A Brief History
On October 17 or 18, 2012, Sylvia Kristel, the first soft-core adult film star, died at age 60. A lifelong smoker of cigarettes, she had developed throat and lung cancer that was detected in 2001 and treated with chemotherapy and surgery. She passed away in her sleep a few months after suffering a stroke.
Digging Deeper
Sylvia Maria Kristel (her real name) was born in Ultrecht in the Netherlands in 1952. She claimed her first sexual experience was at age 9 and began modeling when she was 17. A beautiful young woman, Kristel won the Miss TV Europe beauty contest in 1973 and parlayed that fame into the title role of the French soft-core adult film Emmanuelle (1974). Both the film and Kristel experienced success in Europe and the U.S., and Kristel went on to play the role of Emmanuelle in 4 of the 7 Emmanuelle films.
Her movie roles were ones that capitalized on her beauty and sex appeal, and she mostly portrayed unabashedly sexual women. She starred in 50 films, some of the more notable being Lady Chatterley‘s Lover (1981), Mata Hari (1985), Private Lessons (1981) and The Nude Bomb (1980, a big screen adaptation of the Get Smart television show).
In tribute to her sexy, nude acting roles, she titled her 2006 autobiography Nue (French for “nude”). In English, the book was titled Undressing Emmanuelle: A Memoir. Her autobiography addressed her problems with drugs and alcohol and showcased her love life that frequently featured older men, perhaps a search for the father who left the family when she was 14.
Among her lovers was Ian McShane, an actor 10 years her senior, with whom she maintained a relationship for 5 years.
History and Headlines Note: Ian McShane played Al Swearengen on the HBO series Deadwood and was the voice of Tai Lung in the movie Kung Fu Panda. He also played Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Kristel was married 3 times and bore one child during her first marriage. Like her love life, her financial situation did not fare well. In addition to being paid far less than she was worth, she also made some bad financial decisions and blew a lot of her money on cocaine. A 2006 documentary, Hunting Emmanuelle, detailed some of these problems.
Booze, drugs and especially a lifetime of unfiltered cigarettes did this Dutch beauty in, but like all idols of the silver screen, she lives on in her movies which you can still see on premium cable movie channels from time to time.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Can pornography be considered tasteful?
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Arcelin, Jean and Sylvia Kristel. Nue (Documents) (French Edition). CHERCHE MIDI, 2006.
Jaeckin, Just, dir. Emmanuelle. Lions Gate, 2007.
Kristel, Sylvia. Undressing Emmanuelle: A Life Stripped Bare. HarperCollins UK, 2008.
