One of porn’s early pioneers!
Jennifer Welles was born in northern New Jersey in 1934, the youngest of two daughters, but the future porn star had quite a background before porn came calling. Her folks fled Nazi Germany as Hitler began mounting his assault on Europe. They were both very highly educated and her father was a designer of aircraft. Her father’s profession had him doing a lot of work for the U.S. government in the aircraft industry during WW II. He left the family when Jennifer was nine after getting involved with another woman, so she was pretty much raised by her mother who was very strict. Jennifer actually began her career in entertainment as a young pre teen dancing in school productions and continued as she grew into her teen years.
She quit high school to pursue a career as a dancer and worked on the dinner theater circuit and also performing with traveling theater troupes during the early 1950’s. She made her way to Las Vegas and danced on stage in opening acts for comedians such as Jack Benny and Martin and Lewis. She came back east and wound up getting a lot of work in summer stock and road shows of big Broadway hits like “Pajama Game”. She also took time to study acting under Sandy Meisner at the famous Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City (Steve McQueen, Gregory Peck, Diane Keaton and Robert Di Niro are some of the alumni).
With all this Jennifer had her sights set on Broadway, TV and films, but things didn’t quite work out as she had hoped. In the late 60’s and now in her 30’s she began doing sexploitation, soft core films like “Career Bed” and “Scorpio 70” for director/producer Joseph Sarno. She also did a lot of photo shoots for men’s magazines such as Cavalcade. Jennifer also did a lot of photo layouts in fetish magazines such as Bizarre under the name of Liza Duran.
Jennifer’s entry into the hardcore world of porn came in 1975. She made her debut in the film “Honey Pie”. Now in her early 40’s she played the seductress of a teen boy in the film and it would lead Ms. Welles into a series of films playing the older woman. Despite her age, she was very sexually energetic, had a great look with her strawberry blonde hair, big natural breasts and a great body. She was a very reliable performer, a total pro in every way. In addition, because of her earlier training, Jennifer possessed excellent acting chops that helped get her better roles and keep her at the top of the porn scene.
At a time in adult when plot and story were as important as the sex, Ms. Welles stood out as a woman who could truly get inside her characters and deliver dialogue extremely well and realistic. Among the films she starred in were “Expose Me Lovely”, “Temptations”, “Blonde Velvet”, “Thunderbuns” and “Little Orphan Sammy” for which she won a Best Actress award. In 1974 she also appeared in the mainstream film “The Groove Tube” with Chevy Chase.
In 1977, after directing and starring in “Inside Jennifer Welles”, which has become a classic, she abruptly left the industry without any warning to anyone. Her career was going great, she was a big name, her performances were lauded by critics and fellow performers alike and she was making very good money. So why this sudden departure? Then she turned up as the Editor of Eros Magazine for a year, but once again poof! It was a sudden move that surprised friends and co workers as no one knew where she went or what happened. Attempts to locate Ms. Welles and see where she was and how she was doing went nowhere. It was like she had just disappeared off the face of the earth. For a number of years after her absence, all kinds of stories surfaced. One story was she married a very wealthy gentleman who was a big fan of hers and he became the reason for her retiring.
Today, Ms. Welles would now be 84 and she is still a name to be remembered and enjoyed from porn’s golden age. The question still remains as to whatever did become of this sexy, well liked and talented lady? Thanks to a podcast from the Rialto Report and an exclusive interview they did with Ms. Welles some time back, she said that for a time during her second marriage to a NY businessman she lived a very luxurious life in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. a very upscale community about an hour from the city. Ms. Welles said she was now divorced, in good health and lives a simple life out west on a small spread of land with a couple of horses. She attends church regularly, has a few friends, some who she has told of her past. Most important for her is that she is very much at peace with both her past and present.
While her time in the porn film spotlight spanned about five years and about twenty five films she gave the industry, and fans, some great performances. Jennifer Welles was, in many ways, a pioneer during the golden age of porn and today is a deserving member of the AVN Hall of Fame. If you want to find out more on Jennifer Welles check out www.therialtoreport.com
Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazine and AAN
