancer, which escalated quickly during the last weeks of his life. Two years prior, on July 10th, 1991, Lee Ryder passed away, also at the age of 32, from complications of AIDS. On November 26th, 1994, Joey Stefano passed away at the age of only 26. It is documented that Stefano had a rough childhood that led him to drug use, including heroin, starting at the very early age of 15. When he did not show up to set one day, producers went to his hotel room and found his non-responsive body. It was later determined by the medical examiner that he died of an accidental overdose of cocaine, morphine, heroin and ketamine. A very sad ending for three very beloved stars of the 1980’s and 1990’s. Two decades in gay porn history that wouldn’t have been remotely the same without them.

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.