Spears was introduced to the industry in 1987 by Ona Zee. In a 2016 interview, he said he was an aspiring actor who, after a few years in show Business, fell on hard times due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike. He said he turned to modeling when a make-up Artist handed him her card and told him to dial the number if he ever felt like doing nude work. With nothing more than a can of beans and a can of potatoes in his cupboard, he called a month later, despite his concern that working in the adult entertainment industry could hurt his professional career later on. Spears said he felt conflicted after his first shoot, for which he earned $400. Still, he fielded and accepted more offers, which came in, he said, once producers noticed he had some acting experience. Initially, he kept his mother uninformed about his new profession. Spears' first billing was as detective Hank Smith in The Case of the Sensuous Sinners, released in 1988. In 1990, Spears and Tom Byron traveled to Australia and made the films Singles Holiday, Lost in Paradise, Dial a Sailor, Sexual Healer and Outback Assignment. The same year, he won the Adult Video News Best Actor Award for his performance in The Masseuse with Hyapatia Lee. Spears also played Captain Jim Quirk in the "Sex Trek" series, which was a sex-parody of Star Trek. He has since been inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.