egafd.com

Gabriel Pontello is listed as "Italian originally", without the mention of his nationality.

http://www.egafd.com/actors/details.php/id/17

He is mentioned as French in Italian Wikipedia both in the article for Gabriel Pontello and Supersex, without a remark on his alleged Italian origin:

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Pontello
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersex

So does the Polish Wikipedia:

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Pontello

No info on him in English Wikipedia. What a surprise! [lol].

Now, to the proper question. Was he born in Italy and moved to France, is he of Italian descent (which many French people have and bears no remarkable signficance) or was he simply thought of being "Italian originally" because Supersex was primarily destined for Italian readers?

If someone has info on his biography, I will truly appreciate.

He is probably French of Italian descent. This descent was emphasized though, because of "Supersex" magazine and its phenomenal success in Italy.
There is also no particular Italian accent in his French (comp. on the contrary, the way Roberto Malone or Rocco Siffredi, both French residents for quite some time, pronounce the French language).

Yes, especially Roberto Malone speaks quite fluently but both have heavy accents.

Any info on Pontello's birthdate?

I don't know if this is one of the many lies one reads on magazines not very interested in facts, but on a porn magazine, about 20 years ago, I read that Pontello was australian-born and a primary school teacher before porn. He's not italian, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, no. Such data are extremely difficult to find for the 1970s Actors. Besides, he has always been very discrete (few interviews).

His earlier appearances dating from c. 1975, he was probably born in the 1940s (not later than 1950, I would guess).
For ex., to state only some of the big names of that era, Richard Lemieuvre was born in 1942, Alban Ceray in 1945. He is probably a bit younger, though.

Despite having quit performing in the (very) early 1990s, there are some traces of him involved in some quite hard sex scenes (I recall him administering a fisting to Magella, in one of his films directed for DBM).

Australian? Yeah right - and I'm the Pope!

This reminds me of a song of a great band of the 80s - THE FALL.

Australians in Europe - had that in some EP.

The late Peelie's fave as well.

Sorry about this - totally off-topic.

He should have made appearences well into (at least early) 2000s. IMDB lists Im Rausch der Sinne http://www.egafd.com/films/details.php/id/i0096 as the last film he performed. However, I don't know the nature of his performances because I did never see a non-70s film of him. Maybe just fisting (as you indicate), golden shower, etc., I don't know.

It is totally surprising that such a protagonist of European pornography for nearly 30 years is a mystery. Many actors and actresses of the 1970s are public personalities now (just saw Brigitte Lahaie on TV5 Europe) but I couldn't find even his year of birth. He has the potential to be a great cult figure with a little publicity. Supersex, Erotik, these are simply crazy stuff by today's standards.

He appears in a non-sex role (the husband of the character played by Ester if I remember correctly) in Cinque ore di infamia.

dopa wrote:
> great band - THE FALL

dopa, your penchant for foisting hideous boobjobs on us has been overlooked for highlighting this important [and eternal] truth. !thumbsup!




> Sorry about this - totally off-topic.

Hmm, well, I think Mark E. Smith is shagging a German bird these days, so maybe not so OT...

I wouldn't be so categorical about the 1970s French performers being "public personalities". Brigitte Lahaie is definitively a case apart, as she has always tried to do some kind of mainstream come-back, either by appearing as a guest on popular TV shows (sometimes even hosting them), or by appearing in second-rate movies, or even by occupying herself with psychology or whatever. It's true that she is quite well educated and still has this magnetism, but she has always remained extremely silent about her hard appearances or about that period in general (no commentaries about her problematic relationships with Jean-Marie Paillardy etc.). But there are no traces of the other girls...

This is also the case with the Males. All of them are very popular, but certainly no public personalities. And the only one to supply valuable (yet, sometimes inaccurate) information on this Golden Era is Jean-Pierre Armand, especially in the French forum La Cochonne. His contribution to a forum thread gave lots of info on the wherabouts of most of the 1970s performers. Alban Ceray is always quite active, being essentially the owner of a very famous swinging club in Paris (where lots of productions have been shot) and appearing occasionally on films. I also recall that Lemieuvre now runs a "chocolaterie" shop in some town of Northern France.

The only thing we know of Pontello (besides his passion for good cigars...) is that he has a daughter, who is probably in her 20s and that he remains very active shooting & / or producing extremely hard films in Paris (for DBM & Videorama) and most recently also in Prague. It's worthy mentionning, that he has practically never directed a film for a major French production company (ex. Marc Dorcel or Colmax). He is also very picky, where it comes to the performers (Richard Lengin -another very discrete guy- has remained a steady one during the years), whereas lots of new flesh (both female and male) have worked with him in their early steps. The good paycheck depended, hoewever, on the extreme character of the performances. Lots of new talent showed little hesitation to take part in them, as they were "guaranteed" that these films would receive a restricted and "focused" distribution in France. It's true, that all these extreme productions were (still are?) mostly available in France through the sex shops' network and much less via "la vente par correspondance", not receiving any (or receiving less) attention from the well-known magazines, like Hot Video.