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| Birth Name(s) : Nora Louise Kuzma |
Date of Birth: May 7, 1968 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
"J" |
| Profession:
Actor/Musician |
Official Site
Go to the Traci Lords Official Homepage |
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Full Traci Lords Biography
Lords is quickly gaining a reputation as television's sci-fi heroine, having co-starred on NBC's "Profiler" and the Sci-Fi Channel's "First Wave." In fact, she is no stranger to television at all, having racked up an impressive run of guest-star appearances on such shows as "Nash Bridges," "Tales from the Crypt," "Wiseguy," and "Married with Children," along with recurring roles on "Melrose Place" and "Roseanne." Her television movie credits include "As Good As Dead" with Judge Reinhold and Crystal Bernard, Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers" starring Jimmy Smits and the HBO original production "Intent To Kill."
Lords has also made quite a name for herself on the silver screen. She co-stars in two feature films coming this winter, "Chump Change" and "City of Masks." Lords' performance in "Chump Change" has already garnered her the Best Actress Award at US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Her critically acclaimed turn as a vampire in the hit sci-fi/horror/action film "Blade," starring Wesley Snipes was a revelation of Lords' versatility. At 18, she began studying at the famed Strasberg Institute and was soon cast in her first feature film, Roger Corman's sci-fi cult hit, "Not of This Earth."
Lords is an Ohio native who resides in Southern California with her two cats: Sweet Pea and Malaki. In her spare time Lords applies the lessons from cooking classes by baking cookies and cakes for her friends and cast mates. In order to work off those calories it helps that Lords is a serious jock who stays fit by running, kayaking and studying Ninjitsu, a form of Ninja street fighting. |
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Additional Traci Lords Biography
Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma on May 7, 1968), also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, director, writer and singer. She first achieved notoriety for her underage appearances in pornographic films and Penthouse magazine (she was around 16 years old in her first film), later becoming a television and B-movie actress.
Nora Louise Kuzma was born in Steubenville, Ohio to Ukrainian-Jews Louis and Patricia Kuzma (née Briceland). Her stage name is said to be in tribute to Katharine Hepburn's character Tracy Lord from The Philadelphia Story or from the first name of her high school best friend Traci; and the last name of her favorite actor from Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord. At twelve she fled from her abusive, alcoholic father to Lawndale, California, with her mother and three sisters. In 1983 she began Redondo Union High School; had an abortion which she paid for by herself; underwent a nervous breakdown; and ran away from home. While living with her mother's ex-boyfriend, who posed as her stepfather, she used a friend's birth certificate to obtain a driver's license indicating that she was twenty-two years of age, and faked her way into the porn industry at the age of fifteen. She started in the porn industry with Jim South at the World Modeling Agency in Sherman Oaks, while assuming the name Kristie Elizabeth Nussman.
Shortly after, she was modeling for widely distributed adult magazines, most notably Penthouse, in the same September 1984 issue that exposed Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams. She quickly ventured into adult movies. Her first movie was "What Gets Me Hot!" followed by "Those Young Girls" and "Talk Dirty To Me Part III", all made in the first half of 1984. Lords' youthful appearance and enthusiastic sexual performances propelled her to stardom. By the time she was 18, Lords had appeared in 100 adult films. Lords argued in her autobiography, however, that approximately 80 of those films were composed from leftover and re-edited footage from the original 20 films that were shot.
Only one of these films, Traci, I Love You, was produced after her eighteenth birthday, making it the only one legally available in the United States. (However, in non-US jurisdictions where the age of consent is lower, as well as over the Internet, her earlier films continue to be distributed.) Later, after her arrest Lords sold her rights to this film for $100,000.
This has led to claims that it was Lords herself who tipped off the authorities to gain immunity from prosecution while profiting from the movie. No proof has ever surfaced to substantiate this claim. Lords denies this notion in her autobiography, and claims that she was reluctant to sell the rights, since at that time she was trying to become a real actress and didn't want any older movie still available. Also, she wrote she knew nothing of people's real names or who produced which film and did not provide such information to the FBI. The FBI agents, "appeared annoyed" when she could not provide the information they wanted. She said that the agents claimed to have monitored her for three years.
Lords moved into mainstream films, and has appeared in a number of B-movies. At 18, Lords began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and soon after, starred in a remake of Roger Corman's cult favorite Not of This Earth. Then in 1990, she was added to the cast that included Johnny Depp, Ricki Lake, and Iggy Pop, in John Waters' Cry-Baby, playing the role of Wanda Woodward. Other movies on her resume include Blade, Extramarital, Black Mask 2: City of Masks, and Chump Change. The latter won her a Best Actress Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
In 2003 she published her autobiography, Traci Lords: Underneath It All (ISBN 0-06-050820-5), which made the New York Times bestseller list. In December 2003, Lords wrote and directed a short film with Fox Searchlab entitled Sweet Pea, released and shown at film festivals in 2005. The film is loosely inspired by an experience recounted in her autobiography; a teenage girl finds herself overcome with doubt after being raped by her boyfriend.
On October 10th, 2007, Lords gave birth to a son, Joseph Gunnar, her first child with husband of five years, Jeff Lee. |
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Traci Lords Quote(s)
| I hate the phrase "former porn queen." That part of my life was a long time ago. Think of something else to call me...I'm successful in spite of my past, not because of it. |
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