Nina Hartley | |
---|---|
Born | March 11, 1959 [4] Berkeley, California, U.S. [5] |
Other names |
|
Education | Berkeley High School San Francisco State University (BSN) |
Spouses | unnamed (m. 1986;div. 2003)Ira Levine (m. 2003) |
Mother | Blanche Hartman |
Relatives | Marge Frantz (aunt) Joseph Gelders (grandfather) Emma Gelders Sterne (great aunt) |
Website | nina |
Marie Louise Hartman (born March 11, 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, [1] [2] [3] is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. [5] [6] By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films. [7] She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom", [8] and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world". [9]
Hartley was born on March 11, 1959, [4] in Berkeley, California, [5] to a Lutheran father, Louis Hartman, and a Jewish mother, Blanche Hartman (née Gelders). [10] [ time needed ] Her grandfather was a University of Alabama physics professor who was a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) party member in the 1930s. [11] Hartley's parents were members of the CPUSA [10] [ time needed ] who converted to Buddhism when she was young. [12] Her father was blacklisted in 1957 for his communist beliefs. [13]
Hartley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, [14] [15] and as a teenager self-identified as a feminist, influenced by the slogan "my body, my rules". [5] [16] [8] After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1977, she attended San Francisco State University's undergraduate nursing school and graduated magna cum laude in 1985, [11] [14] [17] receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. [1] She was a registered nurse [18] [12] until her license expired in 1986. [19]
Hartley sought a career in pornography as a way to make a living by having sex, [5] later telling Las Vegas Weekly , "Porn gave me easy access to women without having to date them or have a relationship." [8] She writes that part of her reason for choosing sex work was to be able to indulge her exhibitionistic and voyeuristic streak. [20] She has said she chose her life's work when she saw the 1976 erotic film The Autobiography of a Flea alone at a theater in San Francisco. [21] [10] [ time needed ]
In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, Hartley started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and then the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. [22] [15] She told an interviewer 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, and "Hartley" because it was close to her own last name, and she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person." [15]
Her pornographic film debut was in Educating Nina (1984), [5] [23] where she was cast and directed by fellow performer Juliet Anderson. [22] [24] [25] For many years, she toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at sex shops. [26] [27] In 2013 she described her father's reaction upon learning about her occupation:
He asked, 'Why sex? Why not the violin?' I know now that I'm sexual the way that Mozart was musical [...] a life of public sexuality has, from my very first time on stage, been as natural to me as breathing." [16]
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Hartley starred in several of the Debbie Does Dallas film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991). [26] In 1992, she directed her first movie, Nina Hartley's Book of Love. [28] She also produced and starred in a series of sex education videos for Adam & Eve. [29] In 1994, she began her line of instructional videos marketed under the Nina Hartley's Guide brand. [27]
She played the part of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 satirical pornographic film Who's Nailin' Paylin? , [13] with Lisa Ann in the role of Sarah Palin. [30] As of 2015 [update] , she was still actively performing, [22] and by 2017 had appeared in more than one thousand pornographic films. [7] She has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the best-known actresses in the industry" [24] and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world". [9]
Hartley acted in the 1996 Canadian film Bubbles Galore [31] and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show . [9] In the 1997 film Boogie Nights , she played William H. Macy's character's serially unfaithful wife who is murdered. [14] [27] She later remarked, "The only movie I ever died in for having sex was a mainstream movie." [14]
Hartley has appeared in several documentary films: she was interviewed in The Naked Feminist (2003) [32] [33] was featured in After Porn Ends (2012), and appears in Sticky: A (Self) Love Story (2016), [34] in which she discusses masturbation 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.[ citation needed ]
Las Vegas Weekly has described Hartley as an "outspoken feminist, sex educator and advocate for sexual freedom" and "a guiding force for a generation of feminist porn stars". [5] [8] She has described herself both as a "classical liberal feminist" [35] [36] and a democratic socialist. [13] Hartley began engaging in feminist activism in the 1980s. [37] She has said:
Based on my experience as a woman and a sexual being, and my understanding that I had the right to decide for myself what to do with my life –that’s what I understood to be feminist, to give everybody choices –I didn’t choose to be a mother but I chose this [porn] because it suits me. [38]
Hartley has also been involved in socialist activism [39] and has also been affiliated with the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), a labor union founded in 2014 for pornographic film actors. [13]
Hartley was elected to the board of the Free Speech Coalition in 1995, [40] and is a long-time board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation (founded in 2003). [41] She has made frequent appearances at academic conferences, workshops, and in the media to promote sex positivity. [42] She has given lectures at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and the University of California. [3] [41]
In 2006, Hartley co-authored Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex with her husband Ira Levine. The book includes sections on sex toys, swinging, threesomes, dominance and submission, and erotic spanking. [14] Library Journal called the book a "well-written guide" that is "strong on both safe sex and a permissive approach", saying Hartley "handles the material frankly, accurately, and with sensitivity". [14]
Hartley is a self-described bisexual, swinger, and exhibitionist. [8] [11] [43] She married her first husband, a former Students for a Democratic Society leader, [11] in a three-way marriage with a second woman in 1986. [22] She describes the relationship as a "very unhappy marriage" to "someone who was not a good candidate for mating with a sex worker". [44]
Following her divorce in 2003, [22] Hartley married Ira Levine, known professionally as Ernest Greene, [44] a director of bondage films and editor of Hustler's Taboo magazine, with whom she had had a secret relationship in the 1980s. [45] They are openly polyamorous. [44] [45] As of 2014, the couple lives in Los Angeles. [45]
Hartley has received eight Adult Video News Awards, [2] including:
Category | Video/Film |
---|---|
1986 Best Couples Sex Scene - Film | Ten Little Maidens |
1987 Best Actress - Video | Debbie Duz Dishes [46] |
1989 Best Supporting Actress - Film | Portrait of an Affair [47] |
1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Film | Amanda By Night II [46] |
1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Video | Sensual Escape [47] |
1991 Best Supporting Actress - Video | The Last X-Rated Movie [48] |
2000 Best Group Sex Scene - Video | Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women [49] |
2005 Best Specialty Tape - BDSM | Nina Hartley's Private Sessions 13 [50] |
2005 Best Specialty Tape | Spanking for Nina Hartley's Guide to Spanking [50] |
2009 Best Non-Sex Performance | Not Bewitched XXX [51] |
AVN Hall of Fame [52] |
Hartley has won a number of XRCO Awards:
Year | Category | Video/Film |
---|---|---|
1986 | Best Couple Sex Scene | Ball Busters [53] |
1987 | Best Couple Sex Scene | Peeping Tom [53] |
1987 | Torrid Triad Scene | Every Woman Has a Fantasy 2 [53] |
1989 | Female Performer of the Year [53] | – |
1990 | Best Supporting Actress | My Bare Lady [53] |
1990 | Best Girl-Girl Scene | Sorority Pink [53] |
1996 | Hall of Fame [54] | |
2000 | Best Group Scene | Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women [55] |
Year | Organization | Category |
---|---|---|
1988 | Free Speech Coalition | Lifetime Achievement Award [56] |
1990 | FOXE | Female Fan Favorite [57] |
1991 | FOXE | Female Fan Favorite [57] |
1992 | FOXE | Female Fan Favorite [57] |
1994 | Legends of Erotica | Hall of Fame [58] |
1996 | Hot d'Or | Lifetime Achievement Award [59] |
2005 | AEBN VOD Award | Lifetime Achievement Award [60] |
2006 | Ninfa Public | Lifetime Career Award [61] |
2014 | Exxxotica Fan Choice Awards | Fanny Lifetime Achievement Award [62] |
2019 | XBIZ Award | Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Future Darkly: Artifamily) [63] |
2020 | XBIZ Award | Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Girls of Wrestling) [64] |
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