COLLIN O’NEAL REMEMBERS GAY PORN STAR ROMAN RAGAZZI

Posted February 28, 2012 4:00 PM by with 9 comments

Although director Collin O’Neal has since retired from gay porn and no longer runs World of Men (which he sold last year), I reached out to him about his relationship with Roman Ragazzi, how they met, and what it was like to work with him.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Roman Ragazzi in the Serbian woods, right before his first hardcore scene. Image courtesy Collin O'Neal

I met Dror (Roman Ragazzi) about five years ago via a social networking site and we agreed to meet up at a sandwich shop in Manhattan. Immediately we started talking Middle East politics, and of course we did not always agree. Our friendship bloomed and one day Dror asked me about doing porn, but I told him to be careful with his job. He always knew he was going to quit the job and use the porn money to start a personal training business.

I invited Dror to come film with me in Serbia and he was very excited to do the project and see a bit of Serbia (see the pic of Dror in the Serbian woods). After the being outed via Page 6 to his work, he dealt with many issues. First, his family did not know he was gay nor did they know he was doing porn and he confided in me that his parents were not speaking to him (the story broke in the main Israeli newspapers).

I continued my friendship with Dror and every time we went out in New York he was very shy and stayed in the corner nudging me any time a hot guy went by. That is how shy he was. Although he had a rough exterior that exudes the epitome of masculinity, he was a very shy and gentle.

I am very saddened by the news of Dror’s suicide. For me, this is the second friend to commit this act. I hope his past in the porn industry did not play a part in his decision, but I fear it may. I want to tell all porn models that want to transition out (because at some point you all have to) to hang in there.

Dror will be missed by many, especially since he was such a nice, genuine and loving person.

Collin O’Neal:

 

 

Tags: , ,

9 responses to COLLIN O’NEAL REMEMBERS GAY PORN STAR ROMAN RAGAZZI

  1. sxg February 28th, 2012 at 5:36 PM

    Did you happen to ask him what his post on this link was about??? http://www.queerty.com/roman-ragazzi-gay-porn-star-and-israeli-military-trainer-who-once-led-a-double-life-commits-suicide-20120227/#comment-573754

    His comment is #14. I’m not sure whether it really was him, but it was a bit disrespectful.

    Reply

    • Mike February 28th, 2012 at 6:05 PM

      SXG — That’s wasn’t Collin O’Neal. Someone left the exact same comment here and it seemed odd (the IP was from Canada). Jack called Collin, and Collin confirmed that it wasn’t him.

      Reply

    • Shamama February 28th, 2012 at 6:08 PM

      SXG — ugh I didn’t really want to get into this here, but yes — actually, I did: Someone left the exact same comment here yesterday here on GayPornBlog at around the same time.

      Since Collin and Roman were friends, I thought the comment seemed suspicious. The IP address from the comment was the same Canadian address as someone who’s left inflammatory comments under many different names (including Collin, Roman, and Michael Lucas) on GayPornBlog in the past.

      It is most likely the person who outed Page Six about Roman’s porn career: Someone with a long, complicated history with both Roman and Collin.

      It was this comment which prompted me to call Collin yesterday. We talked about Roman’s passing and this is where I got the idea to ask him to write this post in the first place.

      Thanks,
      Jack

      Reply

  2. sxg February 29th, 2012 at 11:54 AM

    Ah ok sorry about that I didn’t know. I’ve read a lot of commotion about Roman Ragazzi for a few years now and it’s hard to tell who genuinely cared for the man while in the industry and who didn’t. There was so much banter going around between two well-known people in the industry about him it’s hard to tell what was true and at some points it just became sick. Hope Roman has found the peace he was looking for.

    Reply

  3. Luke February 29th, 2012 at 5:02 PM

    As usual the posting by O’Neil is about himself. Sad comment on both persons. Strange how he says porn “may” have been a factor in this death and he brought him to porn?
    Somone is not normal

    Reply

  4. Peter March 3rd, 2012 at 4:23 PM

    This is terrible terrible news. I wish there was something that could be done to help public gay figures in similar situation. It is truely sad to hear this news.

    Reply

  5. iain h August 12th, 2012 at 4:05 PM

    Interesting number of First Person Singulars in O’Neal’s eulogy:

    I met
    I told
    I invited
    I continued
    I am very saddened
    I hope
    I fear
    I want

    and finally:
    For me, this is… etc etc

    Solipsistic much?
    Just saying.

    Reply

  6. art pearson October 1st, 2012 at 1:09 PM

    Although,I never met Roman I have scene a bunch of his work.He was a great performer.As for his suicide, and any others suicide it is so sad. Yes it is very selfish to do something like this, but people that con sider something like this usually are at the end of there ropes as how to fix the situation they are in and think they have no other option. Some times they are in so much emotional pain they just want the pain to end and can’t see any other way but to kill themselves.RIP Roman, I will miss your beautiful performances’

    Reply

  7. tabithaswallows October 30th, 2014 at 10:02 AM

    Such a sadness yet again what a beautiful hunk of masculinity and apparently shy with it. life is a complete biatch to a lot of people we assume have it going well. Xxxx. I hope if there is something else waiting after this life that troubled souls get a queue jump pass… Tabitha. Tranny in london

    Reply

Leave a Reply