Wade Nichols(1946-1985)

Wade Nichols was without a doubt one of the most handsome and sensual male porn actors to emerge during the 1970's Golden Age of Adult Cinema. Nichols was born as Dennis Posa on October 28, 1946 in Freeport, New York. His father was a florist and his mother worked in the children's section of a local library. Nichols loved to draw and paint pictures while growing up as a kid as well as was a member of the rifle team in high school. Following graduation from high school in 1964, Wade studied pottery and design at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. While a student at this particular college Nichols won a role in a touring company production of the play "The Trojan Women." Wade moved to New York City in 1968 and got a job working as a commercial artist for the women's clothing company Jiffy Simplicity.

Nichols left his office job and worked as a male escort before making his hardcore gay porn film debut in 1975. Wade subsequently appeared in a handful of both straight and gay X-rated movies alike throughout the mid to late 1970's, with an especially memorable turn in the hardcore classic Barbara Broadcast (1977) as the hunky kitchen worker who makes love to C.J. Laing. Moreover, Nichols in 1979 recorded the disco album "Like an Eagle" for Casablanca Records using the name Dennis Parker and toured Europe to promote said album. Wade also first began playing the character of Police Chief Derek Mallory on the daytime soap opera The Edge of Night (1956) in 1979 under the same alias. Alas, Nichols's character was eventually written out of the show due to the fact that Nichols was seriously ill from AIDS. He died at age 38 of complications from AIDS on January 28, 1985. Nichols was survived by his mother, his older brother Richard, and his partner at the time of his death.