Jennifer Welles

Jennifer Welles (March 15, 1937 – June 26, 2018[4]) was an American former pornographic actress in films of the 1970s, although she began her acting career in the late 1960s in the softcore sexploitation genre films produced in New York. Some of these include: Sex by Advertisement (1967), Career Bed, Submission, and This Sporting House, by pornographic film director Henri Pachard (all from 1969).[3]

Jennifer Welles
Born(1937-03-15)March 15, 1937
New Jersey, United States[1][2]
DiedJune 26, 2018(2018-06-26) (aged 81)[2]
Arizona, United States[2]
Other namesLisa Duran[3]
Height5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)[1]

Early life

Welles grew up in Paterson, New Jersey where she attended a parochial elementary school.[5]

Career

She began her career in entertainment at age 15 for a touring dance production, telling the company she was 21.[6] She worked in a variety of areas such as a chorus line member, magician's assistant, jazz singer and nightclub performer.[6][5] Later, she worked as a stripper.[7]

In the 1960s she studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse.[2] After many years of appearing in numerous R-rated films such as The Groove Tube and The Female Response, she made her first hardcore film, Honeypie, in 1975.[6]

Welles was also a fetish magazine model for such magazines as Bizarre while using the stage name "Lisa Duran".

Welles appeared in many films, the best known being Inside Jennifer Welles (1977), which she is also credited with having directed (although the film was actually anonymously directed by sex-exploitation veteran Joseph W. Sarno).[1][8]

She lectured at several schools such as the University of Maryland and Stony Brook University.[5][7]

Awards

Welles won the Erotica Award for Best Actress in 1977 for the film Little Orphan Sammy,[9] and she was the editor of Eros, The Magazine of Decadent Sophistication in that same year. She became a member of the AVN Hall of Fame in 1996.[10]

Personal life

Jennifer Welles left the industry abruptly in 1977[11] after she married a wealthy fan.[1] Divorcing several years later, she spent her days raising horses and rescuing dogs that had been abandoned or abused. Welles died in Arizona on June 26, 2018, at age 81.

See also

References
  1. "The Rialto Report: "Jennifer Welles: The Lady Vanishes"". 18 March 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  2. III, Harris M. Lentz (2019). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2018. McFarland. p. 398. ISBN 978-1-4766-7033-1. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  3. Jennifer Welles at IMDb
  4. "The Rialto Report: "R.I.P. Jennifer Welles (1937–2018)"". July 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  5. Chadwick, Bruce (31 August 1976). "Jennifer will play it straight". New York Daily News. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  6. Giase, John (7 August 1976). "Porno Star Brings Act to Empress". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  7. Gentile, Don (1 April 1976). "Lights, Camera & Lots of Action". New York Daily News. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  8. Wiktor Ericsson (director) (2013). A Life in Dirty Movies (Motion picture). Anagram Produktion. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  9. Knoedelseder, William K. Jr. (16 July 1977). "Erotic Film Awards Presented". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  10. "Adult Video News Award Winners - 1995". Archived from the original on 6 December 1998. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  11. "Question you Didn't Ask". Carlsbad Current-Argus. 28 August 1977. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
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