Aja (actress)

Aja
Born (1963-07-14)July 14, 1963[1]
Tampa, Florida, U.S.[1]
Died September 18, 2006(2006-09-18) (aged 43)
Mexico
Other names Barbara Cunningham[1]
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[1]

Aja (July 14, 1963 – September 18, 2006) was the stage name of an American pornographic actress, adult film director, and exotic dancer.

Career

Aja starred in director John Leslie's Adult Video News' Best Video of the Year award-winning Mad Love (1988) in a scene described as "notably [...] surreal" by author and Ohio University Telecommunications graduate studies director Joseph W. Slade.[2] AVN later declared the film one of the 500 best of all time, also describing Aja's scene as "strange"; she starred in two others among their 500 best, Alex deRenzy's Ghostess with the Mostess and Paul Thomas' The Naked Stranger, [3] all in her first year as a performer, winning AVN's "Best New Starlet" in 1989.

In 1990, she starred in director Sharon Kane's Stairway to Paradise, a film that was the subject of a study by University of California, Los Angeles professor of psychiatry and human sexual relations specialist Robert Stoller. In casting the film, writer Jim Holliday "wanted Aja in the worst way and Sharon agreed. Aja is very box-officeable."[4]

According to the Internet Adult Film Database Aja stopped filming new scenes in the early 2000s, though videos that feature her performances continue to be released through 2014.[1]

Appearances

On September 16, 1992, she was one of four porn performers participating in the Porn-AM Golf Tournament in Denver, Colorado, which was organized by J. R. Wolfe as a benefit for the Adult Film and Video Association of America's recently formed Free Speech Legal Defense Fund.[5]

In 1994, Carnal Comics published a comic book rendition of her biography and how she became a porn performer, which was reprinted three times.[6][7]

Death

Aja was reported to have died in Mexico on September 18, 2006.[8]

Awards

Notes

  • Ramone, Mike; Tim Connelly, eds. (2006). The AVN Guide to the 500 Greatest Adult Films of All Time. NY: Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 978-1-56025-719-6.
  • Slade, Joseph W. (July 1997). "Flesh Need Not be Mute: The Pornographic Videos of John Leslie". Wide Angle. 19 (3): 115–148. doi:10.1353/wan.1997.0015. ISSN 0160-6840.
  • Stoller, Robert J.; I.S. Levine (1993). Coming Attractions: The Making of an X-Rated Video. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-05654-9.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Aja". IAFD. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
  2. ↑ Slade 1997, p. 119.
  3. ↑ Ramone 2006, pp. 137, 195, 212.
  4. ↑ Stoller 1993, p. 81.
  5. ↑ Husted, Bill (August 7, 1992). "Porn Stars to Tee it Up". Rocky Mountain News.
  6. ↑ Carnal Comics - True Stories of Adult Film Stars
  7. ↑ Sanford, Jay Allen (September 8, 2007). "Carnal Comics - the Inside Story". San Diego Reader.
  8. ↑ http://obituaries.pressherald.com/obituaries/mainetoday-pressherald/obituary.aspx?pid=19647881
  9. ↑ "AVN Awards Past Winners". AVN.com. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Winners of XRCO Awards 1989".
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