Marilyn Chambers.

Marilyn Chambers arrived on April 22, 1952, in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Westport, Connecticut, in a middle-class household. Her father, William Henry Briggs, was an advertising executive, and her mother, Virginia Richardson, was a nurse. The youngest of three children, she attended Staples High School, where she was a classmate of actress Pamela Sue Martin.

Chambers’s breakout came in 1977 with the lead role of Rose in David Cronenberg’s horror film Rabid, a rare mainstream crossover for an adult film star. She had earlier appeared as an extra in The Owl and the Pussycat 1970 under the alias Evelyn Lang. Her adult film career made her a widely recognized face, but it cost her the Ivory Snow soap box endorsement after the company learned of her film work. She later starred in Angel of H.E.A.T. 1983 and released a disco single Benihana on Roulette Records in 1977. During the 2000s, she appeared in documentaries like The American Nightmare 2000 and Playboy: The Story of X 1998. In 2004, she ventured into politics, running as the Personal Choice Party’s vice presidential candidate and receiving about 0.1% of Utah’s vote.

Chambers married three times: first to Doug Chapin in 1972, then to Chuck Traynor in 1974, and finally to William Taylor, Jr. in 1991. She had one daughter, McKenna Taylor, born when Chambers was 39. In 1976, she performed in a cabaret show titled Le Bellybutton at New York’s Hotel Diplomat. Police arrested her while she performed at a strip club in San Francisco.

Inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame, Marilyn Chambers is also profiled in books like Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema by Jill C. Nelson. Her role in Rabid 1977 is often cited as one of the rare instances where an adult actress transitioned to mainstream horror. She is remembered for that performance and for her Ivory Snow soap box image.