A Porn Pioneer!

This former star of porn’s golden age was born Linda Jean Smith in 1956 in Kansas and spent her youth in the Shawnee area. Not much is known about her early years, school, family, friends. Etc. It is known that in the mid 70’s she began to do modeling.

She was discovered by photographer Diana Hardy in the mid 1970’s and first gained public recognition posing for various popular men’s magazines during that time. It was in 1978 that Ms. Barbour began to perform in explicit hardcore movies. In all she would do about 30 films before retiring from the business in 1984. In addition to doing porn she also worked as an exotic dancer at various clubs around the country.

While she was in porn, Ms. Barbour turned in some very memorable performances in a variety of films. Among them was “Screwples”, “The Budding of Brie” ,”Bon Appetit” from Chuck Vincent, Richard Mahler’s “Pink Ladies” and “Pandora’s Mirror”  She also became well known as the poster girl for Cecil Howard’s landmark film, “Neon Nights”. Kandi Barbour did return one more time, in 1987, to do her final adult film in “X-Effect”, which  was directed by porn legend Ron Jeremy.

Kandi also did some mainstream modeling and appeared in TV commercials for the music company K-tel International hawking their compilations of pop music hits. Barbour lived in both Los Angeles and Hawaii She worked at the famous Honolulu strip club Club Hubba Hubba. She was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2009. She would also be inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame as well.

Ms. Barbour had incurred a drinking problem and had gained a lot of weight and little was known about her whereabouts. Reportedly she was homeless and in January of 2012, she was discovered dead from exposure from living on the streets of San Francisco. It was a shame that her life, which at one time had been filled with all good things, had to end as it did.

Even though she was a part of porn’s golden age for a relatively short time, she was a definite pioneer in the industry. Her films were classic, her performances were memorable and her presence was a big one in those early days. Most of her films are now available on DVD, so check out one of the early porn pioneers Kandi Barbour and enjoy what this sexy lady gave to us all.

Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazine and AAN