Al Parker, a renowned gay porn star, was born Drew Okum in Natick, Massachusetts. As a teenager, his parents loaned him their brand-new Mustang to attend the iconic Woodstock music festival, which they mistakenly believed was a classical music event. During his time at Woodstock, Drew had several significant homosexual experiences, with the most memorable occurring in the back of a van, a theme that would become a recurring motif throughout his adult-film career.
After completing his high school education in Natick, Drew relocated to Los Angeles, where he secured a job operating the film projector booth at Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion. It was here that he was discovered by gay-porn producer Rip Colt, who renamed him Al Parker due to the latter's masculine-sounding moniker. Parker went on to star in several of Colt's 8mm shorts.
Parker embarked on a long-term, open lover relationship with Steve Taylor, and together they established Surge Studios, a pioneering gay-adult film production studio. Following Taylor's sudden and tragic death from AIDS, Parker's enthusiasm for the studio waned. Parker himself underwent a serious conversion and tested positive for HIV, subsequently producing several "safer" porn movies featuring other HIV-positive actors.
Sadly, Al Parker passed away on August 17, 1992, in San Francisco, California, due to complications from AIDS.
