Linda Boreman, 53; Star of ‘Deep Throat’ Became Advocate Against Porn

DENVER —  DENVER -- Linda Boreman, who starred as Linda Lovelace in the 1972 pornographic film “Deep Throat” and later became an anti-pornography advocate, died Monday of injuries she suffered in a car crash early this month. She was 53.

Boreman was taken off life support Monday at Denver Health Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Sara Spaulding said. She was admitted to the hospital April3 with massive trauma and internal injuries.

Boreman’s ex-husband, Larry Marchiano, said he and their two grown children were at the hospital when she died.

“Everyone might know her as something else, but we knew her as Mom and as Linda,” Marchiano said. “We divorced five years ago, but she was still my best friend.”

The family moved to Colorado in 1990. The two divorced in 1996 after 22 years of marriage.

Boreman said her first husband forced her into pornography at gunpoint. They divorced in 1973.

Their relationship disintegrated into a life of violence, rape, prostitution and pornography, according to her 1980 autobiography, “Ordeal,” and her testimony before congressional committees investigating pornography.

Boreman said that she was never paid a penny for “Deep Throat” and that her husband was paid only $1,250, although the film grossed a reported $600 million.

After leaving the industry, Boreman, a native of New York City, traveled the lecture circuit on a crusade against pornography, speaking at colleges and with prominent feminists.

“I look in the mirror and I look the happiest I’ve ever looked in my entire life,” she said in a 1997 interview. “I’m not ashamed of my past or sad about it. And what people might think of me, well, that’s not real. I look in the mirror and I know that I’ve survived.”