Sharon Mitchell

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For the EastEnders character, see Sharon Watts.
Sharon Mitchell
Born (1956-01-18) January 18, 1956
New Jersey, United States
Ethnicity Caucasian
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
No. of adult films 512 films and 29 as director (IAFD)

Sharon Mitchell (born January 18, 1956) is a former erotic actress, with a pornography career spanning over two decades. In 1998 she founded the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which tested hundreds of adult film performers per month before a 2011 lawsuit led to the clinic's closure.

Adult film career

An adopted only child, raised Catholic, and briefly married at age 17, she was an Off-Broadway actress and dancer who toured with the Martha Graham company, before becoming an adult actress in the mid-1970s.[1]

During her career in hardcore adult films, she appeared in over 200 movies and directed 38. She made many appearances as a bondage model in underground magazines and, in the 1990s, made the transition from sex films to bondage and S&M videos, nearly always playing the role of a dominatrix.

She is a member of the AVN Awards Hall of Fame,[2] Legends of Erotica[3] and XRCO Hall of Fame.[4]

As an erotic performer, Mitchell was a soft butch lesbian. She also performed sex scenes with men (often as part of a bisexual threesome with another female performer), but this was usually in her early career. She contracted herpes, chlamydia and trichomoniasis during her career.[5]

During her adult work, Mitchell was addicted to heroin for nearly two decades,[1] a condition she eventually overcame. She contracted hepatitis from needle use.[5] She subsequently referred to her 16-year addiction to heroin as her "blackout years."[6]

Mitchell had a relationship with production assistant and adult actress Tigr Mennett that was the basis of the 1986 movie Kamikaze Hearts.[7]

On March 30, 1996, she was attacked and raped by a stalker who almost killed her. After that incident, she briefly left the sex industry, only to return to make sporadic appearances until retiring permanently in 2003,[1] and earned a Ph.D. from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.[8] She was the Director of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which she established in 1998 until it closed its doors in May 2011.

Sharon Mitchell is one of twenty-five women of the golden era of adult films featured in the 2012 book, by author Jill C. Nelson, entitled: Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985, published by BearManor Media.[9]

Awards

  • 1982 CAFA Best Supporting Actress for Blue Jeans (Tied with Lisa De Leeuw)[10]
  • 1983 CAFA Best Actress for Sexcapades[10]
  • 1983 CAFA Best Supporting Actress for Night Hunger[10]
  • 1984 AVN Best Actress – Film for Sexcapades[11]
  • 2008 XBIZ Award Lifetime Achievement-Industry Contribution [12]

Partial filmography

Partial list of magazine appearances

  • 1990: Tight Ropes 2/04 (House of Milan|HOM)
  • 1991: Motorcycle Mistress Mamas #1 (Lyndon Distributors Limited|LDL)
  • 1991: Special Request #2 (HOM)
  • 1992: Boss Bitch in Bondage #1 (LDL)
  • 1992: The Taming of June Bauer #1" (LDL)
  • 1994: Punished (bondage magazine)|Punished 3/10 (HOM)
  • 1995: Tied & Tickled 2/009

Sex worker health work

After the end of her adult career, Mitchell obtained a degree in human sexuality from the San Francisco-based Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.[13]

In 1998, she founded the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, an organization which provided information and STD testing to workers in adult entertainment. As of 2004, they were testing 1,200 adult performers a month.[14] In 2011, a security breach led to over 12,000 adult performers' personal information being released publicly.[15] A privacy breach lawsuit was filed against the institute and they closed their doors in May, 2011.[16]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Nick Madigan (2004-05-10). "Voice of Health in a Pornographic World". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-02-26. 
  2. ↑ "Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
  3. ↑ "Legends of Erotica,". Retrieved 2007-12-30. 
  4. ↑ "XRCO Hall of Fame". Retrieved 2007-12-30. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Sharon Mitchell Chat at Court TV Online". courttv.com. 2001-07-30. Retrieved 2007-11-14. 
  6. ↑ "Sharon Mitchell Chat at Adult DVD Talk". adultdvdtalk.com. 2000-08-23. Retrieved 2007-02-26. 
  7. ↑ Bio at lukeisback.com
  8. ↑ Simon, Scott. "Promoting Healthcare for the Porn Industry." National Public Radio. December 8, 2007. Accessed 2010-06-19.
  9. ↑ by Jill C. Nelson. Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985 (First edition ed.). BearManor Media. ISBN 9781593932985. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "rame awards list". Retrieved 2007-12-30. 
  11. ↑ "AVN Awards Past Winners". p. 1984. Archived from the original on 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
  12. ↑ XBIZ Award Winners, XBIZ, February, 2011
  13. ↑ AVN – Introducing Doctor Sharon Mitchell. Business.avn.com (2004-01-27). Retrieved on 2011-10-19.
  14. ↑ Madigan, Nick (2004-05-10). "Voice of Health in a Pornographic World". The New York Times. 
  15. ↑ Katz, Lyla. (2011-02-04) AIM Healthcare Reopens Under New Name, Status. XBIZ.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-19.
  16. ↑ Pardon, Rhett. (2011-05-03) AIM Clinic Closes; FSC Responds. XBIZ.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-19.

External links

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