Gloria Leonard, the doyenne of the erotic film industry, was born Gail Sandra Leonardi on August 28, 1940 in The Bronx, New York. Blessed with a 40-33-37 figure and 5' 9", the brown-haired, brown-eyed porn star from porn's "Golden Age" (1972 until the advent of video tape) made movies under her own name as well as the alias(es) C. Gale Leonard and Gail (or Gayle) Leonard.She appeared in approximately 70 adult films before taking over "High Society" magazine in 1979. In her 14 years as publisher of "High Society", she created the genre of "Celebrity Skin". The magazine also was a pioneer in the phone sex industry.Miss Leonard served as the administrative director of the Adult Film Association from 1989 to 1992, until the AFA merged with the Free Speech Coalition. Gloria returned to the porn industry in 1997 and was elected president of the Free Speech Coalition in 1998.She was married to the fabled porn producer . They divorced in 1990.
Gloria Leonard was not just a porn star. Gloria was a friend and maybe even more like a distant aunt. She would call my mom by her first name. I heard her name all the time growing up, as she was essentially one of the main contract stars, for much of the early Video-X-Pix classics, which was a company, run by my father and his partner. She got along very well with her cohorts.
Often she was accompanied by her closest friends from Club 90 – the porn star support group that meant so much to her – whose members consisted of , , , and . The last time I saw Gloria was in New York in 2012 when Club 90 was reunited and celebrated at the . It was a moving occasion for everyone.
I never missed an issue of Gloria Leonard’s magazine, High Society, as a young man! Gloria was erudite, beautiful, and sexy as hell! Her classy take on porn is sorely missed!
Gloria Leonard began appearing in hardcore pornography in 1976, in films including , (both of which were written and directed by Joseph W. Sarno), (directed by Radley Metzger), and . She worked with actresses Constance Money, Leslie Bovee, Sharon Mitchell, , and before retiring from the screen in the 1984. She also directed several porn films, and was formerly married to Bobby Hollander. After moving to Hawaii in 1993, she returned to Los Angeles in 1997 to work for Media Group.
