William Higgins, also known as "Wim Hof" (December 19, 1942 – December 21, 2019[1][2]) was an American director of gay pornographic films who based his businesses in the
Czech Republic since 1996. He started his career as a porn director and producer in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when sellers of pornographic movies, including
Falcon refused to mail them to customers in many southeastern states for legal reasons. In addition, he said in an interview, that gay porn movies were "so bad" that he decided to begin making them himself. In 1978, he was
busted and his premises raided. Although the charges were later dropped, Higgins decided to go on a "world tour" looking for a better legal environment for his films. After rejecting Australia and Thailand as new venues, he settled in
Amsterdam, where his distributor was, and later relocated to
Prague, a less expensive city. Although the legal climate in the U.S. has changed, he had no interest in returning.[3]
His first film, A Married Man, was produced in 1974. He went on to produce over 140 internationally distributed titles.[4] His films won several
Grabby Awards and he is in the
GayVN Awards Hall of Fame.[5] He was also the founder of the film production company Catalina Video.[citation needed]
Higgins died on December 21, 2019, of a heart attack.[6]
^Weitzer, Ronald John (2000), Sex for sale: prostitution, pornography, and the sex industry, Routledge, p. 54,
ISBN978-0-415-92295-1, Directors William Higgins and Matt Sterling set the standard for the new 1980s gay porn model.