Inspired by this post:
Belle Watling has to be one of the most famous fictional hookers. How many others can you name?
By whore, I don’t mean “kept woman” (Sister Carrie) or loose woman (Aunt Sissy in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”). Only women whose profession is sleeping with many men for cash.
Emile Zola’s Nana
A prostitute was prominent in The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon, but I don’t remember her name.
Surprised I can’t think of more!
Don’t know if she counts as famous, but how about Vivian Ward from Pretty Woman?
Fanny Hill, of course.
Whatsherface from The Crimson Petal and the White.
Ophelia, the hooker in Trading Places, played by Jamie Lee Curtis.
Moll Flanders in the novel of the same name.
Mary Magdalene in any number of Biblical epics, perhaps most notably The Last Temptation of Christ.
Jack the Ripper’s victims (based on real historical women) in the graphic novel From Hell.
Liza Minelli’s character in Arthur.
Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke (although she was extremely discreet about it).
Practically the entire female casts of *Deadwood * and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Irma la Douce. Not one of Wilder’s more lauded films, but a great favourite of mine.
Lorena Wood, from Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove
Bree Daniels from Klute
Lana in Risky Business
Only three names here: Moll Flanders, Mary Magdalene and Miss Kitty. The only other one I can name from memory is Miss Mona from “Whorehouse.”
Lorene (aka Alma), Prewitt’s love interest in From Here to Eternity.
I always suspected Flämmchen, in Grand Hotel, didn’t just work as a temp secretary.
Holly Golightly
Sadie Thompson in Rain.
Nancy from Oliver!
Surely someone in Les Mis is a ho. Oh and what’s her name from Miss Siagon and the female cast of The Life.
Satine from Moulin Rouge!
Kulte
Mildred, the primary love interest in Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage ends up a street walker, so I suppose she counts. She’s not a prostitute for most of the novel though.
Fantine in Les Misérables.
Stephen Crane’s “Maggie A Girl of the Streets.”
Sera (Elizabeth Shue) in Leaving Las Vegas
And Lana from Risky Business
Cassiopeia the “socialtor” turned medical technician in the original Battlestar Galactica.