Marilyn Chambers, who created a sensation when she starred in the X-rated movie Behind the Green Door, died Sunday at her Los Angeles home.
The 56-year-old former porn star's real name is Marilyn Ann Taylor, began her onscreen career as an Ivory Snow detergent model.
She was found dead Sunday evening. The L.A. County coroner is examining the cause of death, but a spokesman said foul play is not suspected.
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.
The 1972 porn classic, Behind the Green Door, prompted a run on boxes of Ivory Snow, which featured a photo of Chambers. Chambers said in a 2004 interview with the Montreal Gazette, the scandal produced "a Marilyn Chambers clause in all modeling contracts, saying that you can never have posed topless or nude or been in any kind of adult film or Playboy or anything like that."
She had a bit part in the Barbra Streisand film The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) but remained in adult entertainment after Behind the Green Door, one of the first films to depict interracial sex.
In the film, Chambers had sex with African-American actor Johnny Keyes. Many in the adult entertainment world and viewing public were shocked by the taboo spectacle of a white woman having sex with a black man.
But Chambers also wanted success in mainstream movies, and she starred in Canadian director David Cronenberg’s R-rated 1977 horror movie Rabid.
But non-porn roles were elusive. "I would have loved to move on," she told The Gazette. "I’ve been stigmatized, and it’s something that’s very difficult to get out of."
Reports said the actress was discovered dead in her mobile home by her daughter McKenna.
San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein (now California senator) in the 1980s tried to clean up the strip club scene in the city and Chambers was arrested to widespread publicity while giving a nude performance at a club owned by the the duo who also produced Behind the Green Door.
Chambers was born Marilyn Ann Briggs on April 22, 1952, in Providence and grew up in Westport, Conn.
Chambers also made news when she ran as a vice-presidential candidate for the Personal Choice Party in 2004 and 2008.
The 56-year-old former porn star's real name is Marilyn Ann Taylor, began her onscreen career as an Ivory Snow detergent model.
She was found dead Sunday evening. The L.A. County coroner is examining the cause of death, but a spokesman said foul play is not suspected.
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.
The 1972 porn classic, Behind the Green Door, prompted a run on boxes of Ivory Snow, which featured a photo of Chambers. Chambers said in a 2004 interview with the Montreal Gazette, the scandal produced "a Marilyn Chambers clause in all modeling contracts, saying that you can never have posed topless or nude or been in any kind of adult film or Playboy or anything like that."
She had a bit part in the Barbra Streisand film The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) but remained in adult entertainment after Behind the Green Door, one of the first films to depict interracial sex.
In the film, Chambers had sex with African-American actor Johnny Keyes. Many in the adult entertainment world and viewing public were shocked by the taboo spectacle of a white woman having sex with a black man.
But Chambers also wanted success in mainstream movies, and she starred in Canadian director David Cronenberg’s R-rated 1977 horror movie Rabid.
But non-porn roles were elusive. "I would have loved to move on," she told The Gazette. "I’ve been stigmatized, and it’s something that’s very difficult to get out of."
Reports said the actress was discovered dead in her mobile home by her daughter McKenna.
San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein (now California senator) in the 1980s tried to clean up the strip club scene in the city and Chambers was arrested to widespread publicity while giving a nude performance at a club owned by the the duo who also produced Behind the Green Door.
Chambers was born Marilyn Ann Briggs on April 22, 1952, in Providence and grew up in Westport, Conn.
Chambers also made news when she ran as a vice-presidential candidate for the Personal Choice Party in 2004 and 2008.
