"Rabid" Star Marilyn Chambers Found Dead

"Rabid" Star Marilyn Chambers Found Dead

by Armand Vaquer

Former porn star Marilyn Chambers, who later became a mainstream actress, was found dead at her Canyon Country home, the Los Angeles Times is reporting:

Marilyn Chambers, a former Ivory Snow detergent model who became a porn star, died Sunday at her Canyon Country home. She was 56.

Chambers, whose real name is Marilyn Ann Taylor, was found unresponsive at 8:51 p.m. at her residence it the 16000 block of Vasquez Canyon, said Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter. The cause of death is under investigation but foul play was not suspected and an autopsy is pending.

Chambers became a pop culture phenomenon when she gave up work as a model advertising Ivory Snow laundry detergent to star in the X-rated "Behind the Green Door" in 1972.

The movie also sparked a buying frenzy on boxes of Ivory Snow soap, then graced by Chambers' angelically complexioned face.

I met Chambers a few years ago while attending a Hollywood collectors show (I was there with other Adventures of Superman fan Carl Glass at actress Noel Neill's table) in Burbank while wandering around the show's celebrity tables. I obtained the above autographed picture of Chambers' famous Ivory Snow box to the amusement of Neill's biographer Larry Ward.

Chambers was very friendly to the attendess and had a good sense of humor about her career.

Chambers' first mainstream movie, "Rabid," has become a cult movie favorite. IMDB's website says this about the movie: "A young woman develops a taste for human blood after undergoing experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into rabid, blood-thirsty zombies who proceed to infect others, which turns into a city-wide epidemic." The final scene of the movie was a stunner.

UPDATE: (By Ken Hulsey) An autopsy has failed to determine the cause of porn star Marilyn Chambers' death.

The Behind The Green Door star was found dead at her home in Canyon County, California on Sunday.

Ed Winter, the Los Angeles County coroner’s assistant chief, has ruled the actress probably died of natural causes, but additional testing would be required.