Dorothy Le May

Dorothy LeMay's Porn Star Biography

Classic porn star Dorothy LeMay married right out of high school and moved with her husband to San Francisco in 1976. While working at a desk job at the University of California in Berkley in 1977, LeMay answered an ad that read "Make movies, make $300 a day." She answered the ad and was quickly lined up to play a Farrah Fawcett look-alike in a film called A Formal Faucett. The film came out with the tagline, "She's got all the right plumbing!" Unfortunately, the film was not what LeMay expected; her voice had been dubbed over and it didn't make sense. She ran out of the theatre in tears.

Career Woes

Despite her bad first impression, LeMay went on to perform in a few loops for the Swedish Erotica series, as well as some amateur work for Diamond Collection and Pleasure Productions. LeMay has expressed in interviews her feelings regarding loops vs. movies, "I enjoy movies more than loops because movies involve more acting and I have to put more out. Whereas a loop has hardly any story line and it\'s mostly silly if there is one. It\'s just fast sex." She then began doing live sex shows for Alex DeRenzy at the Playpen club in San Francisco, as well as an infamous week working with Annette Haven and performing anal gymnastics at the Mitchell Bros. theatre. "I was sore as hell after the sixth day of that," Lemay confided years later. "I couldn't go on. Annette took this big dildo and stuck it in me, and I said, 'Annette, you have no mercy.'"

Quitting the Biz

LeMay went on to perform in smaller roles in feature films, such as Blonde Fire, Female Athletes, and Sensual Encounters Of Every Kind. But by now LeMay was getting tired of working so hard and not getting any recognition, so she decided to give it a rest. After shooting wrapped on High School Memories, LeMay called it quits. She'd begun dating a gaffer named Ernie whom she met on a movie set and she got herself a vanilla job at ABC Messenger Service in Hollywood. But her relationship with Ernie didn't work out, and LeMay began seeking attention elsewhere. "I had my first lesbian affair because I hated Ernie," she told Adam magazine.

A Spectacular Comeback

Two years later, in 1981, LeMay received a call from Steven Sayadian (aka Rinse Dream) and Jerry Stahl. The two friends had decided to cast LeMay in their upcoming movie, Night Dreams. It was to be a porn movie with a weird, art-house psychological twist and they felt LeMay would be perfect in the role of Mrs. Van Houten. After having been in so many loops and movies without getting much attention for her work, LeMay's performance in Night Dreams was one of the best erotic performances of the decade. The role catapulted her from relative obscurity into porno stardom. She went on to appear in popular movies such as Can\'t Stop Coming, Erotic Fantasies 5, Tales of the Backside, Vista Valley PTA, and Peep Shows: All Lesbian. LeMay was later inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame, an apt recognition of her years of hard work in the industry.