Former Porn Icon Lovelace Dead at 53

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/23/2002 at 12:47 PM EDT

Former porn star Linda Boreman, 53, who starred as Linda Lovelace in the 1972 adult film "Deep Throat" and later became a symbol for feminists protesting the exploitation of women in the X-rated film industry, died Monday from injuries she suffered in a car crash, reports the Associated Press. The accident occurred April 3 near Denver, and Boreman was taken to Denver Health Medical Center with massive trauma and internal injuries, hospital spokeswoman Sara Spaulding told AP. She was removed from life support Monday, Spaulding said. Boreman's ex-husband, Larry Marchiano, told the news service that he and their two adult children, ages 25 and 22, were at her side 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." Boreman had claimed in her 1980 autobiography, "Ordeal," that her first husband, Chuck Traymor, forced her at gunpoint into performing in a pornographic film. They divorced in 1973. Boreman had also testified before Congress in the '80s about the life of violence, rape and prostitution she experienced in the world of adult films. Though "Deep Throat" reportedly grossed in the hundreds of millions of dollars, news reports have noted over the years, Boreman claims never to have been paid a penny. Traymor pocketed $1,250, she said.