Gay Porn Star Dror Barak Dead at 38
Dror Barak, the New York City-based Israeli Consulate employee whose sideline in gay porn got him fired from his day job in 2007, has reportedly committed suicide.
Barak’s boyfriend — who was not named — told Out.com that the porn star, who performed as “Roman Ragazzi,” took his own life last Thursday. “Dror was not some drug addicted, party obsessed, former porn star,” the boyfriend said. “He was a hard working man who built a very successful personal training business with very successful and dedicated clients.” After his firing, Barak had launched a business called Freedom Fitness under the name Drew Barak. The boyfriend also told a gay porn blog that “details [of Barak’s death] are mostly personal depression issues.”
After The New York Post’s Page Six column confronted Barak with e-mails implying he was renting himself out for “modeling” work in 2007, he quit his post in the Israeli Consulate’s administrative offices. Contacted by Page Six at the time, Barak reportedly said, “I don’t know [Roman Ragazzi]. I will call you back.” Soon after, he left the consulate and tendered his resignation.
Through a spokesman today, the head of Barak’s former porn studio issued a statement mourning his death. “Roman Ragazzi (Dror Barak) was one of the finest men I have even known,” said Chris Ward, president of Raging Stallion Studios and Falcon Studios, who had worked directly with the Israeli performer. “He had a perfect physique and was one of the smartest and kindest people I have filmed — a massive man of pure beauty, intelligence and kindness. It’s hard to believe he’s not with us any longer. I’m in shock. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Although he stopped doing porn in 2008, Barak recently appeared in an Out magazine fashion spread alongside porn actors in the January, 2012 issue of Out Magazine. The layout was called “New York’s Finest”.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
