The 10 Best 1980s Female Pornstars

Die-Screaming ranks the Top 10 greatest XXX starlets of the 80s…

10. Tracey Adams

Kicking things off for us is Tracey Adams.  For those not familiar, Ms. Adams was a fixture of the 1980s porn scene and performed in some of the decade’s hottest erotica.  Between 1985 and 1989, Tracey was featured in well over two-hundred XXX films, including such hits as Pretty Peaches 2 (VCA), Flying High with Tracey Adams (Leisure Time Entertainment), and Tracey’s Love Chamber (Arrow Productions).  Like most of the ladies on this list, Tracey Adams is also a Hall of Fame inductee, having received that honor from AVN in 1989.

9. Annette Haven

Annette Haven appeared in nearly a hundred dirty movies throughout the 1980s, though her career began back in the early 70s and had already won some major industry awards for her work by the time the “Decade of Greed” began.  Some of her best stuff of the 80s was in bangers such as 8 to 4 (Caballero Home Video), Tower of Power (Cal Vista), and Hot Pursuit (VCA).  You should also know that Annette Haven is an AVN Hall of Famer, having been inducted in 1989.

8. Lisa De Leeuw

A hugely talented performer, Lisa De Leeuw performed in nearly two-hundred adult films over the span of the 1980s.  She won multiple Best Supporting Actress trophies for her role in Raw Talent (VCA) and is an XRCO Hall of Fame inductee.  Lisa performed in some of the decade’s biggest hits and if you aren’t familiar with her work then you absolutely need to see her do what she did in movies such as Aunt Peg Goes to Hollywood (Caballero Home Video), Mascara (Caballero Home Video), and Caught From Behind 7 (Filmco).

7. Jeanna Fine

While many of the people reading this will probably be more familiar with Jeanna Fine’s work from the 1990s, the films she performed in during the last four years of the 1980s should be considered some of the hottest produced during that decade.  Don’t believe me?  Just go watch her scenes in such joints as Sexaholics (VCX), Heatwaves (Catalina Video), or Wild Stuff (Wet Video).

6. Juliet Anderson

Juliet Anderson was one of the most popular XXX starlets of the first half of the 1980s and one of the pioneers of the MILF genre (before it even had a name) as she started performing at the age of 40 in 1978.  She rocked the shit out of the early 80s with her roles in the classic VCX Aunt Peg series and in her performances in such films as Taboo (Standard Video), Educating Nina (Atom Films), and Insatiable 2 (Caballero Home Video).  Juliet Anderson passed away in 2010.

5. Christy Canyon

Had she not stepped away for porn for several years, Christy Canyon might have been #1 on this list.  The fact that she’s ranked in the Top 5 with less than three full years of work in the 1980s just shows how much of an impact Christy and her 36DD tits had on the porn industry during that decade.  Blessed with stunning good looks and a pair of boobs that made most men and many women just stop and drool, Christy killed it in such films as Sinfully Yours (Filmco), Between My Breasts (Big Top Video), and Night of Loving Dangerously (Paradise Visuals).

Also be sure to check out Die-Screaming’s 10 Best Christy Canyon Porn Movies of all time.

4. Seka

There were very few performers who achieved the same level of XXX superstardom in the 1980s as Seka.  For much of the decade, and especially during the first half of the 80s, Seka was a goddamn force of nature. Hell, Die-Screaming even ranked her as the best female pornstar of the 1970s.  She routinely churned out some of the most hardcore work of that era, with face-melting performances in films such as Erotic World of Seka (VCR), Swedish Erotica 17 (Caballero Home Video), and A Place Beyond Shame (VEP).  Trust me when I tell you that nobody was fucking harder in the 1980s than Seka.

3. Nina Hartley

Arguably the greatest female pornstar of all time, Nina Hartley got her start in porn in 1984 and has been pretty much having sex in front of a video camera ever since.  If you watched porn at all in the 80s then you would have had to see at least some of Nina Hartley’s stuff as she was in some of the best-selling films of that decade.  From her breakout role in Educating Nina (Atom Films) to her award-winning roles in Debbie Duz Dishes (AVC) and Portrait of an Affair (Vidco Entertainment), the 1980s would not have been the same without Nina Hartley.

2. Amber Lynn

Without question, Amber Lynn was one of the biggest hardcore starlets of the 1980s.  Moving from the pages of Hustler and Penthouse and into adult films in the mid-1980s, Amber spent the remainder of the decade as one of the greatest superstars the industry had ever seen.  You absolutely must see her in such films as Head Games (Western Visual), Cheek to Cheek (Leisure Time Entertainment), and Crocodile Blondee (VCX).

1. Ginger Lynn

Ginger Lynn is Die-Screaming’s pick as the #1 Best Female Pornstar of the 1980s.  This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.  If you look across the entire decade, no single starlet had a bigger impact on adult entertainment during the 1980s than Ginger.  She performed in some of the best XXX-rated movies of that era, including Kinky Business (Dreamland Entertainment), Project: Ginger (Vivid Entertainment), and Club Ginger (Vivid).

About this Top 10 list…

Making a perfect Best Female Pornstars of the 1980s ranking is impossible.  There are WAY too many very talented, very deserving actresses who should be included on this list but aren’t because there can only be ten.  For every lady who does appear here, there’s about four or five who didn’t make the cut but probably have a case to get into the Top 10.

Also, no, Traci Lords should not be on this list.  Just…no.

Anyway, while far from perfect, I think the rankings you see here are about as solid as you’ll find anywhere.  You probably disagree.  And that’s fine.  Just leave your own (probably inferior) rankings in the comments box below.