Traci Lords

Traci Elizabeth Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma on May 7, 1968) is an American actress, singer, model, writer, producer, and director. She achieved notoriety in the mid-1980s after authorities discovered that she was underage when she posed nude and appeared in numerous pornographic films. A native of Steubenville, Ohio, Lords was only fifteen when she used a fake drivers license to land a job as a nude model and set up her entry into the porn industry. After being featured in the September 1984 issue of Penthouse magazine, she appeared in dozens of illegal hardcore videos between 1984 and 1986, and became one of the most sought-after pornographic actresses of the era. In May 1986, law enforcement discovered she had been underage while making all but one of her hardcore films. Distributors and video rental stores were ordered to remove all her videos to avoid the risk of prosecution for trafficking in child pornography. The withdrawal of her films cost the industry millions of dollars and her case became the biggest scandal to affect the adult film industry.After her departure from pornography, Lords enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute where she studied method acting with the intention of becoming a mainstream actress. She made her screen debut in 1988 (two years after quitting porn), when she had a leading role in the remake of Roger Cormans sci-fi classic Not of This Earth. Lords followed with the role of Wanda Woodward in John Waters teen comedy, Cry-Baby (1990). Her other acting credits include the television series MacGyver, Married... with Children, Tales from the Crypt, Roseanne, Melrose Place, Profiler, First Wave, Gilmore Girls and Will & Grace. She also appeared in films such as Virtuosity (1995), Blade (1998), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and most recently Excision (2012), which earned her Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as Fright Meter Award and CinEuphoria Award.In addition to her film career, Lords also pursued music. After her song Love Never Dies was featured on the soundtrack to the film Pet Sematary Two (1992), she was signed to Radioactive Records and subsequently released her debut studio album, 1000 Fires (1995) to critical acclaim. Despite the poor sales of the album, the lead single Control had moderate commercial success. It managed to peak at number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart and was included on the soundtrack to the film Mortal Kombat (1995), which was eventually certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2003, Lords published her autobiography, Traci Lords: Underneath It All, which received positive reviews from critics and debuted at number 31 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

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