Porn Valley- Some times I give myself the chills. When I wrote about the passing of Jim Holliday I mentioned that I had seen it in the Tarot Cards and that I would be writing about another industry death, someone I knew. Today I’m writing about it. The passing of Chuck Durand, aka Chico Redfield, Skeeter Kerkove’s best friend.
I met Chico on a Skeeter shoot a couple of week’s ago and took to the guy immediately. As we were introduced, Chico said he recognized me, that we lived in the same apartment building. I think I ran into him one other time since. Skeeter tells me that Chico died early this morning.
As you might expect, Skeeter was broken up. I spoke to him this morning to see how his shoot went yesterday, knowing Skeeter had to do some double-duty because Chico was recovering from pneumonia and had got out of the hospital Sunday. “Last night he was having a real tight chest,” says Skeeter. “He woke up this morning, went to his closet to get his shirt and he just collapsed. The paramedics couldn’t find his building. It took a long time to find the apartment. His wife couldn’t revive him.” But Skeeter’s not sure about the specific time when it happened.
“He was my best friend,” says Skeeter. “He did all of my editing, a ton of my camerawork and he trained his wife to edit. She was editing our movies, also. He was really important to Bridgette’s shoots as well. His personality was that outgoing that he always took care of her on her shoots. I just can’t believe he’s dead.” Chico was in his Thirties.
“I visited him in the hospital on Thursday and Friday,” says Skeeter. “He was just so nice. I loved him so much. He’d do anything for Bridgette when she was pregnant. He’d load up her vehicle for her before going to the set.”
Asked how Chico got into the business, Skeeter believes it was Jimmy D who got Chico a couple of jobs doing behind the scenes work. “I believe Jimmy D gave him my phone number and he called me. I saw real quick that he had an eye for a lot of things. That’s how our friendship developed. We had him P.A’ing and doing behind the scenes on every shoot Bridgette and I would do, no matter what. Sometimes up to ten movies a month between the both of us. It developed into a real strong friendship with him starting to edit for us. And then we just became best friends.
“I explained to him how to just remain focused and how he could make a lot of money with the editing and the P.A’ing and the behind the scenes. He started directing for some other companies. But he would get bummed chasing the paycheck. Especially when he’d see that people who owed him the money were driving new cars. All he wanted was to be paid for his little shoots that he did that day.”
The thing that Skeeter loved especially about Chico is that he didn’t use drugs and wasn’t a grifter.
“This was a guy who seemed to have his shit together and was really reliable,” I also comment. Skeeter said Chico was so incredible, noting a time that Bridgette forgot to call him for a shoot. “She’s at the location and calls him up: Chico, where are you at? He said I’m editing Skeeter’s movie right now. She goes, we’re shooting. I need you. I can’t do this without you. Within forty minutes he was there. Which is incredible. He got there before the first sex scene started. He was so sad that he wasn’t going to be on yesterday’s shoot. I told him it was just one movie, the moment you’re better we’re going to be doing this all again. He was so concerned about leaving me hanging and alone on the set without any help. I told him don’t worry about it, that it will be fine. You’ll be missed and we’ll start again when you’ll be all better.”
Given the circumstances as they were, Skeeter said Monday’s shoot ran smoothly but it was overwhelming for him to say the least. “I now regret that I didn’t hire a P.A. just to help,” says Skeeter. “That was the one mistake I made.” Skeeter said Wednesday’s shoot should be less hectic because he’ll have Jim Powers on board.
“Bridgette’s really fucked up over this,” says Skeeter about Chico’s passing. “I haven’t even told my mom yet and my mom loved him.”
Which prompted a conversation between me and Skeeter about work ethic. Skeeter said he tends to be suspicious about anyone who tries to gain admittance to the Kerkove circle of trust. “This sounds lame, but the grifters try to get in at the money and see how they can do the hustle,” states Skeeter. “Some of the stories and sales pitches that people have told me are so whacked out and so impossible. Chico impressed me because he put his money where his mouth is. He said I’ll work for free to prove myself. I told him we don’t have to do that. But right away the first day on the set it was pretty much set in stone. He clearly understood the difference between our friendship and work. Which I really appreciated. He was the most dedicated person that I had in my life or Bridgette’s life.
“It seems like he’s irreplaceable because he was so good for us. He was the type of person where, if he had a gig that was going to pay three times as much as ours, if he could have got out of that gig without hurting the people, he would have gladly done it. I can’t say enough good stuff about him.”