Peter de Rome

Peter de Rome (28 June 1924 – 21 June 2014) was a writer, photographer, and director of gay-themed, erotic films. De Rome was born in Juan-les-Pins, Côte d'Azur, France, grew up in England, and became an American citizen in 1997.

Career De Rome volunteered in 1943 for the Royal Air Force and served in France, Belgium and Germany in World War II. Returning to civilian life in 1947, he started an acting career with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, then switched to films, becoming a publicist, first with J. Arthur Rank, then with Sir Alexander Korda and later with David O. Selznick for whom he worked on The Third Man (1949) in Vienna, and then on Terminal Station (1953) in Rome (released in the U.S. as Indiscretion of an American Wife).

In 1956, he emigrated to the U.S. and first joined Tiffany & Company as a salesman, then left in 1963 to work in the Civil Rights Movement in the south with his good friend, actress Madeleine Sherwood. During this period, he made his first movie, a short documentary entitled New Orleans.

During this time de Rome worked in publicity for Paramount Pictures, retiring in 1989. In 1997 de Rome took out U.S. citizenship. His films had limited circulation in the UK, but in 2007 the British Film Institute (BFI) requested a selection of de Rome's films to be held in their Archive and shown later that year at the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. This program included a 45-minute documentary made by David McGillivray called Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn, and proved so successful that the BFI released the whole program on DVD.

A full-length documentary entitled Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn was produced in de Rome's 90th year. The film was screened at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. De Rome was unable to attend due to illness.

De Rome was diagnosed with leukaemia in May 2014. He died in the medieval cottage that had been his long-term home in Sandwich, Kent on 21st of June 2014, a week before his 90th birthday.

Partial filmography Short films

New Orleans (1964) Shower (1965) The Fire Island Story (1965) Scopo (1966) Boogaloo (1966) Double Exposure (1969) Encounter (1970) Green Thoughts (1970) The Second Coming (1970) In Camera (1977) Brown Study (1979) Help Wanted (1971) Moulage (1971) Mumbo Jumbo (1971) Prometheus (1972) Daydreams from a Crosstown Bus (1972) Underground (1972) Kensington Gorey (1973/2013) The Box (1974) Badedas (1976) Marathon (1979)

Feature films The Erotic Films of Peter De Rome (1973) Adam & Yves (1974) The Destroying Angel (1976)

Documentaries Fragments: The Incomplete Films of Peter de Rome (2011) Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (2013)