Thomas Bryan Taliaferro Jr. (Tom Byron) was born on April 4, 1961, in Houston, Texas. Tom grew up in Houston, in a large family of four sisters, one of whom was openly gay. The shy, soft-spoken and extremely intelligent Byron fast-tracked through high school and graduated one year early. When he turned 18 he moved to Los Angeles, and got a job in an adult video/novelty store, which was located across the street from Jim South's World Modeling Agency. South is a well-known booking agent for adult video actors and actresses. One day in May of 1982 Tom decided to walk in and meet Jim. South was cautious at first, because Tom looked younger than what his driver's license claimed, but wound up signing him to a shoot. Bobby Hollander's "Anything Goes: Gourmet Video 19" (1982) was Tom's first shoot. His first scene was with Craig Roberts and Lili Marlene, and Tom unfortunately didn't fare too well under the pressure. However, he decided to stick it out and soon landed major roles in Private Teacher (1985), All American Girls II: In Heat (1983) and the Marilyn Chambers vehicle Up 'n' Coming (1983). With his extraordinary work in those three films, Byron was thrust into the spotlight. Many adult video producers took notice of the talented 21-year-old. Byron, who had been doing a number of loops and magazine still shoots to pay his rent, and work started pouring in.
Born in New York City, Jamie Gillis trained as a legitimate actor. In the early 1970s he drifted into performing in pornographic films, and continued to work in that field through the late 1990s. Despite the occasional foray into "legitimate" film, such as a cameo in Nighthawks (1981), Gillis remained identified with the porn industry, and is regarded as one of its most prolific and potent actors. After a stint as one of the "Nasty Bros". in producer Ed Powers' series of amateur "Dirty Debutantes" series, Gillis began branching out to produce homemade porn videos of his own, some of them made in France (where he was able to show off his command of the French language). Never having made a secret of his bisexuality, Gillis made his first all-gay porn film in 1997, a sado-masochistic video in which he did not actually perform sex acts, but rather issued orders to the other members of the cast.
