Lexington Steele
Lexington Steele | |
---|---|
Born | Clifton Todd Britt November 28, 1969 |
Other names | Lex Steele, Hudson |
Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1] |
Website | http://www.lexsteele.com/ |
Clifton Todd Britt[2] (born November 28, 1969), better known as Lexington Steele, is an American award winning pornographic actor, director and owner of Mercenary Motion Pictures and Black Viking Pictures Inc. He is the first actor to have won the AVN Male Performer of the Year Award three times.[2]
Education, career prior to porn
Steele was born in New Jersey. After attending Morristown High School, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia for two years but graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a double degree in History and African-American studies in 1993.[2] He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
After graduation, he worked in New York City as a stock broker in the World Trade Center starting as a trainee in Euro Brokers Inc and working his way up the chain of command. He was licensed as a financial adviser and working on Wall Street within months of graduating. He claims that he would have been in the buildings and been a victim of the September 11, 2001 attacks had he kept his old job as a stockbroker.[3] He worked as a model on the side and acted in minor TV roles.
Adult film career
He started to act in adult movies in the later part of 1997, in New York City. He moved to Los Angeles and joined the industry full-time in March 1998.
Initially he shot mainly for the companies such as West Coast Productions and director Spunky. Later, he appeared on videotapes produced by Anabolic and Diabolic. Later on at the beginning of 2004 he joined Red Light District Video for a brief period.
Steele now directs and performs exclusively for his own production company, Mercenary Motion Pictures (Headquarters in Encino, California), which he founded in 2003 and serves as chairman and CEO since 2005. The company reported annual net profits of $2.6 million in 2005.[4] He believes that his company will be the first adult entertainment company to be traded on the NYSE.
Steele won AVN Male Performer of the Year Awards in 2000, 2002 and 2003, the first actor to win three times. In 2005, Steele was awarded the AVN Award for Best Anal Scene and the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Award for Best Sex Scene, Couple for a scene he did together with his co-star Katsumi in "Lex Steele XXX 3". He specializes in interracial pornography. He owns many websites dedicated to his interracial sexual endeavors with female models.
At one point, Lexington was engaged to porn actress and director Vanessa Blue,[4] and the two have appeared together on Playboy TV (in his two-season show Lex in the City) and in several movies. They split in June 2006 and Lex has been dating other women since then.[5] In 2008, Steele and Blue filed federal lawsuits against each other over the ownership of numerous videos that first appeared under the Mercenary Pictures label. The suits were settled in March 2009 after meeting with an alternative dispute resolution jurist.[6]
Stage Name
Steele has said that his stage name came about back during the days when he worked as a stock broker when he took the subway to visit a client. At that time he had already decided to move in the adult film industry and use the last name "Steele". His client was located in mid-town and Steele got off the subway at the corner of Madison and Lexington [sic][7] where he was struck by the sound of "Lexington" as a first name.[8]
Another assumption for his stage name refer to Lexington Steel - a full line distributor of flat rolled steel products located in Bedford Park, IL. This company also shares a very similar domain name - LexSteel.com
Religion
Steele stated that he is a Baptist, continuing:
Yes, I am religious. I am Christian, Baptist. I grew up in as close to a Cosby-show lifestyle as you can get. Doing porno, on a repeated basis, I am not committing adultery; I’m not married, so I’m fornicating for a living; I’m paid to have sex, which means what? I’m prostituting by definition. These are things I have to reckon with my God on a daily basis. I knowingly do these things. My decision to do porno has forced me to take my religion within: because of my job I am stronger in my relationship with God, because now I take God with me everywhere I go; if I don’t, I’ll fail. I didn’t know that God blessed me with an abnormally large penis that allows me to make porno. But I feel blessed. I believe I am blessed because I am meant to please one woman for the rest of our lives together. True, I haven’t met her yet.[3]
In a 2008 interview he also said:
People who are spiritual, like myself, we carry our spirituality inside of ourselves. I don’t believe any institution has any hierarchy on my personal relationship with God. I have been blessed with physical attributes that have allowed me to provide entertainment. What I do is not illegal so I am not at odds with anything. I’m not married so I am not committing adultery. If I be damned for fornication, then I am not much unlike then [sic] the billions of people who walk this earth today.[9]
Politics
During his time studying African-American studies, Steele developed a high awareness of American politics and African-American rights in particular. In 2008 he expressed his support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.[2] He said that Obama will pave the way for many other successful African-Americans. Steele was the second adult entertainment figure to publicly express support for a 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate, after Amber Lynn expressed her support for Hillary Clinton.
Popular culture
Steele appeared in two episodes of Showtime's Weeds in 2007. He played himself at a movie shoot filming a scene with Kirsten Price and Jessica Jaymes.
Steele also starred in an episode of the FX series Nip/Tuck as a male escort at a party.
Appeared in Crank 2: High Voltage
Awards
- 2000 AVN Award for Male Performer of the Year
- 2000 AVN Award for Best Anal Sex Scene (Video) (with Anastasia Blue)
- 2001 AVN Award for Best Couples Sex Scene (with Inari Vachs)
- 2001 XRCO Award for Male Performer of the Year
- 2002 AVN Award for Male Performer of the Year
- 2003 AVN Award for Male Performer of the Year
- 2003 AVN Award for Best Anal Sex Scene (with Jewel De'Nyle)
- 2005 XRCO Award for Best Male-Female Scene (With Katsumi)
- 2005 AVN Award for Best Gonzo Release
- 2006 AVN Award for Best Interracial Release
- 2009 AVN Hall of Fame inductee[10]
- 2009 XRCO Hall of Fame inductee[11]
- 2009 Hot d'Or for Best American Male Performer[12]
References
- ^ Rog (2001). "Lexington Steele Interview". rogreviews.com. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help) - ^ a b c d Joshua Alston (2005-11-10). "A coming-of-age tale of one SU graduate's journey from stock quotes to deep throats". The Daily Orange. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- ^ a b Inside the Adult Film Industry: A Lexington Steele interview, The Advocate, CUNY Graduate Center, April 2004
- ^ a b Interview at AUC Magazine, March 2006
- ^ Gram Ponante (2006-06-20). "Vanessa Blue splits with Lex, Mercenary". gramponante.com. Archived from the original on 2006-11-26. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
- ^ Rhett Pardon (2009-03-13). "Lexington Steele, Vanessa Blue Settle Suits Against Each Other". xbiz.com. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
- ^ It should be pointed out, however, that Madison Avenue and Lexington Avenue do in fact not intersect, but run parallel their entire courses with Park Avenue between them.
- ^ Joanne Cachapero (2007-06-12). "Lexington Steele". Eros-NY. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
- ^ SJ Brown (2008-01-28). "Lexington Steele: Iron Man". hiphopdx.com. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
- ^ "Nominations 2009 AVN Adult Movie Awards" (PDF). AVNAwards.com. 2008-11-25. Retrieved 2008-11-26. [dead link]
- ^ "2009 XRCO Award Winners Announced". AVN. 2009-02-26.
- ^ Paul Fishbein (2009-10-21). "Pirates II, Evil Angel Big Winners at 2009 Hot d'Or Awards". AVN. Retrieved 2009-10-21.