She was only 56. No cause of death yet.
That’s a shame. There were a number of celebrities who grew up in my hometown of Westport, CT, but I was the proudest to call her a fellow alumni of Staples High School! Some of my teachers taught her earlier in their career, and mentioned that she was way too bright for the career she ended up in.
OK, so they didn’t say that. But it sort of fits…
If you are the right temperament and otherwise suited to the work, I am sure that having a high intiligence was part of what made her a Star. Many people grind away in the business and are not Stars.
Choked to death?
Oops, no, that would have been Lovelace.
I saw some of her recent work and was completely unaffected. Then I looked up her 1970’s work and I was impressed enough to review all of her earlier work (and if you don’t find taking John Holmes via the Detroit on ramp impressive then you’re not trying).
I’m sorry to see her go.
She was probably the first porn actress that I knew by name. She was not always the most beautiful in the scene but she had a great presence. I’m a little saddened to read she was found in the trailer where she lived; she seemed bright enough to have gotten a bit more out of her career.
It also makes me feel a bit old to learn of her death.
I’m not sure what one has to do with the other.
The career she chose?
This is too bad. I always had a *…spot for Marilyn, even her later soft core work. She seemed to be enjoying herself in those Skinemax movies.
*“soft” doesn’t seem appropriate.
IIRC, Julianne Moore interviewed Marilyn Chambers a lot for research on her character in Boogie Nights. I think Chambers had a custody battle that partly inspired the one in that movie as well.
How about spelling? Does that count?
I think the career she wound up in puts it better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/movies/14chambers.html?hpw
When she went into porn the standard body type was a busty floozy. She didn’t look like a porn actress in any way, which is why she got her first roles. The girl next door does porn. Same thing that brought Playboy to fame with mere nudity. But she had an incredible sexual presence on screen, way more so than Linda Lovelace who shared her body type and also wasn’t supposed to be able to carry a starring role in porn. Chambers really did convey the attitude that she was Insatiable, a title of a couple of her films, and that was revolutionary. Women weren’t supposed to want it more than men, even in porn. And again unlike Lovelace, Chambers could act. That makes an incredible difference, even in porn.
She, Georgina Spelvin, and Annette Haven were the first real porn stars. (Lovelace was a circus act instead of a star with a career.) All of them looked like ordinary attractive women, all could act, and all could have played real roles in real films. That’s what made porn an industry after Deep Throat made it chic and semi-acceptable. Boogie Nights tried to convey that difference and didn’t do a very good job of it. Ultimately, there weren’t enough women in that category who could carry an industry, cheaper films and actresses filled in the vacuum with volume, and video tape made acting obsolete with fast-forwarding.
What a weird time the early 70s were. Total liberation co-existing with the oldest of repressive sexual attitudes. Everybody expected that the pendulum would swing to one extreme or the other and instead we’ve wound up somewhere in the middle.
Shouldn’t autopsy results be out by now?
The autopsy was inconclusive and she’s been cremated.
From “Behind the Green Door” to “Beneath the Green Sod.”
*Behind the Green Door *was the only porn movie I have ever paid to see. It was on Guam. It was strangely enough on a double bill with Willie Wonka and the Chocolate. What can I say it was Guam.
I fell asleep during it and now feel somehow I kind of let Ms. Chambers down. Well, at least I paid to see it.