A while back I mentioned Jon Erik Hexum on Twitter and I got a response (ahem) “Why exactly do we care about this Jonah Hex dude who died when I was in Grade 9?” Oh dear. Someone missed out on the hairy 80s beefcake era. I think I was in grade 8 (Ha! Take that old man!) when the whole parade of hairy leading men came out: Gil Gerrard, Lee Majors and Jon, to mention my faves. But Jon was my first “tragic dead celebrity” crush.

He was borne of fine European stock and discovered by John Travolta’s manager. He had one season on a time travelling sci fi show called Voyagers! where I first took notice of him, being the pasty gay sci fi geek I was. Nobody else watched it because it aired beside 60 Minutes (remember kids, pre-VCR days!) and he was let go. However with his blue eyes that could cut through steel, Hollywood thought they could use him. He was picked as the male lead in Making of a Male Model alongside Joan Collins. I recall several scenes were shot sans shirt and alluded to nudity. Luckily I got to watch it alone, a miracle in a house of 5 kids, and nearly fainted at these scenes.

After that he had a walk on role in HOTEL and a major part in a movie called The Bear (I know… I know… fate!) working with Gary Busey. So you can see he was climbing past these people on the ladder to stardom. After that he was given the lead in a male model as CIA spy show called Cover Up.

Rumour has it when Jon Erik got bored the fateful day he put that gun loaded with blanks to his head, his last words were “Let’s see if this will do it.” I am sure he was referencing the actual one round he had in the gun, not alluding to any suicidal tendency. The charge was strong enough to send fragments of his temple into his brain. He remained on life support for days until his mother pulled the plug. Parts of his perfect body was donated to a long list of people (see Wiki, take it as you will). I’d love to be that kid with the 3rd degree burns who got some of his skin. I imagine they harvested off his perfect hairy pecs for some unrelated body area on the kid: “Mommy? Why is my left shoulder so much more hairier than my right?”

When he died my brothers couldn’t understand why I was so forelorn for weeks. Like a school girl weeping into her pink David Cassidy pillow, I clipped out news articles and saved them under my bed.

My first website I ever made was a ironic Jon Erik Hexum memorial, replete with animated GIF torches and tears that dripped from a rose. It was green for some reason. If you want something similar, you can go over to Find-a-grave.com and leave digital flowers on his cyber-plot. No seriously, you can.