By April 2004, he was at the pinnacle of his career, traveling to foreign countries to shoot films, sometimes working six days a week and two or three scenes a day.
"You're like Superman. Especially with the amount of work that I had? It was nonstop," James said. "I'm thinking, I'm invincible. . . . That's just the way our mentality was. It was, you get the test, you're clean, not realizing that in between the tests, and after the tests, you know, other people, you don't know what they're doing."
The call that changed his life came as James was getting ready to book tickets to Japan for another international shoot. AIM clinic officials told him he was HIV positive. And, he said, they told him they planned to release his name publicly.
He asked them not to -- in part out of concern for his parents who did not know how he made his living -- but they did anyway.
"It was like a hit in the gut," James said. "My whole world stops. . . .Life was pretty much over."
A Detroit native, James said he joined the Navy after high school, working in the construction battalion. When he left the Navy in 1989, he settled in Southern California, attracted by the sunny weather. He planned to pursue a career in law enforcement but struggled to find work.
At times, he was homeless. At one point, he lived at a friend's gym. Then, in 1997, another friend referred him to a modeling gig in the San Fernando Valley, which turned out to be a porn shoot.
Desperate for cash, he performed, the shoot went well, and he was hired for more scenes. In the beginning, he worked as a standby performer without getting credit, making little money. But by 2004 he had loyal fans and was earning a good living. Then he got the HIV diagnosis.
Distraught, James said, he bought a bus ticket to Tijuana, planning to disappear. But the news spread quickly. In Mexico, he saw TV footage with a photo of him smirking as if, he said, he was smirking at the situation.
In Tijuana, James said, he tried to kill himself. After the attempt, he woke up days later in a hospital near San Diego. It took him months to recover, he said. He later found out that his mother learned about his diagnosis, and his porn career, on TV at her church.
In 2005, James sued the AIM clinic and several of its officials, alleging medical negligence and invasion of privacy. His suicide attempt and the turmoil caused by disclosure of his name are among the lawsuit's contentions. James and his attorney said the case settled out of court under terms that they not disclose the amount.
