Wade Nichols

Nichols was born in Manhattan, New York and raised in Freeport, New York.[3] He attended the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, studying Furniture Design.[3][4] During his stint at PMCA, he won a role in a touring company production of The Trojan Women. He later attended New York University and the Herbert Berghof Studio, where he studied acting.[3] He supported himself by working as a carpenter for several years.[4]

Nichols' first feature film role was probably in the gay adult film Boynapped! (1975). He subsequently appeared mostly in straight porn films shot in New York, such as Barbara Broadcast, Blonde Ambition, Jail Bait, Maraschino Cherry, Punk Rock, Summer of Laura, Take Off, and Teenage Pajama Party.[1] Posa was credited as Wade Nichols in most of the adult films in which he appeared.

In 1979, using the name Dennis Parker, he recorded a disco album on Casablanca Records titled Like an Eagle.[3][4] The album was produced by Village People creator and producer Jacques Morali, who was Nichols' boyfriend at the time.[5] He also toured Europe to promote the album.[3] He later appeared in the French film Monique that same year, with "Like an Eagle" being used as its theme song. The title track was released as a single and appears on the box set The Casablanca Records Story (1994). "New York By Night," another song recorded by Nichols as Dennis Parker, peaked at #11 on the South African music charts in 1980.[6]

Posa (still as Dennis Parker) joined the cast of the soap opera The Edge of Night in 1979 as Police Chief Derek Mallory. He continued in the role until 1984.[3][4][2]

Seriously ill by October 1984, Posa was unable to continue working on The Edge of Night and his character was written out of the show. The show went off the air two months later.

Parker died on January 28, 1985.[3] In a tribute to Parker in a 1985 issue of Soap Opera Digest, fellow Edge of Night actor Ernie Townsend wrote "He died in early January after a long and painful illness that took away a talent in its prime." An obituary released in Virginia stated that he died after a "brief illness, survived by his mother, brother, and partner." It was revealed later that he died of an unspecified AIDS-related illness.[2]

• Wade Nichols at IMDb
• Wade Nichols at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Wade Nichols at the Adult Film Database
• Wade Nichols: ‘A Galaxy of Pleasure and Pain’ His Untold Story, profile of Wade Nichols, The Rialto Report, June 25, 2017