Brenda Venus | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Brenda Venus | |
| Born | November 10 1947 |
| Other names | Brenda Gabrielle Venus |
| Occupation(s) | model, writer, actress, filmmaker |
| Years active | 1967–2010 |
Brenda Venus is an American model, writer, actress, and filmmaker. [2]
Brenda Venus | |
|---|---|
| Portrait of Brenda Venus | |
| Born | November 10 1947 |
| Other names | Brenda Gabrielle Venus |
| Occupation(s) | model, writer, actress, filmmaker |
| Years active | 1967–2010 |
Brenda Venus is an American model, writer, actress, and filmmaker. [2]
Brenda Gabrielle Venus was born on November 10, 1947, in Biloxi, Mississippi. Venus is of Spanish descent and Sicilian ancestry. [3]
Venus is the author of Secrets of Seduction [4] and Secrets of Seduction for Women [5] [6] and a 2012 novella titled "Twelve Hours". [7] Her books have been translated into 37 languages. [8] Publishers William Morrow and E.P. Dutton sent her on a worldwide publicity tour [9] [10] making various appearances on TV, [11] [12] radio [13] and press interviews. For over six years, starting in 1998, Venus wrote a popular column for Playboy magazine called "Centerfolds on Sex." [14] She also produced, directed, shot and narrated the documentary film Love and Sex in LA with seven Playboy Centerfolds and up-coming actors in LA.
When Venus was a college student, she purchased at auction a book that contained an envelope with the address of famed writer Henry Miller. Venus wrote to Miller and they became pen pals. Eventually Miller became her mentor and Brenda his muse. [15] Miller wrote 1,500 letters that were collected into the 1986 book Dear, Dear Brenda – The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus. [16] [17] [18]
Miller's long-time friend and confidant, fellow novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell wrote in the introduction to Miller's book Dear, Dear Brenda that: "The role of Brenda Venus will keep its interest and importance also as a memorial of his last great attachment--an Ariel to his Prospero... She enabled him to dominate his infirmities and to experience all the Joys of Paradise." [19]
According to writer Ed Millis, "Venus was a source of inspiration to the aging and ailing Miller. Brenda was all of 24 years of age, Henry was 84. She was a beautiful Southern belle, "The Boticelli of Mississippi"—he called her. Henry, the renegade intellectual, the writer, had taken millions of us to the sexy Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn . Now he was sick and slowly recuperating. He needed a lift in spirits... Brenda the Muse breathed life into her mortal charge and gave him reason to live. Miller gave her focus and fine tuning and wrote Venus over 1,500 letters which amounted to four-thousand hand-written pages. She responded in kind for over four years—the last four years of his life. " [20]
Venus appeared in the Clint Eastwood film The Eiger Sanction and several other films. She also appeared as a host/narrator in Love & Sex in LA .
Her movie appearances include:
| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Night Fright | 1967 | Sue | |
| An Eye for an Eye | 1973 | Joanie | |
| Foxy Brown | 1974 | Jennifer | |
| The Eiger Sanction | 1975 | George | |
| The Legend of Valentino | 1975 | Constance Carr | TV movie |
| Against a Crooked Sky | 1975 | Ashkea | |
| Swashbuckler | 1976 | Bath Attendant | |
| Joshua | 1976 | Sam's Wife | |
| FM | 1978 | Dolores Deluxe | |
| Deathsport | 1978 | Adriann | |
| 48 Hrs. | 1982 | Hooker | |
| The Avenging | 1982 | Juanita Quintana | (final film role) |
Venus, a play about her life, [21] featured Olympic Gold Medalist Svetlana Khorkina in the title role. The cast also included members of the Bolshoi Ballet . [1] [22]
Brenda has been the subject of several artists besides Henry Miller, including painter Harold Frank, [23] photographer Ken Marcus, and former boxer Gary Dobry. [24]
In the spring of 1997, Venus posed for a celebrity nude pictorial in Playboy Magazine. [25]
She also appeared in Playboy in July 1986. [26] According to the Playboy website:
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the daughter of the composer Joaquín Nin and the classically trained singer Rosa Culmell. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about sixteen years in Paris (1924–1940), and the remaining half of her life in the United States, where she became an established author.
Playboy is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, which are based on his experiences in New York City and Paris. He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors.
Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOTM). The PMOTM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Playmate Data Sheet", which lists her birthdate, measurements, turn-ons, and turn-offs. At the end of the year, one of the 12 Playmates of the Month is named Playmate of the Year (PMOTY). Every Playmate of the Month is awarded a prize of US$25,000 and each Playmate of the Year receives an additional prize of US$100,000 plus a car and other discretionary gifts. In addition, Anniversary Playmates are usually chosen to celebrate a milestone year of the magazine. The use of the word "Playmate" in a sexual sense did not originate with Playboy, and was seen at least as early as 1950 in Vue magazine.
Marianne Gravatte is an American model and actress. She was chosen as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for the October 1982 issue, then as the 1983 Playmate of the Year. Her original pictorial was photographed by Richard Fegley.
Anulka Maria Dziubinska is an English actress and model. She was featured as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in May 1973.
The Venus Butterfly is a term used for various sexual techniques, one of which was the subject of the 1988 book The One Hour Orgasm. It was first publicly mentioned in a 1986 episode of the American television drama L.A. Law. However, a technique of the same name appears in the book The Sensuous Woman, which was first published in 1969.
Cynthia Heimel was an American feminist humorist writer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a columnist and foremost the author of satirical books known for their unusual titles, aimed at a female readership, as well as a playwright and television writer.
Anne Marie Rodgers is an American writer of romance novels as Anne Marie Winston. Many of her novels have appeared on the USA Today Bestseller lists and she has served as both vice-president and retreat chairman of the Washington Romance Writers.
Susan Braudy is an American author and journalist.
ISBN9780525936015.
ISBN9780525941033.
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