Early life and career

Mitchell was adopted into a single-child family, raised Catholic, and briefly married at age 17 before she was an Off-Broadway actress and dancer who claims to have toured with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Then, in the mid-1970s, she became an adult actress.

During her 20-year career in adult films, she appeared in over 600 movies, including Barbara Broadcast, and directed 29 movies. During her years in the industry, Mitchell admits to being a heroin addict for sixteen of them. Mitchell also contracted herpes, chlamydia, hepatitis, and trichomoniasis. Mitchell worked with Golden Age production companies such as AVC, Caballero Home Video, Essex Video, Gourmet Video Collection, Leisure Time Entertainment, VCA Pictures, VCX, and the Zane Entertainment Group as well as contemporary studios such as Vivid Entertainment. Roughly a quarter of her appearances were non-sex roles.

In March 1996, after a male stalker who was obsessed with her porn films assaulted, raped, and nearly killed her, Mitchell quit drugs and went back to school.

Current career

After kicking her drug habit and ending her adult entertainment career, Mitchell obtained an MA and a PhD from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

In 1998, she founded the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), 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. In 2011, a security breach led to over 12,000 adult performers' personal information being released publicly. A privacy breach lawsuit was filed against the institute, and they closed their doors in May 2011. Oversight of the protocol was assumed by the Free Speech Coalition.

Awards

Mitchell is a member of the AVN Awards Hall of Fame, Legends of Erotica (since 1994), and XRCO Hall of Fame (since 1988).

• 1982 CAFA - Best Supporting Actress for Blue Jeans (tied with Lisa De Leeuw)
• 1983 CAFA - Best Actress for Sexcapades
• 1983 CAFA - Best Supporting Actress for Night Hunger
• 1984 AVN - Best Actress, Film for Sexcapades
• 2001 Hot d'Or d’honneur recipient
• 2008 XBIZ - Lifetime Achievement-Industry Contribution

[ Source: Wikipedia ]