Candida Royalle

Royalle was born on October 15, 1950, in New York City as Candice Marion Vadala.[3] Initially trained in music, dance, and art in New York City, with studies at the High School of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design and the City University of New York.[4]

After graduating from Parsons School of Design, she began performing with the avant-garde theater group The Cockettes and in 1975 played Divine's daughter in the play The Heartbreak of Psoriasis.[5][6][7]

In 1975 she began her career in porn as a performer[8] appearing in about 25 movies before retiring in 1980 with Blue Magic, which she also wrote.[9]

She wrote regular columns for adult magazines High Society and Cheri.[10]

In 1984, Royalle founded Femme Productions, with the goal of making erotica based on female desire, as well as pornographic films aimed at helping couple therapy. Her productions are aimed more to women and couples than to the standard pornographic audience of men, and have been praised by counselors and therapists for depicting healthy and realistic sexual activity.[11]

Royalle stated that she tried to avoid "misogynous predictability", and depiction of sex in "…as grotesque and graphic [a way] as possible." She also criticized the male-centredness of the typical pornographic film, in which scenes end when the male actor ejaculates. Royalle's films are not “goal oriented” towards a final "cum shot"; instead, her films depict sexual activity within the broader context of women's emotional and social lives.[12] In 1989, she signed the Post Porn Modernist Manifesto.[13][14]

She was also a public speaker, giving lectures at Smithsonian Institution, the World Congress on Sexology and numerous universities and professional conferences.[15]

In 2004, she authored the book How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do.[15]

A 5-track EP titled Candida Cosmica, a collaboration between Royalle and Patrick Cowley from the mid 70s, was released in October 2016 by Dark Entries Records.[16]

In 2019, Candice a documentary about Royalle's life and finding out what happened to her mother who left her as a child, was screened at various documentary film festivals.[17][18][19]

Royalle was a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists,[20] and a founding board-member of Feminists for Free Expression.[21]

In the 1980s, she was married to producer Per Sjostedt.[22] In May 2006, Royalle announced that she was engaged to be married.[23] She died in Mattituck, New York[15] on September 7, 2015, aged 64, from ovarian cancer.[4][24]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Candida Royalle.

• Candida Royalle's Website
• Candida Royalle on IMDb
• Candida Royalle at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Candida Royalle at the Adult Film Database
• Candida Royalle at Find a Grave