Sources confirm to TRPWL that Tuesday morning shortly before 8:00 am PST, veteran adult director and performer Jake Malone died after jumping from the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach, California.

Malone was 61.

Early this morning, Malone reportedly called a friend to inform them of his intentions, and his friend called 911. According to the Long Beach Press Telegram, California Highway Patrol responded to a call about a stalled U-Haul van at 7:42 a.m. Responding units found the van empty and saw a man wearing a leather jacket climbing the bridge.

Responders tried unsuccessfully to talk Malone down, and he leapt to his death.

Malone had ceased directing adult movies a couple of years ago, and had been back in the United States only a few weeks following a hiatus in Thailand where he tried unsuccessfully to set up a guitar repair business and become a permanent resident. Evil Angel director Joey Silvera paid Malone’s airfare back to the U.S.

Malone’s friend and associate, Evil Angel general manager Christian Mann, commented after being informed of Malone’s death:

“I’m devastated, but not surprised” Mann said. “Jake was a brilliant and extremely talented man, but also a self destructive, troubled soul who had difficulty dealing with his addictions and the demons that accompany them. It seemed at times that he could not get out of his own way.”

Dion Giarrusso, owner of Combat Zone and Filly Films told XBIZ that he recently took the struggling Malone in after seeing a picture of him on Facebook.

“He looked horrible, so I reached out to him and he came to see me like two days after that and he was living with me. He was living at my warehouse,” Giarrusso said. “We were taking care of him,  feeding him and getting him to the clinic in Tarzana to get him off [the drugs] and get him on the right track.”

Giarrusso said that last Friday he loaned Malone money so he could get his belongings out of storage.

Malone leaves a remarkable legacy in the form of his work, Mann added, “Jake had an amazing sense of humor and irony, and he brought commentary to his work almost in the way Banksy does.”

The Evil Angel website notes that Malone’s work brings “a sophisticated sensibility to the psychology of hard, rough sex. He also brings years of experience behind the camera, which shows in the beautiful visuals he captures, never failing to make the beautiful girls of porn look even more beautiful, even when they’re dripping in sweat.”

We at TRPWL extend our deepest condolences to Malone’s loved ones.