{{Short description|American pornographic actress}} {{Infobox adult biography | name = Jennifer Welles | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1937|3|15|mf=y}} | birth_place = New Jersey, United States<ref name="rialto"/><ref name="Obits2018">{{cite book |last1=III |first1=Harris M. Lentz |title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2018 |date=2019 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-7033-1 |page=398 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfWaDwAAQBAJ&q=jennifer+welles+obituary&pg=PT412 |accessdate=23 December 2019 |language=en}}</ref> | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|6|26|1937|3|15|mf=y}}<ref name="Obits2018"/> | death_place = Arizona, United States<ref name="Obits2018"/> | spouse = | height = {{height|ft=5|in=2|precision=2}}<ref name="rialto"/> | other_names = Lisa Duran<ref name="jwimdb" /> | website = }}
'''Jennifer Welles''' (March 15, 1937 – June 26, 2018<ref name="rialtodeath">{{cite web|url=https://www.therialtoreport.com/2018/07/01/jennifer-welles/ |title=The Rialto Report: "R.I.P. Jennifer Welles (1937–2018)"|date=July 2018|accessdate=1 July 2018}}</ref>) was an American former pornographic actress in films of the 1970s, although she began her acting career in the late 1960s in the softcore sexploitation genre films produced in New York. Some of these include: ''Sex by Advertisement'' (1967), ''Career Bed'', ''Submission'', and ''This Sporting House'', by pornographic film director Henri Pachard (all from 1969).<ref name="jwimdb">{{IMDb name|id=0919933}}</ref>
==Early life== Welles grew up in Paterson, New Jersey where she attended a parochial elementary school.<ref name="NYDN">{{cite news |last1=Chadwick |first1=Bruce |title=Jennifer will play it straight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29893922/ |accessdate=27 March 2019 |work=New York Daily News |date=31 August 1976}}</ref>
==Career== She began her career in entertainment at age 15 for a touring dance production, telling the company she was 21.<ref name="APP">{{cite news |last1=Giase |first1=John |title=Porno Star Brings Act to Empress |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29894650/ |accessdate=27 March 2019 |publisher=Asbury Park Press |date=7 August 1976}}</ref> She worked in a variety of areas such as a chorus line member, magician's assistant, jazz singer and nightclub performer.<ref name="APP"/><ref name="NYDN"/> Later, she worked as a stripper.<ref name="NYDNApril1976">{{cite news |last1=Gentile |first1=Don |title=Lights, Camera & Lots of Action |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30823109/ |accessdate=23 April 2019 |work=New York Daily News |date=1 April 1976}}</ref>
In the 1960s she studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse.<ref name="Obits2018"/> After many years of appearing in numerous R-rated films such as ''The Groove Tube'' and ''The Female Response'', she made her first hardcore film, ''Honeypie'', in 1975.<ref name="APP"/>
Welles was also a fetish magazine model for such magazines as ''Bizarre'' while using the stage name "Lisa Duran".{{citation needed|date=September 2014}}
Welles appeared in many films, the best known being ''Inside Jennifer Welles'' (1977), which she is also credited with having directed (although the film was actually anonymously directed by sex-exploitation veteran Joseph W. Sarno).<ref name="rialto">{{cite web|url=https://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/03/17/podcast-03-jennifer-welles-the-lady-vanishes/ |title=The Rialto Report: "Jennifer Welles: The Lady Vanishes"|date=18 March 2013|accessdate=10 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|people=Wiktor Ericsson (director)|year=2013|title=''A Life in Dirty Movies''|medium=Motion picture|url=https://www.sarnosthefilm.com/ |accessdate=16 January 2016|archiveurl= |archivedate= |publisher=Anagram Produktion|isbn= |oclc= }}</ref>
She lectured at several schools such as the University of Maryland and Stony Brook University.<ref name="NYDN"/><ref name="NYDNApril1976"/>
==Awards== Welles won the Erotica Award for Best Actress in 1977 for the film ''Little Orphan Sammy'',<ref name="LAT">{{cite news |last1=Knoedelseder |first1=William K. Jr.|title=Erotic Film Awards Presented |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30686573/ |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=16 July 1977}}</ref> and she was the editor of ''Eros, The Magazine of Decadent Sophistication'' in that same year.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} She became a member of the AVN Hall of Fame in 1996.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rame.net/faq/avn/1995.html|title=Adult Video News Award Winners - 1995|accessdate=10 September 2014|archive-date=6 December 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981206121829/http://www.rame.net/faq/avn/1995.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Personal life== Jennifer Welles left the industry abruptly in 1977<ref name="CCA">{{cite news |title=Question you Didn't Ask |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29955987/ |accessdate=27 March 2019 |publisher=Carlsbad Current-Argus |date=28 August 1977}}</ref> after she married a wealthy fan.<ref name="rialto" /> Divorcing several years later, she spent her days raising horses and rescuing dogs that had been abandoned or abused. Welles died in Arizona on June 26, 2018, at age 81.
==See also== * Golden Age of Porn
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Portal|Erotica and pornography|Biography}} * {{IMDb name|0919933|Jennifer Welles}} * {{iafd name|id=JWelles|gender=female|name=Jennifer Welles}} * {{afdb name|id=13919|gender=female|name=Jennifer Welles}} * [https://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/03/17/podcast-03-jennifer-welles-the-lady-vanishes/ Audio interview with Jennifer Welles] at [http://www.therialtoreport.com/ The Rialto Report]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Welles, Jennifer}} Category:1937 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American female adult models Category:American female erotic dancers Category:American pornographic film actresses Category:Nightclub performers Category:21st-century American women Category:Actresses from Paterson, New Jersey