Linda Lovelace

Adult bio
name = Linda Lovelace
gender = female


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birth = birth date|mf=yes|1949|1|10
location = The Bronx, New York, USA
birthname = Linda Susan Boreman
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ethnicity = Caucasian
alias = Linda Lovelace
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iafd = Lovelace
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imdb = 0001483
afdb = 9235
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spelling = US

Linda Susan Boreman (January 10, 1949 – April 22, 2002), better known by her stage name, "Linda Lovelace," was a porn actress who was famous for her performance of deep throat fellatio in the enormously successful 1972 hardcore porn film "Deep Throat". She later denounced her pornography career, claimed that she had been forced into it by her sadistic first husband and for a while became a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.

Biography

Childhood and teenage years

Boreman was born in The Bronx, New York City, [http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2002/04/23/2002-04-23_ex-porn_star_lovelace_dies_a.html "Ex-Porn Star Lovelace Dies After Crash"] , by Leo Standora, "New York Daily News", April 23, 2002. Retrieved 2008-01-07] the daughter of a policeman and a woman she claimed was strict. Her parents were Roman Catholic and Boreman attended Catholic schools, including St. John the Baptist in Yonkers, New York, and Maria Regina High School, in Hartsdale, New York. In school, she was nicknamed, "Miss Holy Holy," because she kept her dates at a safe distance. When Boreman was 16, the family moved to Florida. [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20020428/ai_n12463861|title=findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20020428/ai_n12463861 |accessdate=2007-07-27]

Unwanted pregnancy

In her 1980 autobiography, "Ordeal," she stated that she gave birth to a son when she was 20-years-old, in 1969, and that her mother put him up for adoption. Boreman said she believed that the child was being put in foster care until she was ready to care for him, but was heartbroken when she learned she would never see him again. Boreman moved back to New York to start a new life, in 1970. While there, she was involved in a violent car crash forcing her to undergo a blood transfusion. She moved back to Florida to recover.cite web |url= http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-briggs042502.asp|title=Linda's Life |accessdate=2007-03-16 |last=Briggs |first=Joe Bob |date=2002-04-25|work=National Review Online]

Pornography career

While in Florida, recovering at her parents' home, Boreman became involved with Chuck Traynor. According to Boreman, Traynor was a violent and controlling man. Boreman said he forced her to move to New York, where he became her manager, pimp and husband.

Boreman was soon the star in a number of hardcore short movies, including a bestiality film, in 1971, called, "Dog Fucker", or "Dogarama". She later denied doing this, only to have several of the 8 mm "loops" become available to prove otherwise.Linda Lovelace, "Ordeal", pages 105-113 and 194, cited by [http://www.farinc.org/newsletter/v8_n3-4_94/petaporn2.html "PETA and a Pornographic Culture, II"] , by Carol Adams, Feminists for Animal Rights, April 1994. Retrieved 2007-07-17.]

In 1972, Boreman starred in "Deep Throat", perhaps the most financially successful pornographic movie in history.

Media career after "Deep Throat"

After "Deep Throat", Lovelace appeared in only two movies, both of which were softcore: The 1974 "Deep Throat II",IMDb title|0069957|title=Deep Throat II] an R-rated sequel to the hardcore original, and the 1975 erotic comedy, "Linda Lovelace for President".IMDb title|0074800| title=Linda Lovelace for President] In her 1980 autobiography, "Ordeal", Lovelace maintained that those films used leftover footage from "Deep Throat". She also appeared in "Playboy", "Bachelor" and "Esquire", between 1973 and 1974.

In January 1974, Lovelace was arrested for possession of cocaine and amphetamines. That same year she published two porn biographies, "Inside Linda Lovelace" and "The Intimate Diary of Linda Lovelace".

Around 1976, she was slated to play the title role in the big-budget erotic movie, "Laure".IMDb title | id=0073271 | title=Laure ("Forever Emmanuelle")] According to the movie's producer Ovidio Assonitis, Lovelace was, "very much on drugs," at the time; she had already signed on when she suddenly decided that, "god had changed her life," refused to do any nudity and even took umbrage against a statue of the Venus de Milo on the set because of its' exposed breasts. She was consequently replaced by French actress Annie Belle.Statement by producer Ovidio Assonitis in the the mini-docu "Emmanuelle Exposed" in the extras section of the 2007 DVD release of Laure (1976), Universal Product Code 891635001230]

Charges against Chuck Traynor

In her later suit to divorce Traynor, she claimed that Traynor had forced her into pornography at gunpoint and that in "Deep Throat" itself, bruises from his beatings can be seen on her legs. Traynor would go on to marry and guide the career of Marilyn Chambers, another major porn star. Boreman claimed in her 1980 autobiography "Ordeal" that the couple's relationship was plagued by violence, rape, forced prostitution and private pornography. Some of the assertions made in her book have been challenged, but others have been verified by witnesses. Marilyn Chambers was Chuck Traynor's protégé after Boreman, and Traynor himself told "Vanity Fair" magazine (Marilyn Chambers' interview, with Chambers on the cover) that he thought nothing of slapping his woman if she said something he did not like. Linda stated that:

When in response to his suggestions I let him know I would not become involved in prostitution in any way and told him I intended to leave, [Traynor] beat me up physically and the constant mental abuse began. I literally became a prisoner, I was not allowed out his sight, not even to use the bathroom, where he watched me through a hole in the door. He slept on top of me at night, he listened to my telephone calls with a .45 automatic eight shot pointed at me. I was beaten physically and suffered mental abuse each and every day thereafter. He undermined my ties with other people and forced me to marry him on advice from his lawyer. My initiation into prostitution was a gang rape by five men, arranged by Mr. Traynor. It was the turning point in my life. He threatened to shoot me with the pistol if I didn't go through with it. I had never experienced anal sex before and it ripped me apart. They treated me like an inflatable plastic doll, picking me up and moving me here and there. They spread my legs this way and that, shoving their things at me and into me, they were playing musical chairs with parts of my body. I have never been so frightened and disgraced and humiliated in my life. I felt like garbage. I engaged in sex acts for pornography against my will to avoid being killed...The lives of my family were threatened. [This quotation is copied from Catharine A. MacKinnon, Are Women Human (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA 2006).]

On the second commentator's track of the DVD of the documentary "Inside Deep Throat", "Deep Throat 2" co-star Andrea True said that Chuck Traynor was a sadist and was disliked by the "Deep Throat 2" cast. Similarly, a "Deep Throat" staff member who roomed next door to Boreman and Traynor during the filming of "Deep Throat" said that Traynor beat Boreman viciously after hours and sexually tortured her into obeying him in public.

In the book "The Other Hollywood", by Legs McNeil, witnesses, including Gerard Damiano, the film's director, confirm that Traynor beat Boreman behind closed doors, but they also question her credibility. Adult film actress Gloria Leonard is quoted as saying about Boreman, "This was a woman who never took responsibility for her own [...] choices—but instead blamed everything that happened to her in her life on porn."

Eric Danville, a journalist who has covered the porn industry for nearly 20 years and who wrote "The Complete Linda Lovelace" in 2001, said Boreman never changed her version of events that had occurred 30 years earlier with Traynor. When Danville pitched his book proposal to Boreman, he wrote that she was overcome with emotion and saddened that he had uncovered the bestiality film, which she had initially denied making and later maintained she had been forced to star in at gunpoint. In "The Other Hollywood", Eric Edwards, Boreman's co-star in the bestiality films, disputes this claim.

Boreman maintained that she received no money for appearing in "Deep Throat", and that the $1,250 for her appearance was taken by Traynor. In 1979 Boreman retained Victor Yannacone, a controversial attorney more frequently associated with environmental lawsuits, to sue for a portion of the several hundred million dollars the film had earned. The suit was dismissed without trial by the Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola, New York and was never appealed.

Marchiano marriage

In 1974, Boreman married Larry Marchiano and they had two children, a son, Dominic, in 1977, and a daughter, Lindsey, in 1980. As quoted in, "The Other Hollywood", Boreman painted an unflattering portrait of Marchiano, claiming that he drank to excess, verbally abused her children and was violent with her. The couple divorced in 1996.

Family and friends reaction

Boreman's immediate family was said to have been outraged that she was involved in porn.Fact|date=October 2008 But her sister, Barbara Boreman, suggested in one of Boreman's biographies that the family later forgave and supported her.Fact|date=October 2008

Anti-pornography activism

With the publication of "Ordeal" in 1980, Boreman joined the feminist anti-pornography movement. At a press conference announcing "Ordeal", she leveled many accusations against Traynor in public for the first time. She was joined by supporters Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, Gloria Steinem, and members of Women Against Pornography. She spoke out against pornography, stating that she had been abused and coerced. She spoke before feminist groups, at colleges, and before government hearings on pornography.

There was controversy over her allegations, and her objections to the pornography industry as a whole. Pornographer and writer Hart Williams coined the term “Linda Syndrome” to refer to women who leave pornography and repudiate their past career by condemning the industry.

In 1986, Boreman published "Out of Bondage", another memoir focusing on her life after 1974. She testified before the 1986 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography in New York City, stating that “When you see the movie "Deep Throat", you are watching me being raped. It is a crime that movie is still showing; there was a gun to my head the entire time.” Following Boreman's testimony for the Meese Commission, Boreman gave lectures on college campuses and elsewhere, decrying what she described as callous and exploitative practices in the pornography industry.

In "The Other Hollywood", Boreman said she felt "used" by the anti-pornography movement. "Between Andrea Dworkin and Kitty MacKinnon, they've written so many books, and they mention my name and all that, but financially they've never helped me out. [...] They made a few bucks off me, just like everybody else."

Later career and death

Boreman contracted hepatitis from the blood transfusion in 1970 as a result of the car accident. In 1987, this required her to undergo a liver transplant. [cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9B0DE4DD1F3AF934A35750C0A961948260 |title= New Liver for Linda Lovelace |accessdate=2007-03-16 |author=Reuters |date=1987-03-07 |work=The New York Times ] In 1996, Boreman divorced Larry Marchiano. In 2000, she was featured on the "E! Entertainment Network's E! True Hollywood Story". In 2001, Boreman did a pictorial, as Linda Lovelace, for the magazine "Leg Show". She contended that she did not object to this because "there's nothing wrong with looking sexy as long as it's done with taste." Subsequently, "Hustler" named her the "Asshole of the Month" for March 2001.

On April 3, 2002, Boreman lost control of her car, which rolled twice. She suffered massive trauma and internal injuries. On April 22, 2002 she was taken off life support and died in Denver, Colorado, aged 53. Her ex-husband, Larry Marchiano, and their two adult children Dominic and Lindsay were at the hospital when she died. She is interred at Parker Cemetery in Parker, Colorado.

Although she had been the star of the most profitable pornographic movie of all times, Boreman died poor.

After-death

Boreman was at the focus of a 2005 documentary, "Inside Deep Throat".

Plans from 2005 for a biopic entitled "Lovelace" and starring Courtney Love seem to have fallen flat [cite web|last = Murray|first = Rebecca| title =Rocker/Actress Courtney Love to Star in a Linda Lovelace Biopic | url= http://movies.about.com/od/moviesinproduction/a/lindalove032905.htm| accessdate =2007-9-19 | date= 2005-03-29 ] . Likewise, comedian Anna Faris was rumored to have been involved in the production of a similar movie entitled "Inferno" in 2007, which so far has failed to materialise [cite web|last=Carroll|first=Larry|url=http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1570083/20070919/story.jhtml|title=Anna Faris Plans To Stop Laughing And Get 'Deep' With Porn-Star Biopic|date=2007-09-19|accessdate=2007-09-20] [cite web|last=Stephenson|first=Hunter|url=http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/09/19/anna-faris-drops-out-of-the-linda-lovelace-biopic-inferno/|title=Anna Faris Drops Out of the Linda Lovelace Biopic Inferno|date=2008-09-19|accessdate=2008-10-06] .

Partial filmography

*"Deep Throat" (1972)
*"The Confessions of Linda Lovelace" (1974)
*"The 46th Annual Academy Awards (1974) uncredited guest"
*"Deep Throat Part II (1974) as Nurse Lovelace"
*"Linda Lovelace for President" (1975)
*"Linda Lovelace: The E! True Hollywood Story" (2000)
*"Inside Deep Throat (2005) archive footage"

Books

Boreman has been the subject of five authorized biographies:
* "Inside Linda Lovelace" (1974) ISBN 0-902826-11-5
* "The Intimate Diary of Linda Lovelace" (1974) ISBN 0-523-00394-3
* "Ordeal" (1980) ISBN 0-517-42791-5
* "Out of Bondage" (1986) ISBN 0-425-10650-0
* "The Complete Linda Lovelace" (2001) ISBN 0-9705502-0-0

Other books:
*Jack Stevenson (ed): "Fleshpot - Cinema's Sexual Myth Makers & Taboo Breakers" (Headpress, England 2000): Features an interview with her.
*Nicolas Barbano: "Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner" (Rosinante, Denmark 1999) ISBN 87-7357-961-0: Features a chapter on her.

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060205122958/completelindalovelace.com/html/intro.html The Complete Linda Lovelace] . (Archived at Wayback Machine, February 2, 2006.)
* [http://www.arlindo-correia.com/linda_lovelace.html Linda Lovelace (1949–2002)] , "Arlindo-Correia.com". – Collection of Linda Lovelace obituaries and other articles.
* [http://www.lukeford.com/stars/female/linda_lovelace.html "Linda Lovelace"] , "Lukeisback.com".
* [http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/actors/linda-lovelace/ "Linda Lovelace"] , "Rotten.com".
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6364421 Linda Lovelace Memorial] at Find A Grave