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Max Hardcore, the controversial AVN Hall of Fame director-performer who served more than two years in prison on obscenity charges, passed away Monday from septic shock and pneumonia, his longtime office manager and business partner, Paul Munoz, confirmed.
He was 66.
The 30-plus-year industry veteran had been undergoing a final round of radioactive iodine treatment from his year-long battle with thyroid cancer when he was hospitalized Friday in a suburb east of L.A. with an infection in his throat that spread to other parts of his body, causing his organs to fail, Munoz said.
“He was almost at the finish line for the chemotherapy,” Munoz told AVN, noting that Hardcore underwent surgery for thyroid cancer—after being diagnosed in March 2022—just prior to Christmas in December.
Hardcore and his company Max World Entertainment were indicted by a federal grand jury in Tampa, Fla., in May 2007 on charges of distributing obscene matter through the U.S. mail and the internet. He faced up to 50 years in prison but was sentenced in October 2008 to 46 months. Hardcore began serving the sentence La Tuna Federal Prison in Anthony, Texas in early 2009 and was freed in January 2011.
Hardcore’s movies were known for their extreme nature—he produced and directed more than 200 of own videos, while also helming dozens of titles for Legend Video, Zane Entertainment, Soho Video and Private among others.
The problems that led to Hardcore's prosecution in 2008—he was convicted in June of that year—were all caused by both the European versions of his movies, which included footage of women peeing, vomiting, fisting or being fisted, and the trailers he posted for those movies on his website.
A native of Racine, Wisc., Hardcore moved to Florida in 1995 before he gravitated to LA, where he resided for more than 25 years. He is survived by a sister and two brothers; two other brothers have passed.
https://avn.com/business/articles/video/max-hardcore-passes-away-917357.html