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With the mainstreaming of XXX films, we've seen a lot of adult stars—Sasha Grey, Jenna Jameson, James Deen—surfacing in non-adult movies, often simply for the novelty.
But there are other stories in Hollywood of actors crossing over under different circumstance—whether it be successful screen icons with early-career adult-film-dabblings or child stars who ended up doing the deed on camera just to pay the rent. How did these people get into the X-rated industry, and how did others get out?
Read on for the answers, and more, in this list of 15 mainstream actors who've done adult films.
Stephen Geoffreys
Mainstream credits: Fright Night (1985), At Close Range (1986)
Adult credits: Virtual Stud (1995), Leather after Dark (1996)
Circumstance: Mainstream actor turned adult film star
Geoffreys was a reliable supporting cast member in comedies and horror films of the '80s. And in gay porn, he was similarly reliable, churning out scenes at the industry's typical pace—14 releases in 1997 alone. He also writes short stories, and in 2007, he began his attempted comeback to the mainstream with a role in Sick Girl.
Scott Schwartz
Mainstream credits: The Toy (1982), A Christmas Story (1983)
Adult credits: Scotty's X-Rated Adventure (1996), The Devil in Miss Jones 6 (1999)
Circumstance: Mainstream actor turned adult film star
He was the snotty brat in The Toy and the kid who gets his tongue stuck to the lamppost in A Christmas Story. But for Scott Schwartz, the rest of the '80s was lean times—just a handful of TV appearances on his resumé. Then in 1990, he showed up as the Jester in Beauty and the Beast II, a Paul Thomas-directed porn film, and thus began his decade of decadence.
Accounts say that his roles were all non-sexual, which seems silly. If you're going to besmirch what reputation you have left by doing adult films, you might as well do the sex part, right?
Jaimee Foxworth
Mainstream credits: Family Matters (1989-1993)
Adult credits: Booty Talk 20: Super Fine Sistas! (2000), Chillin' With Jake Steed's Freaks, Whoes & Flows 25 (2001)
Circumstance: Mainstream actress turned adult film star
If Foxworth's story had a tabloid headline, it might be "URKEL MADE ME DO PORN." The actress played Judy Winslow, youngest member of the family at the center of the sitcom Family Matters. But as Jaleel White's uber-annoying Steve Urkel rose in prominence from being a recurring character (in season one) to a regular (season two onward), Judy had less and less to do on the show.
As Urkel-mania was running wild, Foxworth reportedly asked for a raise—bad idea. She did not survive season four; as one account puts it, she "went upstairs and never came back down." In 2000, it was discovered she was starring in adult films under the alias Crave.
Jackie Chan
Mainstream credits: Rush Hour (1998), Shanghai Noon (2000)
Adult credits: All in the Family (1975)
Circumstance: Young actor
In 2006, the news broke: Jackie Chan from Rush Hour did a porno! The actor shrugged it off, admitting that yes, 31 years prior, he had appeared in the Hong Kong-made adult comedy, All in the Family. Hell, Sammo Hung, who entertained audiences from 1998-2000 on Martial Law and has a much pornier name, was in it too.
Simon Rex
Mainstream credits: Jack & Jill (1999-2001), National Lampoon's Pledge This! (2006)
Adult credits: Young, Hard & Solo II (1993), Young, Hard & Solo III (1993)
Circumstance: Adult film star turned mainstream actor
Rex has been many things—MTV VJ, rapper, actor, Paris Hilton associate—but his first taste of showbiz was three solo films aimed at a gay market. Yep, just a 19-year-old dude fapping for cash. The videos don't seem to have hindered his career in the least; to date, he's made a couple dozen films and had roles on several legit TV series.
Jack Baker
Mainstream credits: Happy Days (1975, 1976), Wonderbug (1976-77)
Adult credits: The Devil in Miss Jones 3: A New Beginning (1986), New Wave Hookers (1986)
Circumstance: Mainstream actor turned adult film star
The late Jack Baker, who died in 1994, seemed to be doing perfectly well as a working TV actor in the mid-'70s. He played Sticks the Drummer on a memorable episode of Happy Days, and also appeared on M*A*S*H and The Jeffersons. And a whole generation of children got to know him from the trippy Krofft Super Show, where he played C.C. McNamara in the "Wonderbug" segments, and later on the spinoff Wonderbug series.
His adult film career—we're talking real porn, none of this Skinemax stuff—started with the 1984 releases Hot Chocolate, Coffee & Cream, and Chocolate Candy. Sounds delicious.
Angelique Pettyjohn
Mainstream credits: Clambake (1967), Star Trek (1968)
Adult credits: Body Talk (1982), Stalag 69 (1982)
Circumstance: Mainstrean actress turned adult film star
For geeks, Angelique Pettyjohn is known as the girl from an episode of Star Trek who went on to star in X-rated films. (It was the episode titled "The Gamesters of Triskelion," and she played Shahna, a bodacious alien in a tin-foil bikini.) In truth, she earned a cult following over the course of an eventful career that yes, did include a three-film adult film phase—Titillation, Body Talk, and Stalag 69, all released in 1982.
Post-porn, and before her untimely death from cancer in 1992, she appeared in Repo Man (1984) and Biohazard (1985).
Sylvester Stallone
Mainstream credits: Rocky (1976), Bullet to the Head (2013)
Adult credits: The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970)
Circumstance: Young actor
Stallone has said he was broke and homeless when he did The Party at Kitty and Stud's (later renamed The Italian Stallion), and the $200 he was paid for it kept him from sleeping in a bus station. The film seems to have been softcore in its original version, but in subsequent years, those who wanted to profit from it have billed it as hardcore and even inserted hardcore scenes.
Tom Sizemore
Mainstream credits: Saving Private Ryan (1998), Black Hawk Down (2001)
Adult credits: The website xxxtom.com
Circumstance: Mainstream actor turned self-manufactured adult film star
Tom Sizemore—yes, that is his real name, it just happens to sound like a porn name too—is an esteemed character actor whose personal life has been a well-documented train wreck of drug addiction and legal problems. In 2004, evidently at the end of his rope, he tried to launch a career in homemade adult videos, setting up a website featuring clips of his escapades with women—perhaps hookers, perhaps porn stars, but the consensus of people who viewed the material is that they were rented in some way or another.
Joanie Laurer
Mainstream credits: On the Line (2001), Hunter: Back in Force (2003)
Adult credits: One Night in China (2004), Backdoor to China (2011)
Circumstance: Mainstream actress and wrestler turned adult film star
Spoiler alert: Wrestling is fake. If that rocks your world, sorry, but you had it coming. Chyna was one of the most popular female wrestlers of the late '90s, and landed on the cover of Playboy twice. No, really, she did. Post wrestling, she and wrestler Sean "X-Pac" Waltman sold a sex tape to Vivid, which was released as One Night in China. Her 2011 feature Backdoor to China was a true adult film, filmed with Vivid professionals like Mick Blue and Evan Stone.
Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole
Mainstream credits: A Clockwork Orange (McDowell, 1971), Lawrence of Arabia (O'Toole, 1962), Julius Caesar (Gielgud, 1970), The Queen (Mirren, 2006)
Adult credits: Caligula (1979)
Circumstance: Mainstream film turned adult film, unbeknownst to its famous cast
The story of how these four acclaimed actors ended up in what many consider to be an adult film is really the story of a film production that ran off the rails, with Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse, at the controls. The four actors claim they did not sign up to do a sex flick—nor did any of them have actual sex in the movie—but there's no arguing with the fact that a Guccione-funded film directed by Tinto Brass was going to be, at least, extremely sexy. Brass was fired, original screenwriter Gore Vidal quit, and ultimately the film (four years in the making) was stitched together by Guccione himself with added footage of hardcore lesbian scenes.
The actors claimed to have been shocked at the final product, although you have to think that Malcolm McDowell kinda dug it. To this day, he says that despite its notoriety the film does have its moments.
Adam West
Mainstream credits: Batman TV series (1966-68)
Adult credits: The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980), Young Lady Chatterley II (1985)
Circumstance: Mainstream actor with some racy mid-career credits
Adam West was and will always be the campy TV Batman of the '60s, but a decade after the series ended he was a man without a mission. Why not act in some "non-sex" roles in tasteful Cinemax Friday After Dark fare? His films were extremely tame in comparison to others on this list, but come on—it's Adam West. The creepy voice of Batman interrupts your enjoyment of gratuitous nudity, causing your head to explode.
In today's Age of Irony, of course, Adam West is in high demand, and that creepy voice has earned him cameos in Funny or Die skits and a recurring role on Family Guy.
Marilyn Chambers
Mainstream credits: The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), Together (1971)
Adult credits: Behind the Green Door (1972), Insatiable (1980)
Circumstance: Mainstream actress turned adult film star
Chambers became one of the iconic adult film stars of the '70s and '80s after kick-starting her blue-movie career with Behind the Green Door, but with a couple more breaks she might as well have stayed mainstream. Her modeling credits included the famous Ivory Snow box, and her film, The Owl and the Pussycat, starring Barbra Streisand and George Segal, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy).
Ashlyn Gere
Mainstream credits: Evil Laugh (1986), Creepozoids (1987)
Adult credits: Tailiens 3 (1992), Deep Inside Tyffany Million (1995)
Circumstance: Mainstream actress turned adult film star
After making just a handful of B-grade horror flicks in the mid/late '80s (as Kim McKamy), Gere made the jump into XXX territory, and went on to become one of the most popular stars of the '90s. She was also used as a body double in Basic Instinct (1992) and Indecent Proposal (1993).