Dan Pastorini tended to be a football quarterback from the Joe Namath mode with a reputation for fast cars, high living, pretty girls, cigars, and good eating. Unfortunately, when he played a supporting role in the 1979 movie, "Killer Fish," he...
[+] Read Full Review

Dan Pastorini tended to be a football quarterback from the Joe Namath mode with a reputation for fast cars, high living, pretty girls, cigars, and good eating. Unfortunately, when he played a supporting role in the 1979 movie, "Killer Fish," he was cast as a glum, humorless "baddie" whose chief asset was his physique. (Pastorini played most of his big scene without a shirt.) Not much more than a year later, however, Pastorini found an outlet for his "rebel" streak by appearing in a nude photospread in the December 1980 issue of "Playgirl." This time, he took off more than just his shirt. Many of the photos -- taken inside a showerroom -- were rearview or profile shots which emphasized his bare buttocks but in some frontal shots he was seen nothing more than a sweaty jockstrap which, though it bulged conspicuously, did not seem to be artificially padded. While "Playgirl" readers got a discreet glimpse of the upper fringe of Pastorini's pubic hair, he did not actually reveal what are politely referred to as his "private parts." Perhaps because of his "rebel" image, this photospread did not harm Pastorini's reputation and may, in fact, have enhanced it. Compare this experience to that of Lou Zivkovich, formerly a player for the Calgary football team, who posed for the July 1974 centerfold in "Playgirl." Retired from professional football, Zivkovich worked as a coach and phys-ed teacher in Apple Valley, California, at the time of the centerfold's publication and was promptly fired by the school board. Students rallied to his defense as Zivkovich protested his firing and a court ruled in his favor. Perhaps the negative reaction to Zivkovich's photos had something to do with the fact that, unlike Pastorini, he did not have the reputation as a high-living "rebel" and he worked with young people in a public school system. Besides, unlike Pastorini, Zivkovich openly and unapologetically displayed his private parts. (Even now, more than 30 years later, Zivkovich's is considered the "Titanic" of "Playgirl" centerfolds.) It's unfortunate that Dan Pastorini abandoned his acting career so quickly, since -- with a superior part to that found in "Killer Fish" -- he might sucessfully have found a way to put his high-living personality onto movie film.