Billy Herrington (July 14, 1969 – March 3, 2018) was an American pornographic film actor best known for his work in gay pornography.

Biography

Herrington was born in North Babylon, New York. Herrington grew up in Long Island learning karate from his father, a sensei. He had interests in boxing, wrestling and martial arts, but did not start bodybuilding until he was 24 years old, after moving to New York City.

Herrington began his erotic career when his then current girlfriend surreptitiously submitted his nude pictures to Playgirl magazine. The photographs won him a "Real Men of the Month" contest and a $500 prize. His appearance in the magazine caught the eye of famed photographer Jim French, but, it was two years before Herrington posed for his first Colt calendars for French. Soon after, Herrington was filming hardcore same-sex adult films for All Worlds Video. Herrington became one of the best known same-sex adult film stars of the late 1990s, appearing on mainstream TV programs such as Love Connection and the Ricki Lake talk show. Herrington says the adult film industry helped him to understand his bisexuality.

Among his starring roles is the Roman emperor in the Danish feature film HotMen CoolBoyz (2000), produced by Lars von Trier's company Zentropa, also known for such films as the Oscar-nominated After the Wedding (2006) and Dogville (2003) starring Nicole Kidman.

Herrington's scene in Conquered with Nino Bacci, Colton Ford, Blake Harper, and Jay Ross won the "Best Group Sex Scene" at the 2001 Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards ("Grabbys").

Occasionally, Herrington performed striptease acts at gay clubs in the United States.

Internet meme

Herrington has become an internet meme among online communities after a clip from one of his videos Workout was posted on Niconico, a Japanese video sharing website. Thousands of mash-up parody videos of him have been made, many of which utilize deliberate mishearings (soramimi) of lines from his films. He is affectionately called "Big Brother" (兄貴 aniki) among the Nico Nico Douga community, and most of his videos are deliberately mistagged with "Wrestling Series" (レスリングシリーズ resuringu shirīzu), "Forest Fairy" (森の妖精 mori no yōsei), "Philosophy" (哲学 tetsugaku), or all three.

Herrington visited Japan in February 2009 to attend in a live online event hosted by Niconico and garage kit maker Good Smile Company. Herrington said that he is flattered and humbled by his fans' creativity. A limited-edition Herrington figure was announced for a July 2009 release. Two other limited-editions Herrington action figures were announced for the Halloween and Christmas holiday. The Halloween figure was released in October 2009 and the Christmas one was released in December 2009; both are Nico Nico Chyokuhan exclusives.

On October 10, 2017, an Ethereum ERC-20 token called Gachimuchi Token was made in honor of Herrington and the meme community. However, the token project was shut down because of a lack of developers willing to work on the project.

Death

On March 3, 2018, Herrington was killed in a car accident at the age of 48.