William Glen Harold Herrington (July 14, 1969 – March 2, 2018), was an American

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

and

pornographic film actor A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinc ...

. In the late 2000s, his appearances in various

gay pornography Gay pornography is the representation of Sexual practices between men, sexual activity between males with the primary goal to sexual arousal, sexually arouse its audience. Softcore pornography, Softcore gay pornography also exists; which at o ...

movies led him to become a popular

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

on video-sharing websites such as Japan's

Nico Nico Douga , known before 2012 as , is a Japanese video sharing service based in Tokyo, Japan. "Niconico" or "nikoniko" is the Japanese ideophone for smiling. As of 2021, Niconico is the 34th most-visited website in Japan, according to Alexa Internet. ...

, where he was referred to by the sobriquet . Since then, at least 15,000 short mash-up parodies of his clips—known as "Gachimuchi Pants Wrestling" (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: ガチムチパンツレスリング, Hepburn: ''Gachimuchi Pantsu Resuringu'', lit. "Beefy Briefs Wrestling")—have been produced by users.

Early life and career

Herrington was born in

North Babylon, New York North Babylon is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 17,509 at the 2010 census. Overview North Babylo ...

. Herrington grew up in Long Island learning karate from his father, a

sensei The term "先生", read in Chinese, in Japanese, in Korean, and in Vietnamese, is an honorific used in the Sinosphere. In Japanese, the term literally means "person born before another" or "one who comes before". It is generally used ...

. He had interests in

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

and martial arts, and started

bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the practice of Resistance training, progressive resistance exercise to build, control, and develop one's skeletal muscle, muscles via muscle hypertrophy, hypertrophy. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to a ...

at 24 years old, after moving to New York City. Herrington began his erotic career when his then girlfriend surreptitiously submitted his nude pictures to ''

Playgirl ''Playgirl'' is an American magazine that has historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, celebrity journalism, and original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly a ...

'' magazine. The photographs won him a "Real Men of the Month" contest and a $500 prize. His appearance in the magazine caught the eye of famed photographer Jim French, but it was two years before Herrington posed for his first Colt calendars for French. Soon after, Herrington was filming

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

gay adult films for All Worlds Video, and appearing on mainstream TV programs such as ''

Love Connection ''Love Connection'' is an American television dating game show. Contestants selected one of three potential dates from a series of videotaped profiles, with a studio audience voting on which of the three partners they found most suitable. Orig ...

'' and the ''

Ricki Lake Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968) is an American television host and actress. She is known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film '' Hairspray'', for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for ...

'' talk show. In 2002, Herrington said the adult film industry helped him to understand his

bisexuality Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, ...

. Among his starring roles is as the Roman emperor in the 2000 Danish feature film ''HotMen CoolBoyz''. Herrington's scene in ''Conquered'' (2001) with Nino Bacci,

Colton Ford Glenn Soukesian (October 12, 1962 – May 19, 2025), known professionally as Colton Ford, was an American singer and pornographic film actor. Ford began his adult film career at age 40, making twelve pornographic videos in 10 months before leavi ...

, Blake Harper, and Jay Ross won the "Best Group Sex Scene" at the 2002

Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards Grabby Awards (better known as The Grabbys) are presented annually in Chicago for the gay adult erotic video industry. The awards are sponsored by ''GRAB Magazine.'' The Grabby Awards and ''GRAB Magazine'' are owned and operated by Grabbys, LLC' ...

("Grabbys"). Occasionally, Herrington performed striptease acts at gay clubs in the United States.

Internet meme

Herrington gained fame in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

as an

, after a clip from one of his movies, ''Workout: Muscle Fantasies 3'', was posted on

, a Japanese video sharing website, on August 10, 2007. At least 15,000 mash-up parody videos of him have been made, many of which utilize deliberate mishearings (''

soramimi is a Japanese word that in the context of contemporary Japanese internet meme culture and its related slang is commonly used to refer to humorous homophonic reinterpretation, deliberately interpreting words as other similar-sounding words for co ...

'') of lines from his films. Most notably from ''Workout: Muscle Fantasies 3'' and ''Lords of the Lockerroom''. The scenes from the movies were ''heavily'' edited with another Japanese meme at the time with censorship, , shown in the 4th film of Herrington that was excavated by the Japanese: ''Buckshot Minute Man Series 18''. This would become practice on the videos on Nico Nico Douga. In addition to this, carefully selecting the title of each video to ''sometimes'' be based solely on one: the character name, and two: what the person/people in the video does/do (e.g. ). The soramimi reflects on several references: from Japanese commercial products to subtle references to ''

Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...

''. Herrington is affectionately called or among the Nico Nico Douga community. Most of his videos are deliberately mistagged with , , , or all three.Billy Herrington on Nico Nico Douga
The three most notable

from Billy Herrington that comes from ''Workout: Muscle Fantasies 3'', that later made up the tag, are "Huh? Like embarrassing me, huh?" (あぁん？最近だらしねぇな？, ''aan? saikin darashi nee na?'' "What? You are slacking off these days?"); "You got me mad now." (歪みねぇな, ''yugami nee na'', "You are not distorted."); and "That's not right, man." (仕方ないね, ''shikata nai ne'', "It can't be helped."). In February 2009, Herrington visited Japan to attend a live online event hosted by Nico Nico Douga and

garage kit A garage kit (ガレージキット) or resin kit is an assembly scale model kit most commonly cast in polyurethane resin. They are often model figures portraying humans or other living creatures. In Japan, kits often depict anime characters, and ...

maker Good Smile Company. Herrington said that he was flattered and humbled by his fans' creativity. A limited-edition Herrington figure was announced for a July 2009 release. Two other limited-edition Herrington action figures were announced for the Halloween and Christmas holiday. The Halloween figure was released in October 2009 and the Christmas one was released in December 2009. Both are Nico Nico Chyokuhan exclusives. There are 4 figmas related to Billy Herrington. The base undergarment figma that was released in July 2009 that alludes to Herrington's famous appearance in ''Workout: Muscle Fantasies 3''; the leather harness Birthday figma that is associated with the infamous smile produced by Herrington that alludes to Herrington's appearance in ''Buckshot Minute Man Series 18'', was released in August 2009; the Halloween figma that does not allude to anything; and the hoodie, and booty pants with the same wrench, found in ''Buckshot Minute Man Series 18'', Christmas & New Year figma that was released in December 2009. During his time in Japan in 2009, Herrington met

Hiroyuki Nishimura is a Japanese internet entrepreneur. He founded the message board 2channel, and is an administrator of 4chan. He is also a self-help author and TV personality. He is often known by his given name, , which he uses, rendered intentionally in low ...

, the founder of 2channel. In April 2013, Herrington went back to Japan for Nico Nico Chokaigi, under his own event: Billy Cruise 2. He met Nishimura again, and

ZUN The ''zun'' or ''yi'', used until the Song dynasty#Northern Song, 960–1127, Northern Song (960–1126) is a type of Chinese ritual bronzes, Chinese ritual bronze or ceramic wine vessel with a round or square vase-like form, sometimes in t ...

of the ''

Touhou Project The , also known simply as , is a bullet hell shoot 'em up video game series created by Indie game, independent Japanese Doujin soft, soft developer Team Shanghai Alice. The team's sole member, ZUN (video game developer), Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, ha ...

'' acclaim. As of February 2023, over 15,000 Gachimuchi Pants Wrestling videos had been uploaded on Nico Nico Douga alone. In July 2022, amidst the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, a petition to the

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

regarding the replacement of the Monument to the founders of Odesa, also known as the monument to

Empress The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

, with a monument to Billy Herrington received more than 25,000 votes. President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

responded to the petition and asked the Odesa City Council to discuss the demolition of the monument.

Death

During the evening of March 1, 2018, Herrington was involved in a car accident on

California State Route 111 State Route 111 (SR 111) is a state highway in the southeastern part of U.S. state of California. It is a north-south route serving the Imperial Valley, the eastern shore of the Salton Sea, and the Coachella Valley. Its southern terminus is at I ...

Rancho Mirage Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothills ...

. He was found trapped in the wreckage and was brought to a Palm Springs hospital, where he died the next day. News broke of his death one day later. Fans responded with hundreds of tributes across video sharing sites and message boards. One tribute video uploaded on Nico Nico Douga accumulated over 80,000 views in less than one week. Services for Herrington were held at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in

Cathedral City, California Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second la ...

Legacy

It is not known how much of Herrington's influence affected Japan, but it led to visual novels, TV shows, manga, anime, and video games in Japan to reference Billy Herrington, and his opponent Danny Lee. He is survived by a son. In the autumn of 2021, a resident of

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia ...

published a petition proposing that the city council rename

Mayakovsky Square Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Russian Futurist mov ...

in honor of Billy Herrington, justifying the proposal by noting that, in addition to the square, the city has a park and an alley named after the poet, and the renaming could attract tourists. He also mentioned that Herrington has a large fanbase in Ukraine and neighboring countries. The petition gathered 805 signatures but was rejected. In July 2022, in Ukraine, a petition to the

from Odesa resident Oleksiy Matviyenko, proposing to replace the monument to Russian Empress Catherine II with a statue of American pornographic actor Billy Herrington, gathered over 25,000 signatures.

responded to the petition, asking the Odesa City Council to discuss the removal of the monument, in accordance with local self-government laws.

Videography

* ''Naked Muscle 3'' (1998) (ProMuscle Media) * ''Naked Outtakes 1'' (1998) (ProMuscle Media) * ''9½ Inches'' (1998) (Thor Productions) * ''Dark Pursuit'' (1998) (MuscleGods Productions) * ''Worship: Muscle Fantasies 1'' (1998) (Can-Am Productions) * ''Wrestlers: Muscle Fantasies 2'' (1998) (Can-Am Productions) * ''Maxon vs. Marcus'' (1998) (Can-Am Productions) * ''Extreme Mat Fights'' (1998) (Jet Set Productions) * ''The Final Link'' (1999) (All Worlds Video) * ''Workout: Muscle Fantasies 3'' (1999) (Can-Am Productions) * ''Tales from the Foxhole'' (1999) (All Worlds Video) * ''Buckshot Minute Man Series 17'' (1999) (Colt Studio Group) ** ''The Big One in California'' (1999) (Colt Studio Group) * ''Buckshot Minute Man Series 18'' (1999) (Colt Studio Group) ** ''Recharge!'' (1999) (Colt Studio Group) * ''Billy Herrington's Body Shop'' (1999) (All Worlds Video) * ''Lords of the Lockerroom'' (1999) (Can-Am Productions) * ''Summer Trophies'' (1999) (Pacific Sun Entertainment) * ''Playing with Fire 2'' (2000) (All Worlds Video) * ''HotMen CoolBoyz'' (2000) (Zentropa) * ''Conquered'' (2001) (All Worlds Video) * ''Flesh Trap'' (2001) (Fox Studios) * ''Naked Muscles'' (2002) (Colt Studio Group) * ''Ryker's Web'' (2003) (Arena Entertainment) * ''Minute Man Solo 27: Big Shots'' (2006) (Colt Studio Group) * ''Bodybuilders' Jam #22'' (2007) (Jimmy Z Productions) * ''Bodybuilders' Jam #23'' (2007) (Jimmy Z Productions) * ''Billy Herrington: Unseen 1'' (2017) (Can-Am Productions) * ''Billy Herrington: Unseen 2'' (2017) (Can-Am Productions)

Awards and nominations

*2000 – Colt Man of the Year Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards *2002 – Winner – Best Group Sex Scene (for ''Conquered'') *2002 – Nominated – Best Actor (for ''Conquered'') *2002 – Nominated – Best Three-Way Sex Scene (for ''Conquered'')

GayVN Awards The GayVN Awards are film awards presented annually to honor work done in the gay pornographic industry. The awards were sponsored by '' AVN Magazine'', the parent publication of ''GAYVN Magazine'', and continue the recognition for gay pornogra ...

*2002 – Nominated – Best Actor (for ''Conquered'') *2002 – Nominated – Best Group Scene (for ''Conquered'')

References

External links

* * *
Billy Herrington Appearance
on

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrington, Billy 1969 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male erotic dancers American male pornographic film actors Bisexual male pornographic film actors Bisexual dancers Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) Internet memes American LGBTQ dancers American bisexual male actors LGBTQ people from New York (state) Pornographic film actors from New York (state) People from North Babylon, New York Road incident deaths in California 21st-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American LGBTQ people