Linda Lovelace

Linda Susan Boreman, better known by her stage name Linda Lovelace (January 10, 1949 – April 22, 2002), was a pornographic actress in the 1972 film Deep Throat. The movie was notable for popularizing oral sex and beginning a brief fad of porn chic; it was also the inspiration for Bob Woodward's name of his secret Watergate source. Lovelace later stated that she regretted her pornographic career; she repudiated her stage name, and reverted to using her real name in public. Despite this fact, she has become a cultural icon, appearing in archive footage in many other films.

Biography

Childhood and teenage years

Boreman attended Catholic schools, including St. John the Baptist in Yonkers, New York and Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale, New York. Her father was a policeman. Since an early age, she was subject to strict dicipline from her mother, a devout Roman Catholic who punished Boreman for any act of misbehavior. When Boreman was 16, the family moved to Florida.

Related Topics:
Catholic - Yonkers, New York - Hartsdale, New York - Roman Catholic

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Pornography career

While in Florida, Boreman met Chuck Traynor, her future husband and agent in 1969. The couple moved back to New York that same year. Before achieving fame, Boreman starred in a bestiality film in 1969 film called Dogarama. She later attempted to deny this fact, only to have several of the 8 mm "loops" become available to prove otherwise.

Related Topics:
Chuck Traynor - 1969 - Bestiality

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Boreman made several other hard core "stag" short features and then starred in Deep Throat, perhaps the most financially successful porn movie ever. After becoming famous she starred in several soft core movies, which were financial flops. Boreman maintained that she herself was not paid for her work in Deep Throat and that her husband received only $1,250 (1972 US dollars) for it.

Related Topics:
Hard core - Porn movie - Soft core - US dollars

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Due to the success of Deep Throat, she appeared in Playboy, Bachelor, and Esquire between 1973 and 1974.

Related Topics:
Playboy - Esquire - 1973 - 1974

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In January 1974, Boreman was arrested for drug possession, specifically for cocaine and amphetamines.

Related Topics:
January 1974 - Drug possession - Cocaine - Amphetamines

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In 1974, Boreman published two pro-pornography biographies. 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. According to Boreman's controversial 1980 autobiography Ordeal, the couple's relationship was plagued by violence, rape, prostitution and private pornography. Assertions made in the book have been contested, particularly ones of rape and threats of violence at gunpoint.

Related Topics:
Marilyn Chambers - 1980 - Violence - Rape - Prostitution - Pornography

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In 1974, Boreman married Larry Marchiano and they had two children, Domnic in 1977 and Lindsay in 1980.

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Anti-pornography crusade

In the early 1980's, Boreman joined the feminist movement as led by Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon and Gloria Steinem. In 1986, she published Out of Bondage, which focuses on her life after 1974. In reaction to her effort to leave her career in the porn industry behind, Hart Williams coined the term "Linda Syndrome".

Related Topics:
Feminist movement - Andrea Dworkin - Catharine MacKinnon - Gloria Steinem - 1986 - Linda Syndrome

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Boreman testified before the 1986 Meese Commission on Pornography, claiming "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 of the pornography industry.

Related Topics:
1986 - Meese Commission on Pornography

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Later career

In 1996, Boreman divorced Larry Marchiano. In 2000, she was featured on the E! Entertainment Network's E! True Hollywood Story.

Related Topics:
1996 - 2000 - E! Entertainment Network - E! True Hollywood Story

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In 2001, Boreman did a pictorial, as Linda Lovelace, for the magazine Leg Show. She contended that she didn't 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.

Related Topics:
2001 - Hustler - March 2001

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On April 3, 2002, Boreman suffered massive trauma and internal injuries in a car accident. She had been in the hospital since losing control of her car, which rolled twice.

Related Topics:
April 3 - 2002

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On April 22, 2002 she was taken off life support and died in Denver, Colorado. Her ex-husband, Larry Marchiano, and their two adult children were at the hospital when she died.

Related Topics:
April 22 - 2002 - Denver, Colorado

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Lovelace is also listed at the number 5 spot on the "List of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time" by Adult Video News magazine.

Related Topics:
List of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time - Adult Video News

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