Toby Ross

Toby Ross (born 1955) is an American film director who made straight and gay pornographic films in the 1970s and 1980s and later on went to produce nonsexual and cult films with a strong sense of comedic flair. Many film aficionados consider Ross the only missing link between adult films and commercial independent films ("Ross—himself a prominent 70s queer filmmaker whose films bridged the gap between porn, exploitation, and art cinema"), as Ross calls it The Antarctica of the film business. He was born in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. At the age of eight, his mother having remarried an Austrian Jew, he moved with his mother and stepfather to Israel. He served two years in the Israeli army. After studies in Los Angeles, attracted by stories of the freedom in San Francisco, he moved there in the 1970s.

Before Ross made feature films he made loops, which were shot on silent 8mm or 16mm. His earliest feature films were partially composed of some of his loops with added soundtracks. Some of his later films were very successful in underground gay film circles. These films include Do Me Evil, Cruisin' 57, and Schoolmates.

His earlier theatrical features were released under Cinema Mirage. In 1980 he started a company called Hornbill Films which he used to release his hard core films onto VHS and in 1995 his regular general audience films some shown in various festivals. He produced several films for Bijou Video

In the early 1980s he began making movies on video instead of film.

He no longer makes hardcore porn movies, only "erotic story movies."

In the winter of 2010 Josh Dolgin released his Film "Socalled The Movie" in which parts of a documentary he made with Ross profiles Toby Ross as one of his influences.

Awards and nominations 1998 Grabby Awards Hall of Fame. 2002 GayVN Awards Hall of Fame. 2008 Grabbys Awards Life Achievement Award.

Paper Dreams 2015 The history of the erotic all male magazine industry (1966 - 1973) retold in a "film noir" style to enhance suspense.

Filmography

Cruisin '57 (1975) Do Me Evil (1975) Reflections of Youth (1975) Boys of the Slums (1976) Schoolmates (1976) White Trash (1977) Click Click (1980) Duplicated (1980) Twins (1981) Family Affair (1982) Golden Years (1982) The Diary (1982) The Last Surfer (1983) Delusions of Grandeur (1985) Ivy League (1985) Streetstar (1985) Classmates (1986) Double Trouble (1986) Mr Wonderful (1987) Tough Guys Do Dance (1990) A Midnight Clear (1992) Baby It's You (1993) Stop! In the Name of Sex (1995) Principal of Lust (1997) I Live for Sex (1998) Rock and Roll Dreams (1998) Even Steven (1999) Happiness is a Big Cock (1999) After School Group Sex (2001) Hung Twinks on Wheels (2001) Splendor in the Ass (2001) Young Bazookas (2001) Young Masseurs (2001) Schoolmates 2001 (2002) Twinkie Twinkie Little Star (2002) Bowser Makes A Movie (2005) Get a Life (2006) Father Knows... (2007) Live For Sex Die For Love (2008) Straight Boys Gay Boys 1 (2008) Straight Boys Gay Boys 2 (2009) Straight Boys Gay Boys 3 (2010) Straight Boys Gay Boys 4 (2015) Moon Over Hong Kong (2008) Like a Moth to a Flame (2009) Payton Collins Serial Rapist (2011) To Fetch a Predator (2012) Homosexual (2013) Toby Ross and the 70s (2014) Paper Dreams (2015) Bill Eld: American Pop Culture Icon (2020) Hello Darkness (2025)