Adult film career

Hartley saw The Autobiography of a Flea (the first adult film directed by a woman, Sharon McNight)[11] alone, at a theater in San Francisco and chose her life work: making porn.[12][13][9]

In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, she started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and later the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.[14][7] She made her foray into the world of pornographic movies during her junior year in 1984. Her debut performance was in the film Educating Nina, making her a protégée of Juliet Anderson.[15]

Explaining how Marie Louise Hartman became Nina Hartley, she stated in an interview that she chose the name "Nina" because it was easy for Japanese tourists to say during the time she was a dancer in San Francisco; "Hartley" was chosen as it was close to her own real last name and because she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person".[7] She stated that when she got into the adult business, she was blessed with two popular fetish items: "big, baby-blue eyes and that round butt with a high, small waist", with her buttocks becoming her trademark.[16]

In the 1980s and early 1990s, she starred in several of the Debbie Does film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991).[17]

For many years, she also toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at adult shops.[17][18]

Sex-positive activism

A long-time board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Hartley considers herself a liberal and an outspoken sex-positive feminist,[19] although for a time she was a socialist activist.[20] Addressing other women, she said, "Sex isn't something men do to you. It isn't something men get out of you. Sex is something you dive into with gusto and like it every bit as much as he does."

Hartley has been an advocate for the adult film industry's right to exist. Before the rise to stardom of Jenna Jameson, she had often been called on when television news programs and talk shows required an articulate, leading adult film actress to support the pro side. The two came under hard scrutiny from the mostly female audience, but they refused to back down and were outspoken in their support of the industry. Ona Zee and she spoke out strongly against illegal drugs in the industry.

She has lectured at several universities such as Harvard, Berkeley and Dartmouth.[18]

Mainstream work

Hartley had a role in the 1997 film Boogie Nights, playing William H. Macy's serially unfaithful wife,[18] and she appeared in the 1996 Canadian film Bubbles Galore.[21] Hartley also appeared in the late rapper Tupac Shakur's music video for his 1996 single, "How Do U Want It?"

Nina Hartley appears in the Amazon Award-winning 2016 documentary Sticky: A (Self) Love Story, in which she discusses her sex-positive views on self-love, with regards to education, the forced resignation of Joycelyn Elders, and her opinions on the blackballing of comedian Paul Reubens after his arrest for masturbating in a public theater.[22][23] Nina Hartley attended a Las Vegas premiere of the documentary at the Erotic Heritage Museum on May 26, 2016, in which she sat on a Q&A panel with the writer/producer/director Nicholas Tana, and adult film actress Ginger Lynn.[24][25]

Later career

In 2006, she published her first book, Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex (ivbro).[26] She later co-authored the book series How to be Kinkier beginning in 2012.[27]

In 2010, she quipped, "Now I work with women who are younger than my breast implants."[28]

Hartley played the part of Hillary Clinton in the film Who's Nailin' Paylin? This was a pornographic parody of then Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with Lisa Ann in the role of Palin.[29][30]

Hartley was also featured in the 2012 documentary After Porn Ends, which is about life after being a porn actor.

As of 2018[update], Hartley remained active in the industry.[14] Appearing primarily in "mature"-themed pornography, in 1994, she began her line of instructional videos which are marketed under the Nina Hartley's Guide brand[18] covering subjects ranging from basic sexual intercourse and foreplay, to anal sex and bondage.[1]

Personal life

Hartley is openly bisexual in her private life.[31] From 1981-2000, Hartley was involved in a relationship with a man and a woman. She married her male partner, George Stama in 1986; their divorce was finalized in 2003.[14]

In 2003, the year her divorce was finalized, she married Ernest Greene, professional name Ira Levine, a director of porn films.[32]

Recognition

AVN Awards

Hartley has won numerous awards throughout her career, from various critic and fan organizations. The following is a list of her Adult Video News Awards:

• 1987 Best Actress - Video for Debbie Duz Dishes[33]
• 1987 Best Couples Sex Scene Film for Amanda By Night II[33]
• 1989 Best Supporting Actress - Film for Portrait of an Affair[34]
• 1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Video for Sensual Escape[34]
• 1991 Best Supporting Actress - Video for The Last X-Rated Movie[35]
• 2005 Best Specialty Tape - BDSM for Nina Hartley's Private Sessions 13[36]
• 2005 Best Specialty Tape - Spanking for Nina Hartley's Guide To Spanking[36]
• 2009 Best Non-Sex Performance for Not Bewitched XXX[37]
• AVN Hall of Fame[38]

XRCO Awards

Hartley has won a number of XRCO Awards:

• 1986 Best Couple Sex Scene for Ball Busters[39]
• 1987 Best Couple Sex Scene for Peeping Tom[39]
• 1987 Torrid Triad Scene for Every Woman Has A Fantasy 2[39]
• 1989 Female Performer Of The Year[39]
• 1990 Best Supporting Actress for My Bare Lady[39]
• 1990 Best Girl-Girl Scene for Sorority Pink[39]
• 1995 Hall of Fame[40]

Other awards and nominations

• 1988 Free Speech Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award - Actress[41]
• 1990 FOXE Female Fan Favorite]][42]
• 1991 FOXE Female Fan Favorite[42]
• 1992 FOXE Female Fan Favorite[42]
• 2006 Ninfa Public - Lifetime Career Award[43]
• 2013 XBIZ Award nomination - MILF Performer of the Year and Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (The Truth About O)[44]
• 2014 Fanny Lifetime Achievement Award[45]

Literature

• Nicolas Barbano: Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner (Rosinante, Denmark 1999) ISBN 87-7357-961-0; features a chapter on her.
• Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Nina Hartley: XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits (Bulfinch, USA 2004) ISBN 0-8212-7754-5. (Features essay and introduction by Nina.)
• Nina Hartley: Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex (Avery, USA 2006) ISBN 1-58333-263-4
• Louis Marvin: The New Goddesses (AF Press, USA 1987): ISBN 0-912442-99-9 (features a chapter on her)
• David McCumber: X-Raxploration of Sex from Celibacy to Polyamory and Everything in Between (2010, New World Library, ISBN 978-1-57731-910-8) features an interview with Hartley
• Morpheous: How to Be Kinkier: More Adventures in Adult Playtime (2012, Green Candy Press, ISBN 1931160945). Introduction written by Hartley.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]