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Traci Lords Profile |
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Birth Date: May 7, 1968
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Birth Place: Steubenville, Ohio, USA
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Birth Name: Nora Louise Kuzma
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Height: 5'7"
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Biography |
Traci Elizabeth Lords was born May 7, 1968, in Steubenville,
Ohio, originally named Nora Louise Kuzma. The Traci Lords we
know today, controversy and all, is a combination of Nora's
high school best friend, Traci; the character Katharine
Hepburn played in The Philadelphia Story; and the last name
Lords, after her favorite actor from her favorite show,
Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lords.
Traci moved to Lawndale, California, with her mother and
three sisters, fleeing her alcoholic father. While a student
at Redondo Union High School, she ran away from home at the
age of 15 after having had an abortion. While living with a
man in his 40's, Traci went to Jim South's World Modeling
Agency (for adult movies) with a friend's sister's birth
certificate, which read Kristie Elizabeth Nussman, age 22.
Her "roommate" accompanied her to Jim South's Agency (he
claimed to be her stepfather), and convinced Mr. South that
Traci would soon be a porno movie star, and after Traci
stripped and showed that she was certainly not shy, she was
in.
Her first film was What Gets Me Hot!, in 1984. By the time
she was 18, she had starred in more than 100 porno movies,
such as Open Up Traci, Two Timing Traci, Sex Fifth Avenue,
and Holly Does Hollywood -- each gradually more graphic.
Traci was a porno queen; she was recognized worldwide and
got mobbed wherever she went. But when authorities found out
that she was underage while in these movies, prosecutors
arrested the owners of her porn movie agency and X-citement
Video Inc., and the hundreds of films she appeared in were
deemed illegal and taken off the shelves.
In 1984, Traci posed for a Pent.house centerfold, in the
same issue that ultimately exposed Vanessa Williams, but the
issue is also considered illegal.
The only "Traci" movie that is considered legal is Traci I
Love You, which she sold to a distributor. She may have been
just a porno actress, but Traci was also a businesswoman who
wrote her scripts, and developed Traci Lords Productions
along with her boyfriend at the time. The company produced
movies such as Traci Takes Tokyo and Beverly Hills
Copulator.
Traci left the scene for a while and returned in the late
'80s to do television appearances and B-movies. She appeared
in Wiseguy, Married... With Children and MacGyver, and
movies like 1988's Not Of This Earth (her first mainstream
movie), 1989's Fast Food, 1990's Cry-Baby, 1991's A Time To
Die, Raw Nerve and Laser Moon, and the 1993 made-for-TV
movie The Tommyknockers, based on the Stephen King novel of
the same name.
Among her many roles, the higher profile ones include those
in the films Serial Mom, Virtuosity and Blade; a recurring
role on Melrose Place in 1995; appearances on Roseanne, Nash
Bridges; and a part as herself in D.R.E.A.M. Team (with
Traci Bingham and Angie Everhart).
She apparently lost a role in Francis Ford Coppola's
Dracula, to Sadie Frost, Jude Law's wife.
Traci is also a singer, who has contributed her vocals to
the Manic Street Preachers' Little Baby Nothing, the
Ramones' Somebody to Love, and performed songs for the
movies Virtuosity and Mortal Kombat.
Traci vows that she has changed her ways; she hasn't and
would never sleep around to get a part. She even made
several attempts at marriage, with her failed marriages to
Brook Yeaton and actor Ryan Riel Grainger, and her
engagement to John Enos III, which was broken off before
heading to the altar.
Trying to change her reputation from porn queen to classy
actress may prove to be harder than she thinks -- but at
least she's trying. |
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Other
Information |
"Traci" comes from her girlfriend's name, "Lords" from Jack
Lord ("Hawaii Five-O" (1968)).
Strong supporter of gay rights.
Was the centerfold model for the same issue of Penthouse
Magazine that "exposed" Miss America 1984, Vanessa L.
Williams. Because she was underage, it is illegal to own or
trade that issue unless the pictorial of Ms. Lords is
removed.
Penthouse Pet of the Month - September 1984
Had her name legally changed to Traci Elizabeth Lords.
Husband Jeff Lee is a union ironworker.
Measurements: 34C/D-23-34 (self-described- 1991), (Source:
Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Her father, Louis Kuzma, is a Jewish immigrant from The
Ukraine. Her mother, Patricia Briceland, is of Scandanavian
decent.
Has 1st KYU in Bujinkan Ninjutsu.
She is easily the most successful of former porn stars to
make a transistion to mainstream movies.
She contributed vocals to the Manic Street Preachers song
"Little Baby Nothing," from the Welsh group's "Generation
Terrorists" album in 1992, and released as a single in
November of that year. The song is about the sexual
exploitation of a woman and singer/guitarist James Dean
Bradfield said that "we needed somebody, a symbol, a person
that could actually symbolize the lyrics and justify them to
a certain degree. Traci was more than happy to do it. She
saw the lyrics, and she had an immediate affinity with them.
It was definitely easy to incorporate her personality into
the lyrics. We just wanted a symbol for it, and I think she
was a great symbol." Traci said that "I listened to the tape
and really identified with the character in the song...this
young girl who's been exploited and abused by men all her
life." |
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