| Linda Wong | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 13, 1951 San Francisco, California, USA |
| Died | December 17, 1987 (aged 36) |
| Other names | Sandy Stram, Linda Chang, Linda Wong |
| Ethnicity | Chinese |
| No. of adult films | 48 (per IAFD) |
Linda Wong (September 13, 1951 – December 17, 1987) was a pornographic actress and one of the first Asians to become a star in the adult film industry.[1] In 1998, Wong was added to XRCO Hall of Fame.[2]
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Linda Wong was born in Hawaii and raised in San Francisco (first in Mill Valley and later in San Bruno). She lived in Richmond, California, and graduated in 1969 from J.F.K. High School in Richmond. Shortly after graduation Linda married and her last name became "Ching". Linda herself was Japanese, not Chinese. After a few years, she divorced but kept her married surname. Linda worked for short period of time as a teller for Sumitomo Bank and as a receptionist for Melvin Belli. She then started to dance on Broadway. She first broke into the adult-film business in 1976 with Oriental Babysitter and Jade Pussycat, in which she co-starred with Georgina Spelvin and John Holmes.
According to Playboy's October 1977 pictorial "Ladies of Joy" and Playboy's 1980 Girls of Playboy 4, she worked as a legal prostitute in Las Vegas for a short time under the name "Linda Ching".
Appearing in adult films disturbed Wong. She once said, "I was never viewed as a human being. The greatest compliment that anyone has given me is that 'Linda, you're a nice person.' Most people, right off the bat, assume that I am a piece of meat, a porno star, a floozy." (AVN)
In 1981 she decided to retire, although a story circulating at the time said that her then-boyfriend gave her an ultimatum to leave the business or he would leave her. She returned four years later to star in The Erotic World of Linda Wong. She was planning yet another comeback in 1987 when she died of a drug overdose.[3]
At the time of her death, she was out on bond and awaiting trial on charges stemming from an attempt to buy codeine with a forged prescription. She faced a prison sentence of more than a year. She died of an overdose resulting from Xanax, chloral hydrate and alcohol.