Porn star Marilyn Chambers found dead in L.A. County home

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Marilyn Chambers, a former Ivory Snow detergent model who became a porn star, died Sunday at her Canyon Country home. She was 56.

Chambers, whose real name is Marilyn Ann Taylor, was found unresponsive at 8:51 p.m. at her residence it the 16000 block of Vasquez Canyon, said Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter. The cause of death is under investigation but foul play was not suspected and an autopsy is pending.

Chambers became a pop culture phenomenon when she gave up work as a model advertising Ivory Snow laundry detergent to star in the X-rated "Behind the Green Door" in 1972.

The movie also sparked a buying frenzy on boxes of Ivory Snow soap, then graced by Chambers' angelically complexioned face.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/porn-star-marilyn-chambers-found-dead-in-los-angeles-county-home.html

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I am surprisingly sad about this. My wife found the movie Insatiable online a just a few weeks ago. It was one of the first porn films I ever watched. Ms. Chambers was an enthusiastic performer and, by many accounts, a smart and savvy businesswoman, too.

She'll be missed.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. That's sad

I like Marilyn Chambers.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. YES, SAD

[Double T]

3. Gorgeous woman. RIP.

[maxsolomon]

37. AAAH! NSFW!

but somehow i am drawn to it like a moth to flame...

[xchrom]

4. oh no -- i loved marilyn chambers -- that makes me sad.

may Peace be with her family and friends.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. RIP

[maxsolomon]

6. that's really too bad

when the autopsy comes back, it won't be a pretty answer.

[theblasmo]

7. Sad News

She'd had a bit of a comeback (sorry for the pun) in porn, and in Still Insatiable, played a senator campaigning against porn who gets the...well...different side of things and recants, eventually making a pretty decent speech about hypocrisy in our government. She was a very smart woman who never got a break in mainstream films. Too bad.

[zazen]

8. wasn't she battered by Chuck Traynor, the same bastard that beat up and raped Linda Lovelace

In Linda's first expose on Traynor (for which Traynor then sued her for libel!), she said that he finally stopped hunting her down and threatening to kill her and her family after he got together with Chambers. She said she then saw them both interviewed on a show and saw Chambers asking Traynor permission to go the bathroom or something.

Please somebody tell me Chambers wasn't still with this guy.

[tomreedtoon]

10. Yes, the porn world is a cruel world.

Some people may point out individual works and call them "erotica," saying that they're fair to both sexes - but most porn is not about lust, but about hatred of women. And one feminist once said (sorry I don't have an attribution) that if you look at many of their faces, you can detect broken noses. That's how men treat them. That's where their supposed high salaries go, to hide the signs of abuse.

[No More Bushbots]

11. Link please

Because this post reeks of bullshit.

[tomreedtoon]

12. Like I said, I have no link.

This was in a printed article I saw decades ago. As I recall, it involved an anti-violence advocate, a woman, who was being driven around Manhattan before appearing on a talk show - one of those Donahue or Geraldo things. The woman referred to the porn actress she would be "debating" - actually discussing things with - on the show. "Did you see her face?" the woman said. "Remarkable work of reconstruction, but I can see the signs. She had her nose broken."

And as for your demand for verification, No More Bushbots, I suspect that if I did have such a link, and had published it, and if Jesus Christ, Buddha and Obi Wan Kenobi materialized before you and swore that it was true, you'd still deride it. Maybe, perhaps, you have some monetary interest in assuring people that porn is not exploitative and cruel at its core?

[joeglow3]

15. In all fairness, it is a LOT less underground than it was before

That said, some of the lower budget companies are obviously carrying on this "tradition." However, companies like Vivid are a LOT different than the industry of yesteryear.

[kimmerspixelated]

16. Touche'!

Porn is very exploitive towards women! Always has been, as far as I can tell. Not a great life for the woman, if you ask me.

[TheWraith]

24. Excuse me, but I call bullshit.

Somebody asks for proof of an exaggerated claim, and your response is to claim no proof would be good enough for them? Bullshit. Even on the assumption that your anecdote is valid--a huge stretch of credibility--you've got nothing to speak to how the adult industry is run today. Like it or not they're very aboveboard.

[roseBudd]

47. Really because rhonoplasty involves breaking the nose also...

considering the sums invested in plastic surgeries that can boost a career I find it hard to believe porn actresses faces were bashed by male porn stars.

[arikara]

39. Linda Lovelace exposed it all years ago

and I think I remember Gloria Steinem taking it on as well. She exposed the playboy bunny bullshit at any rate, not quite porn but still very cruel and exploitative towards the women involved, great fun for the creeps who partook.

[JeanGrey]

31. Yes it is. It's amazing how many people don't get this.

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

34. how much porn have you actually seen to make this judgment?

Feminism isn't about blaming men for oppressing women, but about equality between the genders.
You cannot make a blanket statement that porn is about hatred of women.
I am a lesbian and lesbian porn can be quite erotic, just like gay male porn and heterosexual porn. I'm not talking the violent porn or kiddy porn, I'm talking about tasteful porn and that concept is not an oxymoron. There is bad, abusive porn out there, but assuming that all porn is about hatred of women. Making quotes based on something you think you read some time ago by some one who you think was a feminist is a weak argument.
I would never deny that some porn stars are abused or go into the business because of childhood abuse.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

41. The WP article quoted her as saying

the porn industry "chews women up, then spits them out. It's a business I'd never want my daughter to be in."

I wonder how long it took for her to realize this. And I wonder how many other young women allow themselves to be exploited without fully realizing how their futures will be affected.

[caseymoz]

50. That's not generally true--

First, if you read and listen to what the pornstars themselves say about it, you find a very diverse set of experiences described. Also, men actually go to signings for these women. That isn't hatred. At conventions, men want to meet them. At AVN one fan was seen holding a the door open for a pornstar with a toddler in tow and an infant on her arm. They send those women fan mail, or used to before email. That isn't hatred.

Now pornstars do spend a lot of money on cosmetic surgery, but generally not to repair a broken noses. Breast enhancements are the most common thing. Nevertheless, there was one pornstar, a very well known one, who had a photo shoot where you could clearly tell her nose had been broken. I haven't seen any clues to that in other women in the industry. Ever.

However, the term "porn" covers a lot of things. There are some scary parts of it, a corner or two where women are treated hatefully, and that's part and parcel of the product. It isn't by any means the entire industry, nor even most of it.

[krkaufman]

9. Ivory Soap box ...

http://www.snopes.com/risque/porn/chambers.asp

[hamerfan]

42. A better pic...

[krkaufman]

44. Not really. Just more sensational.

I came across that pic, before posting the above, but didn't see any value in posting it here. Opinions differ.

[chatnoir]

13. AVN says found dead inside of her trailer/mobile home

For some reason that's maybe the saddest part of all to me.

http://business.avn.com/articles/34984.html

[shadowknows69]

14. So many that were once considered "stars" no matter the genre

End up having poor lonely ends. Good journey Marilyn.

[nichomachus]

21. I live in a mobile home -- and I'm neither poor nor lonely

[Double T]

28. Thank you for that comment.

Elitist sometimes forget themselves and end up being arrogantly rude.

[4_TN_TITANS]

35. We lived in a mobile home for 14 years,

4 bdrm 2 bath, $240 mo. While others our age were biting off mortgages they couldn't afford, we were paying off bills.

Not everyone in a mobile home is poor, some of us were financially smart.

[shadowknows69]

22. Sorry, if I offended the Mobile Home Owners of America

Applaud yourselves, you're doing better than me.

[nichomachus]

30. The ignorance people have about mobile homes is incredible

Not all of them are in trashy trailer parks. My mobile home is probably the nicest place I've ever lived -- and that includes my condo in the Back Bay of Boston or my home on a three-acres of riverfront property in NH.

[JeanGrey]

32. A sad life and a sad death.

[nichomachus]

19. Why is that sad?

[joeglow3]

23. Really?

I have a wife and 2 (soon to be 3) kids and love the house we live in. However, I have always said if I were single (or had my way, with no kids) I would live in a mobile home. I am just not all that interested in spending my money on a house. I would rather save as much as possible so I could retire as soon as possible.

That said, even I know that MOST people would rather live in a single family, traditional home and are not like you and me. Most people who live in trailer parks do so out of financial necessity. It was rather clear the poster was alluding to the shame that so much money was made off of her and she was most likely left relatively penniless.

Really, people need to not get offended so damn easily.

[pacalo]

26. ::applause::

It was rather clear the poster was alluding to the shame that so much money was made off of her and she was most likely left relatively penniless.

[nichomachus]

29. Your prejudice about "mobile homes" is incredible

Living in a mobile home does not mean you're penniless.

I live in a mobile home. Homes in our "trailer park" sell for between $200,000 and $400,000. We have an 18 hole golf course, a clubhouse with a restaurant and bar, an olympic size swimming pool (one of three)) 10 tennis courts, and full-time security.

My home is 1,800 square feet on a 6,500 square foot lot, which I own.

[pacalo]

36. You misunderstand. The comment that inadvertantly caused hurt feelings

in regard to mobile homes had nothing to do with putting them down.

The point is, if Marilyn Chambers chose a career that sold millions (or billions) of videos that, body-wise, left nothing to the imagination, it seemed that she would have had a more comfortable life in the end.

[joeglow3]

45. Really? REALLY???

You don't think that is the exception? I am not saying ALL mobile home parks are trashy. However, I have delivered pizzas (when in college) in two different cities. Of the 30-40 mobile home parks I was in, 2 were nice. The rest were mostly filled with people who had no choice, financially, to live anywhere else.

I am not lumping everybody into one category. I recognize that there are exceptions.

Really though, do we need to have this conversation? I have not seen anything posted that was intended to insult anyone who owns a mobile home.

[JeanGrey]

33. I have nothing against mobile homes, except they are not

safe. I would never live in a mobile home - they go up like tinder boxes and blow away in storms.

[nichomachus]

38. So do many stick-built houses

or don't you watch the news?

So do many "sturdier" buildings -- don't assume you're safe.

This isn't a mobile home -- when a tornado strikes, you're toast no matter what you live in

[joeglow3]

46. It has less to do with the actual house, per se

Rather, the lack of a basement. As someone who lives 1.5 blocks from where a tornado ripped many houses apart last year, all my neighbors were happy their homes had basements, as no one was injured.

[JeanGrey]

49. It is because mobile homes are easily blow over and thrown

around, they are not anchored very well into the ground. Not to mention the walls are mostly paper.

[JeanGrey]

48. True but I'm sorry the average mobile home is no where NEAR

as sturdy as a regular house. That is simply the facts. And I've survived a tornado in a house. Twice, actually.

[Tab]

17. As far as abuse goes (and health)

the American industry has cleaned up its act quite a bit, but for the Asian industries in particular, there's a lot of obvious violence and coercion (not to mention kidnapping or selling children for this express purpose).

[Vidar]

18. RIP Marilyin.

[d_b]

20. RIP

fap fap fap

[chelsea0011]

25. Good businesswomen who had her own production company.

She went film mainstream for Cronenberg oddity called "Rabid". Not one of Cronenberg's best but good silly fun.

[bushmeister0]

27. Gosh, and male porn star Jack Wrangler just died on the 7th.

Is this like that famous people die in threes thing, except for porn stars?

[Joey Liberal]

40. A very talented lady *wink* -- RIP

[eowyn_of_rohan]

43. enthusiastic performer

:spray: