RIP Wilfried Knight (1977-2013)

A few days ago, I got the terrible news that Wilfried Knight had taken his own life. Its a tragic  situation that no one is prepared to hear. I met Wilf a few years ago, on a Raging Stallion set, which he was fisting Matthieu Paris in the scene. I had already had him on my wish list, for a scene for EDGER9.com, thinking his look was just what we were looking for and an EDGER9 man. Once I saw him and set and talked to him a bit, I discovered he was interested in getting more into the kinkier side of things. I was even more interested in shooting him now...for E9 & for Studfist.com. We shot Wilf for E9 (Shooter & DARE) and I loved working with him. Even with all the movies and a who's who of Big Studio work (including being the 1st ever Lucas/Raging Stallion exclusive) under his belt, he had zero attitude and not a "diva" on set at all. He always listened to direction and tried his hardest to fulfill the vision of the director. We also later shot him for Studfist and again a pleasure to work with.

Outside of shooting I also got to know Wilf a bit having dinner and drinks when he was in town (SF) and several times when we both happen to be in Eu. I enjoyed chatting with this stud, and enjoyed his sense of humor and realness. Wilf was a really sweet person and very easy going. One of the funniest things he would say is referring to himself as the "La Lucci" of the porn world, as he was often nominated but never won at the awards ceremonies. Referring to Susan Lucci, daytime soap actress, that is often nominated, but never won. *Wilfried did win the 2010 GayVN Award for Performer of the Year, and he took home the 2011 Grabby for Best Versatile Performer. 

He would often talk about how he struggled with how people view people in the porn industry. Many guys in the porn industry have to deal with this issue..... for many when they watch porn they have their favorites and fantasy men, which is great, but can also dehumanize models, and people can forget that these are real people with hopes, dreams, feelings, and families and all the issues that come along with it, and most very "normal" people in their real lives. Wilfried did a good job of discovering where his character stopped and his life began.

Wilfried married longtime partner, Jerry Enriquez (American citizen) in Canada, several years ago, and both moved to Vancouver, BC. But the "Defense of Marriage Act" made it impossible for Jerry to sponsor Wilfried for spousal-based citizenship in the U.S. Desperately seeking a way to stay together, Enriquez found work with the athletic company Lululemon in Vancouver last year,  where Knight (French citizen) had full legal access to his husband's benefits. Unfortunately after several months Enriquez lost that job, and took his own life. I had heard about Jerry's suicide and sent my condolences to Wilf and tried several times to contact him, and check up on him..... but he had not returned calls of messages, and now I know that he had not been in contact with other friends either. I can only imaging the dark place he was in..... 2 weeks later Wilf took his own life earlier this week.

It's a very tragic loss of (2) great people. I didn't know Jerry that well, I'd only met him a few times  but what I did know of him I liked. Wilfried will be missed, and I hope he and Jerry found the peace they were searching for.   

Amerifist