Linda Lovelace (born Linda Susan Boreman; January 10, 1949 – April 22, 2002) was an American female pornographic actress. Born in New York City to a working-class family, she faced an unhappy upbringing with a domineering mother and absent father, attended Catholic schools, and moved to Florida at 16. At 20, she gave birth out of wedlock and placed the child for adoption, later suffering a car crash that led to hepatitis from unscreened blood, requiring a liver transplant in 1987.
Coerced by abusive husband Chuck Traynor (married 1971–1975), whom she accused of forcing her into pornography at gunpoint, including a gang rape, she entered the adult industry. She starred in early loops like Dogarama (1969, later denied but confirmed) and Piss Orgy (1971), gaining fame with Deep Throat (1972), which grossed over $600 million, though she received only $1,250 confiscated by Traynor. She appeared in sequels like Deep Throat II (1974) and Linda Lovelace for President (1975).
Married Larry Marchiano (1976–1996), she had three children and left porn in the mid-1970s amid drug use. In 1980, her autobiography Ordeal exposed Traynor's violence and coercion, stating, "if you watch the movie, you are watching me get raped." Becoming a born-again Christian, she joined the anti-pornography movement, publishing Out of Bondage (1986) and testifying at the 1986 Meese Commission.
In later years, she did media like an E! True Hollywood Story (2001) and a lingerie pictorial. She died at 53 from injuries in a 2002 car accident in Denver, Colorado.