Monday, January 5, 2009

Before They Were Porn Stars

Not everyone who makes his or her living in “adult entertainment” got started that way. Sometimes their acting careers began in mainstream movies or TV.

Maybe they even appeared in one of your favorite episodes.

Take Holly Sampson. Since 1998, she has starred in softcore pornos such as the “Emmanuelle 2000” series. She has also worked in fetish videos with titles like “Big Breasted Bondage” and “Tie Me Naked!”

But Ms. Sampson’s filmography at the Internet Movie Database also lists her early guest-starring roles on “Matlock,” “My Two Dads” and “The Wonder Years.”

If you’re a “Wonder Years” fan (I am not), you’ll no doubt remember Holly Sampson’s performance as “Teri,” the older teenager with whom Fred Savage’s character shares his first-ever French kiss. That episode (“Summer Song”) was the Season 3 premiere.

So then... Holly Sampson is an ideal subject for the launch of my newest irregular feature: Before They Were Porn Stars.

The first video below is a 2-minute clip of young Holly in “The Wonder Years” from 1989.

The bottom video is 40 seconds’ worth of bondage-’n’-tickling from a scene Ms. Sampson shot just a few weeks ago. (It’s for sale to download at a website called FM Concepts.)

Funny how life goes, isn’t it?

29 comments:

CNu said...

This is kind of sad and queasy-making.., why feature it?

p.s., Most of the big boys have weighed in on what you started over at P6, surely you're not finished with that discussion just yet?

Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

01 05 09

It seems like she had aspirations of becoming a legit actress and got mowed down somewhere along the way. It is also possible that she just loves sex but being a porno actress is risky! I hope she is able to stack some chips for retirement, else she'll be an old ho who has to run other girls to make a living. I have seen that for myself and think it is sad.

Anonymous said...

i love the way your mind works!

Anonymous said...

I always presume a serious drug habit turns someone into a porn star (ie, Jennifer Connelly's character in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

Francisco said...

Actually, for this feature, you could use your powers of Musical Research, your Prodigious memory for TV shows, and your, uh, adult entertainment industry knowledge.

Check out Adult Entertainment India (who was part of one of those all black women Trios that came our in the early 90s)and had a couple of Albums way back then.

As for TV, check Jaimee Foxworth (easy to do as she just did Celebrity Rehab last year) And I could swear Dana Plato did some of that work as well.

Anonymous said...

francisco's comment made me think of the other position of the pendulum. hot chicks who find jesus. who popped to mind? vanity...

or was that a prince conversion? :)

bklyn6 said...

Francisco said:

As for TV, check Jaimee Foxworth (easy to do as she just did Celebrity Rehab last year)

Judy Winslow! She had a drug habit? Was she porn star?

JMC said...

Before anyone gets all high-and-mighty... I don't see Fred Savage working anywhere. And the boy had a porn name from all get out.

Undercover Black Man said...

p.s., ... surely you're not finished with that discussion just yet?

I'm finished with that discussion, Craig. But at some point I'll deal with the murder crisis here.

When I do, I wanna take it deeper than the level of a late-night jaw-jack in a college dorm room.

Which necessitates careful preparation on my part. Because I know you'll be coming hard.

Anonymous said...

@9:14 am Anonymous: My friend was sent to interview Vanity some years ago and she absolutely would not talk about Prince no matter how many times she was asked. And she tried to get my friend to do Bible study with her!

@M. Chavez: lol, Fred Savage directs network tv eps.

Cousin Judy gave 360 degrees of apologetic reasons for her year-long stint in porn on Oprah, and mom was at the top.

I am always "impressed" with the changes women make from looking "regla" to looking porn-y: the whittled body, the tan, French manicure, fixed nose, added weave and blond hair.

Undercover Black Man said...

This is kind of sad and queasy-making.., why feature it?

I always knew a compassionate heart lay beneath your steel-like Malthusian exoskeleton, Craig.

Rest assured, I am not mocking Ms. Sampson, nor judging how she makes her living.

I just like the post-postmodern frisson of juxtaposing mainstream mass culture and fringe "outsider" culture in such a direct and surprising way.

And you know Holly Sampson can't be the only example of this particular phenomenon. My next installment might trip you all-the-way out.

Undercover Black Man said...

Judy Winslow! ... Was she porn star?

Bklyn6: Her porn name was "Crave."

Lenoxave said...

Now this is gonna be interesting. I'm curious to see what you come up with. Loved the funky white boys and native american series.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Thanks, Danielle. I lost track of you for a minute! Glad to see you're back to blogging.

Undercover Black Man said...

It seems like she had aspirations of becoming a legit actress and got mowed down somewhere along the way.

Yeah, Mahndisa, it's a rough business. People often say that L.A. is the place where the prettiest girl in every town moves to. Of course, you get here and realize you ain't the prettiest girl in town no more. And you gotta fight to out-compete the others.

That said, Holly Sampson was adorable in that "Wonder Years" clip... and she could act. While I wish that everyone could get their dream fulfilled, Ms. Sampson has at least found a way to keep on doing what she (presumably) wants to do for a living.

Anonymous said...

That Wonder Years clip is a lot sexier than the porn clip.

Anonymous said...

Funny how I can't see the "legit" clip, but the totally NSFW pr0n one pops right up (so to speak!).

One of the kids from "A Christmas Story" (I think the one who played Flick) grew up to be a porn star, too.

Oh, and my word verification is "jaw art" (space included!), I kid you not.

JMC said...

Scott Schwartz did appear in porn movies for awhile but I think he barely did any actual sex scenes. Maybe you're thinking of Stephen Geoffreys from about the same time, who had a promising acting career playing weird sidekicks (Fright Night, Heaven Help Us) and all of sudden went into hardcore gay porn.

Undercover Black Man said...

Check out Adult Entertainment India (who was part of one of those all black women Trios that came our in the early 90s)...

One of the kids from "A Christmas Story" (I think the one who played Flick) grew up to be a porn star, too.


Francisco and dez, thanks much for those tips!

Undercover Black Man said...

M.Chavez, much thanks to you too.

JMC said...

No prob man, and if you dig deep enough, you see that he finally shook his drug addiction and is trying to mainstream it again.

http://tinyurl.com/84g37a

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/9096

bklyn6 said...

Bklyn6: Her porn name was "Crave."

I had no idea she was in the business.

I think I mentioned John Anthony Bailey in another post. I remember him as C.C. on "The Wonder Bug." But, I also remember that he did porn. (Not that I've seen his work.) According to this he entered the porn industry out of "desperation" because he couldn't find acting jobs.

He died in 1994.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Actually, bklyn6, he's the one who inspired this idea. On YouTube last night, I stumbled upon Bailey's scene from "Kentucky Fried Movie" and wondered whatever became of him.

One thing led to another and, wah-laa!, a new obsessive blogquest is born.

bklyn6 said...

^Wow. Interesting how one thing leads to another. :-)

The internet is funny that way.

bklyn6 said...

Um.... Did I just provide a spoiler? :-/

Undercover Black Man said...

^ No worries!

Anonymous said...

I might like to see a companion series about actors/actresses who successfully transitioned out of porn into mainstream work.

Anonymous said...

@M.Chavez, I was thinking of Schwartz. Had no idea about Geoffreys, though, eep!

Unknown said...

I've been pondering and researching the question on why so many black beautiful American women are getting into porn for a living? I hope the answer is not as banal and facile as "unempolyment"; I'd like to hear their voices as well.


It used to be an assumption that it's ugly, unlovable women that get into porn. But this is patently untrue now. The number of beautiful black women in porn is astonishing.

I would like to know whether have you pondered this question and, as a South African, would like to know your response and perhaps prvide a social matter-of-fact account. Please, less opinion, more fact: I'm not interested in opinion; I'd like to know even the personal feelings of black women porn stars.

For I see so much emotion in what they do; it's unlike a professional porn start who is just going through the motions in order to provide arousal.

And is there a published article on reconised mainastream publications on black porn and its stars? Publications such as Emerge, Newsweek, Time, etc.

We can communicate via my email when you have some answers.