Traci Lords

Traci Lords

CountryUnited States United States
GenderFemale
BirthdayMay 7, 1968
BiographyTraci Elizabeth Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma; May 7, 1968) is an American actress and singer. As a 15-year-old high-school dropout, she used fake identity documents to enter the sex industry, where she began appearing in pornographic magazines and films. The September 1984 edition of Penthouse featured her as its centerfold, and she went on to become one of the most sought-after pornographic actresses of the mid-1980s, appearing in an estimated 75 adult films and videos. In 1986, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received an anonymous tip that she had been a minor during her time in the industry. All pornographic material featuring Lords—except her last film, Traci, I Love You, which had been shot two days after her 18th birthday—was removed from distribution in the United States as child pornography. Efforts to prosecute two producers and her former talent agent failed as Lords had used a stolen birth certificate to obtain a federal passport and California driver's license, thereby giving industry personnel a reasonable belief that she was over 18 at the time.

Lords subsequently enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, where she studied method acting with the intention of becoming a mainstream actress. She made her mainstream screen debut in the 1988 remake of the 1957 Roger Corman science fiction film Not of This Earth. She played 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, Highlander: The Series, Gilmore Girls, and Will & Grace. She also appeared in films such as Skinner (1993), Virtuosity (1995), Blade (1998), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), and Excision (2012), which earned her a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as a Fright Meter Award and a CinEuphoria Award.

Lords pursued music in addition to her film career. 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 generally positive reviews. Despite the poor sales of the album, the lead single "Control" had moderate commercial success. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart and a remix 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. In 2018, Lords (under her married name, Gruenewald) bought a 4-acre property in Weirton, West Virginia, five miles northeast of her birthplace, Steubenville, Ohio.

Biography from the Wikipedia article Traci Lords. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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