Robert Kerman | |
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Born |
Brooklyn, New York |
December 16, 1947
Occupation | Actor |
Robert Charles Kerman (born December 16, 1947), also known as R. Bolla, is an American actor. He grew up in a middle-class Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. As R. Bolla, he appeared in well over 100 pornographic films, most famously Debbie Does Dallas (1978). He is one of the few adult performers to have an appreciable mainstream acting career.
Kerman's on-screen sex appearances began with director Roberta Findlay's Anyone But My Husband. He became one of the most prolific male stars of the Golden Age of Porn. Unlike many of his adult-industry peers, Kerman bitterly regrets his participation in the adult film industry, especially being in the film Debbie Does Dallas, which he feels ruined any prospect of him attaining mainstream acting success. He stated: "In retrospect I'm really sorry that I did it, because I probably ruined the best years of my life as an actor." He was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 1998.
Although starting his paid career in adult films, Kerman was a trained actor who won minor parts in such mainstream productions such as The Goodbye Girl (1977) and The Concorde ... Airport '79. In the 1980s, he starred in several Italian horror films, including Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, and Umberto Lenzi's cannibal films Mangiati Vivi and Cannibal Ferox. Still, he remained active in pornography throughout the first half of the decade, with roles including Lawyer Quim in Liquid A$$ets (1982), and Fritz von Holenwohl in the Henri Pachard directed Public Affairs (1984). In 1985, attempting to work solely in mainstream productions, he obtained a Hollywood agent and went on to play supporting roles in television series such as Hill Street Blues and Simon & Simon, In 1987 he appeared in the film No Way Out. He continued to appear in pornographic cinema and was dropped by his agent. Unable to find work and feeling betrayed, slid into years of depression and substance abuse.