Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 15, 2026

Rodger Jacobs

Rodger Dean Jacobs was an American journalist, writer, author, film producer, columnist, playwright, editor and screenwriter.

Last revised
Jun 15, 2026
Read time
≈ 5 min
Length
1,225 w
Citations
40
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Rodger Jacobs
Born
Rodger Dean Jacobs

(1959-03-12)March 12, 1959
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedJuly 5, 2016(2016-07-05) (aged 57)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationsJournalist, writer, author, film producer, columnist, playwright, editor, screenwriter
Known forWadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes
PartnerLela Michael
ChildrenCarole Jacobs

Rodger Dean Jacobs (March 12, 1959 – July 5, 2016)1 was an American journalist, writer, author, film producer, columnist, playwright, editor and screenwriter.2

Career

Jacobs was a journalist for publications such as Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Las Vegas Sun, Eye, Hustler and PopMatters.3 He also worked for many years as an AVN award-winning adult film industry screenwriter and trade journalist.456

In 1999, Jacobs wrote an essay about author Jack London entitled, Running with the Wolves: Jack London and the Cult of Masculinity.7 In 2010, Jacobs provided the preface for Jack London's San Francisco Stories, an anthology for Sydney Samizdat Press.89

Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller, a play based on actor Jason Miller, known for the role of Father Damien Karras in the film The Exorcist,10 that Jacobs co-wrote with Tom Flannery, had its world premiere in 2007 and was displayed in various theatrical venues in Pennsylvania and upstate New York with actor Robert Thomas Hughes, a childhood friend of Jason Miller.10 Writing in Stage magazine, critic Jack Shaw hailed Purgatory Diaries as "a stirring examination of celebrity madness."1112 Go Irish was performed again in 2015 by Robert Thomas Hughes.10

In 2007, Jacobs wrote and directed a live presentation, The Ragged Promised Land, for the Vesuvio Cafe and The Beat Museum in San Francisco to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.13 In 2009, he released Mr. Bukowski's Wild Ride, a collection of original surrealist fiction, for exclusive consignment sale at City Lights Books in San Francisco; writing in the Self-Publishing Review, author Henry Baum cited the book as "another piece to add to (Bukowski's) towering myth … it also gets to the soul of the man … as funny as any of Bukowski's own writing."14

Jacobs' controversial series for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Las Vegas Sun, The New Homeless, about Jacobs and his girlfriend Lela Michael and their experiences with homelessness in Las Vegas,81516 elicited praise and commentary from LA Weekly,17 Witness LA,18 The Awl19 and La Presse.9 The series was also the subject of a three part documentary by Katharine Euphrat featuring Rodger Jacobs and Lela Michael.202122

Silver Birch Press published Jacobs' original work The Furthest Palm in August 2012.23

In December 2012, Jacobs' collection of short fiction and novellas, Invisible Ink (The Book Motel), was lauded as the "most exemplary L.A. book of 2012" by Joseph Mailander in his City Watch L.A. column.24

Salon and Los Angeles Review of Books published Jacobs' Franz Kafka themed essay in January 2013 entitled Did Kafka Invent Noir?25

Jacobs was also a film producer best known for being the screenwriter and producer of the 1998 documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.262728

Death

Jacobs died at home on July 5, 2016, in Los Angeles, California at age 57.1 Jacobs was cremated on September 15, 2016, in Los Angeles County.1

After learning of Jacobs' death, Jacobs' former girlfriend Lela Michael attempted to preserve his archives yet failed to do so since the two were never married.29 Lela Michael called off her efforts and died from metastatic melanoma cancer at Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport, California on July 28, 2016, at age 57,30 twenty-four days after Jacobs' passing.1293031

References

References

  1. "County of Los Angeles Register of Cremations 1/1/2016 - 12/31/2016" (PDF). Los Angeles. 2016. p. 62. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 19, 2021.
  2. Crew, Adrienne. "LAist Interview: Rodger Jacobs". LAist. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  3. Jacobs, Rodger. "Rodger Jacobs". PopMatters. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  4. Goldberg, Michelle (July 13, 1999). "The Matt Drudge of porn". Salon. Archived from the original on January 27, 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
  5. Richard, Emmanuelle. "The Perils of Covering Porn". Online Journalism Review. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  6. "Stories: Rodger Jacobs". Dead Drunk Dublin. Archived from the original on October 19, 2004.
  7. Jacobs, Rodger (July 1999). "Running with the Wolves: Jack London, the Cult of Masculinity, and "Might is Right"". Panik. Archived from the original on February 8, 2006.
  8. Jacobs, Rodger (September 26, 2010). "Hostile Toward Homelessness". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on September 28, 2010.
  9. Berube, Nicolas (November 20, 2010). "À deux doigts de la rue". La Presse (in French). Archived from the original on October 10, 2012.
  10. Pytak, Stephen J. (March 15, 2015). "Coal mining heritage takes spotlight in upcoming play". Republican & Herald.
  11. Jacobs, Rodger. "Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller" (PDF). Southcamdentheatre.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 28, 2011. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
  12. Shaw, Jack (2011). "GO IRISH at SCTC: A Stirring Examination of Celebrity Madness". Stage Magazine. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
  13. Jacobs, Rodger. "The Ragged Promised Land". Carvers Dog. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
  14. Baum, Henry (February 23, 2009). "Mr. Bukowski's Wild Ride by Rodger Jacobs". Self-Publishing Review.
  15. Jacobs, Rodger (August 29, 2010). "I Am Frightened". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on September 1, 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  16. Jacobs, Rodger (December 5, 2010). "Homelessness and the indignity of hurtful speech". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on December 10, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  17. Coolican, Patrick J. (September 1, 2010). "Rodger Jacobs, writer, Stuck in Vegas And Near Homeless, Gets Some Help – From L.A." LA Weekly. Archived from the original on October 30, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  18. Fremon, Celeste. "The New Homeless: Rodger Jacobs and a Tale of Two Cities". Witness LA. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  19. Sicha, Choire. "Why Is American Selfishness So Widespread Now?". The Awl. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  20. Euphrat, Katharine (September 2, 2010). THE NEW HOMELESS:PT 1. Las Vegas Weekly. Archived from the original on February 12, 2026.
  21. Euphrat, Katharine (October 2, 2010). THE NEW HOMELESS:PT 2. Las Vegas Weekly. Archived from the original on February 12, 2026.
  22. Euphrat, Katharine (December 9, 2010). THE NEW HOMELESS: PART 3. Las Vegas Weekly. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  23. "The Furthest Palm". Silver Birch Press. 2012. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012.
  24. Mailander, Joseph (December 28, 2012). "The Most Exemplary LA Book of 2012". Citywatchla.com.
  25. Jacobs, Rodger (January 21, 2013). "Did Kafka invent noir?". Salon. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013.
  26. "Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on February 3, 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  27. Guthmann, Edward; Morris, Wesley (April 13, 2001). "Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes". SFGate. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  28. Taubin, Amy. "Mopey Dicks and Boogie Nights". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  29. Mailander, Joseph F. (November 21, 2016). "Barely legit: Rodger Jacobs, 1959–2016". Minor Literatures.
  30. "State of California Lela Michael Certificate of Death". Internet Archive. April 9, 2026.
  31. Ford, Luke (July 31, 2016). "Rodger Jacobs, RIP". Lukeford.net. Archived from the original on September 23, 2021.
External links