Which porn stars had the greatest name recognition among non-pornophiles before they did porn, excluding the one- or very few-offs such as Kelli McCarty and Scotty Schwartz?
I'm thinking Teri Weigel or Maitland Ward, although, personally, I'd never heard of the latter until she started doing porn.
And which stars who gained their fame strictly or primarily through porn have the greatest name recognition among non-pornophiles? Here, the caveat is that they have to be known as porn stars, not for being someone who made it big after doing a porn flick or two, e.g., Sylvester Stallone.
Jenna Jameson? Ron Jeremy? When I was a young adult, John Holmes seemed to be well-known among the general population, but time has dimmed his name recognition.
Rita Cadillac was and still is very famous in Brazil and in her fifties she started making porn movies.
About the other category, in Italy Rocco Siffredi and Moana Pozzi are (were, in the case of Moana) known even outside porn and basically celebrities. To a lesser degree Cicciolina (Ilona Staller), Selen, Eva Henger and now Valentina Nappi are quite well known.
Marilyn Chambers portrayed the young mother pictured on Ivory Soap boxes back in the early fifties. However, I'm not sure that many consumers actually knew her name.
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suavehuman Deactivated User
301 Posts 1/20
Posted - Apr 26 2020 : 9:31PM
^ Stormy is famous for porn and other recent events, but not famous before porn.
I think Holly Sampson was famous before, during, and after porn.
About Rocco and how famous he is in Italy , there's an anectode when our current President was elected one of the Great Electors in protest voted "Rocco Siffredi" and the whole United Chambers laughed ,our former Chamber's Chairman , a woman, deemed the vote as a "Null"motivating her decision : he's not 50 yet he's not eligible So not only one Representative knew of him but considered him an effective protest to be noted by everybody else in the Parliament , in fact they laughed showing they knew, but the chairman surpassed them all not only SHE knew him, but had no problem to show how deep her knowledge was stating his age something even I didn't know
I'm not going to name the celebrities who had a celebrity sex tape because we all know their names and most if not all of them didn't set-out to be porn performers. For that reason the list of people who are famous or were known for something other than adult oriented entertainment before doing porn is tiny. Here are the ones I can think of. Marilyn Chamber, Paul Thomas, Jack Baker, Ilona Staller/Cicciolina, Holly Sampson, Angelique Pettyjohn, Kelly can Dyke/Nancee kelly, Chyna/Joanie Laurer, Farrah Abraham(only did one but it wasn't a celebrity sex tape) and Tila Tequila.
Can't think of anyone well known who went on to do regular porn. Maitland Ward appears to be a bit of a celebrity before porn but I'd never heard of her and I doubt most people had.
In terms of people who became famous through doing porn, I think Jenna Jameson tops that list with Linda Lovelace also being up there. Stormy Daniels has become pretty well known but more for her link to Trump rather than her porn career alone. She was a very successful pornstar, don't get me wrong but not famous outside of porn until Trump. Wouldn't go as far as to say Jenna is a household name but she is well known as a pornstar even by those who aren't big porn fans. Linda Lovelace is hugely well known purely because Debbie Does Dallas is the most famous porno of all time.
Agree with both clauses.Agree, too, on Stormy. OTOH, if she weren't a porn star, and she had still boinked OrangeMan, would she be as well known now? Methinks not, and I offer (the much hotter, IMHO) Karen McDougal as evidence.
Linda Lovelace would have been a strong contender as late as the early 90s, but, like John Holmes, she is pretty much unknown to probably the last two generations. Maynard Ferguson, the world's greatest trumpet player, for some unfathomable reason, decided to take a break from blowing his horn and sing every now and then. Usually, it was, "I Can't Get Started," wherein he would sing:
I've been invited to tea by the Queen Linda Lovelace, she thinks I'm obscene Still I'm broken hearted Cause I cant get started with you
That was the 80s-mid-90s version. Everyone in the audience always got it. After 1998, he substituted "Monica Lewinsky" for "Linda Lovelace."
I don't disagree about Stormy Daniels, her already being one of the top pornstars played a part in her becoming a big story. My point was really though that people outside of porn fans would not know of her without the Trump thing. She is not famous purely due to her porn career. She's famous as the pornstar who fucked Trump.
Point also taken on Linda Lovelace. I read the question as a pornstar who became famous to non-porn fans. She undoubtedly did that in her time. It seems you meant people who are still currently famous from doing porn. I think that only really applies to Jenna Jameson, don't think there's ever been a bigger pornstar.
I'd think even now, Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy and John Holmes would be known to most anyone over 30. Holmes name is used as an adjective for someone well endowed. And of course now, Stormy Daniels.
Someone truly famous before they did porn? Can't think of any.
In Japan it happens all of the time with Gravure Idols. So much competition that some go on to do porn because its a steady paycheck.
Wade Nichols was well known as a porn actor, had a hit song under his civilian name, and also starred on a hit show for five years all while performing in porn.
Sonny Landham was well known as a porn actor and then co-starred in 48 HOURS, PREDATOR, and LOCK UP before going on to run for office three times in Kentucky. He used the same name throughout his career.
Maitland Ward was in Boy Meets World in the late 90s and then starred in White Chicks, which has bizarrely become a cult classic. She'd been teasing that transition to porn for years now.
Joan Laurer (RIP) probably wins it though. She was hugely recognisable as Chyna from her time in the WWF at the peak of its popularity, and she actually did proper hardcore scenes for Vivid. Didn't make the full transition like Maitland Ward did though.
My questions were geared more toward the impossible task of determining name recognition of porn stars among a sample of people who aren't porn aficionados.
We all have our different frames of reference, and, with apologies to aficionados of porn stars from other countries, I'm thinking primarily of the U.S.
I've never heard of Chyna, whether as a porn star or something else (but I don't watch much Vivid stuff); I'd never heard of Maitland Ward until I read about her here. Ditto Holly Sampson. OTOH, Teri Weigel's name might as well have been written in 288-point type when I saw it on her first porn box cover, because I recognized the name from Playboy; but I know that the name would have meant nothing to a great many people. Still, I'm not sure that we can say for certainty which porn star had the greatest name recognition before porn. I think they'd all qualify as minor celebrities, with name recognition among certain groups of people, but whose fame did not extend to the general public.
If we played word association, and I said "Stormy Daniels" to a non-porn-person, would the more likely response be, "porn star" or "woman who boinked Trump." Most likely, I'm betting, it would be, "porn star who boinked Trump." The operative word phrase is "porn star." Yeah, she got the additional exposure because of Trump, but I'd say she's the porn performer most widely known to the general public. If you'd asked the question prior to 2016, the answer probably would have been "Linda Lovelace."
She was very well known as a burlesque star and B-movie actress, being muse and wife to director Russ Meyer for a time, before graduating to hardcore movies and videos. She was in both Airplane! movies and even had a guest star role in a TV show (The New Adventures Of Beans Baxter).
The girl in Game Of Thrones who played Shae, Tyrion's girlfriend/whore, throughout most of the show's run did do porn earlier in her career. She's not famous enough that I remember her name but she had a pretty decent sized role in possibly the biggest tv show ever.
^^Traci had a fairly strong career in mainstream movies--if you can call directors like Roger Corman and John Waters mainstream--largely on the strength of her notoriety of the vast majority of her adult work being done when she was under eighteen. Disappointing, really, as she's not that good of an actress.
Sasha Grey may not be as well known in the mainstream as say, Stormy Daniels, but she does have an active career as a novelist, actress and DJ. Check her website for yourself.
To be honest i had never heard the name "Maitland Ward" before seeing her in porn, then i learned she was one of the real "blonde girl" that the Wayan brothers goes undercover to replace in White Chicks. Ok... well she is on screen for 2 mins and she changed a lot since then lol. Saw the movie back then but never remembered her. Otherwise she did a sitcom but i never watched it ...
I think the best answers are probably Chyna/Joalie Laurer as she was very known in wrestling, Sybil Kakeli (Game of Thrones) because of how huge the show is, and maybe Jenna Jameson even if she was not famous BEFORE porn, she aquired such a notoriety from Porn and did had a few roles in B movies.
Edited by - Returnofthedude on 6/15/2020 7:09:02 PM
pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07
Posted - Jun 15 2020 : 7:28PM
@Hardware, Marilyn Chambers was born in 52' so her famous stint as the Ivory Snow model must have been in the late 60s/early 70s.
I think Maitland Ward is a generational thing, Boy Meets World ran for 7 seasons so those who grew up watching her are a not insignificant number of people.
She was also on Bold and the Beautiful for a few years which again would have made her familiar to a large mass audience of a different, older generation.
I think Sasha Grey became quite well known in the mainstream at her peak due to her appearences on trashy daytime TV talk shows, small role on Entourage on HBO, arthouse film with the prestigious filmmaker Soderbergh and just for being the biggest pornstar of her era during the huge growth of the net and porn's accessibilty via the same.
Ginger Lynn (Allen) was pretty famous to non-pornophiles because she was Charlie Sheen's girlfriend and in every gossip magazine and TV show before she went on to do a bunch of mainstream stuff. Traci Lords mentioned before for mainstream acting but also had a club singing career and many TV talk show appearances as herself. Althea Leasure ran Larry Flynt's empire, and was portrayed by Courtney Love in the movie about him. When porn went mainstream in the '80s a lot of the actresses were pretty shrewd businesswomen and there was a good bit of public recognition of them.
There have always been rumors of mainstream actresses appearing in stag films or porn before their careers took off. Marilyn Monroe and Meg Ryan come to mind.
The other side of the coin of mainstream actresses (that you'd actually heard of) who later went into porn is a lot more rare. The reality TV trend has made this a bit more common, as its a lot easier to appear as "yourself" without the time and effort devoted to a real acting career. It does attract a certain amount of attention and fame seekers (and drama queens). Jayden Taylors was on a lot of episodes of RHOC as a daughter.
Amber Rayne claimed she was a touring Broadway performer (and probably was) in addition to the usual mainstream extra and bit part player.
pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07
Posted - Jun 18 2020 : 8:31AM
Funny thing is that although I love The People vs. Larry Flynt (even if I think it makes Flynt more loveable than he really is it is a compulsively watchable film and a great love story) I never thought to check out Althea Leasure's porn.
Little Puck Interview
Posted - Apr 26 2020 : 1:57PM
