Linda Wong

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linda Wong
Birthdate:	September 13, 1951
Birth location:	San Francisco, California
Date of death:	December 17, 1987
Ethnicity:	Chinese American
Alias(es):	Sandy Stram, Linda Chang, Linda Ching
No. of films:	48 (per IAFD)
Linda Wong at IMDb
Linda Wong at IAFD
Linda Wong at AFDB

Linda Wong (born September 13, 1951 in Hawaii - died December 17, 1987 in Petaluma, California of an accidental drug overdose) is a former pornographic actress and one of the first Asians to become a star in the adult film industry. In 1998 Wong was added to XRCO Hall of Fame.

[edit] Career

Linda Wong was born in Hawaii and raised in San Francisco (first in Mill Valley and later in San Bruno). She first broke into the business in 1976 with the films, Oriental Babysitter and Jade Pussycat. This helped her to earn a following and at the same time showcased her Asian heritage. She displayed a soft '70s style body. Among her best performances may have have been in 1977's Jade Pussycat in which she co-starred with Georgina Spelvin and John Holmes.

According to Playboy's October 1977 pictorial "Ladies of Joy" as well as Playboy's 1980 Girls of Playboy 4, she worked as a legal prostitute in Las Vegas for a short time under the name Linda Ching.

Appearing in X films hurt Linda Wong and she claimed "I was never viewed as a human being. The greatest compliment that anyone has given me is that 'Linda, you're a nice person.' Most people, right off the bat, assume that I am a piece of meat, a porno star, a floozy." (AVN)

A source: "Prior to her start in X-rated films, she could be found working at the Condor in downtown SF, alongside Carol Doda. Her real name was Linda Ching. I ran into her at a party in 1985, and she was in pretty bad shape, having mixed alcohol with Quaaludes. On the other hand, when I first met her in 1976, she was bright, articulate, and full of life; in fact, she seemed too well-adjusted to be in the adult film industry."^{[citation needed]}

During her stint as an adult film actress, she worked with some of the top names of the 1970s and 1980s: John Holmes, Joey Silvera and Georgina Spelvin. Her career spanned the 1970s. Her best performance may have come in 1977's Jade Pussycat. In 1981 she decided to retire at the peak of her career though she returned four years later out of shape to star in The Erotic World of Linda Wong. She was planning yet another comeback in 1987 when she died of a drug overdose

[edit] Death

At the time of her death, she was out on bond stemming from a drug charge (she attempted to buy codeine with a forged prescription), she was facing a prison sentence of over a year. She died of an accidental overdose resulting from Xanax, chloral hydrate and alcohol.

Linda's husband Richard Olson writes about her death, "Linda died December 17, 1987 in Petaluma, California. I was with her at the time. She died of an overdose resulting from Zanax, chlorylhydrate [referred to as a mickey, like a quaalude] and alcohol. Considering we'd been living together in excess of 2 years, I'd have to say that her death was NOT intentional... ...She was a drug addict. I didn't use heroin until I met her, and I got f---ed up during our relationship as well. She was mad at the world. She'd just left Ed dePriest when we got together [1987]. They had a video company together. Ed was a violent individual and Linda had been beaten up bad for many years... ...I am not an abuser and never have been, and in all honesty, I think that Linda missed that in our relationship. I would never get physical with her. She swung at me many times. Bill Amerson warned me about staying with her... At one point he said, 'if you stick with her, you can't work for me, because I can't trust you.'... ...I eventually moved up to Northern California [ summer of 1987] hoping that a change of location would help with my drug problem. Linda got arrested for trying to pick up a prescription for codeine that she wrote herself. She spent two months in jail. They dug into her record and found an old possession [of narcotics] charge and they were going to keep her in for a year or so... I wired her attorney some money and got her out on a bond. She came up to me in Northern California and three weeks later she overdosed... ...She wasn't using heroin. She was popping pills, Xanax and Chlorylhydrate, what used to be called a mickey. Like a quaalude. They never did anything for me. She used to eat them by the handful. She took more drugs than any girl I've been with... ...I was at work. I got off at noon and I came home to our hotel. The manager said that my wife had been found passed out on the floor and that she was in the hospital. She was conscious and claimed she was fine when I picked her up [at the hospital]. I had to leave and run some errands. She was fine when I left and when I came back she was still fine and wanted to go to dinner... ...So we went to a restaurant in Petaluma. She went off to the bathroom and that was the last I saw her alive. Somebody came running out of the bathroom saying that there was a woman on the floor. I just knew it was her."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Partial Filmography

• Oriental Babysitter (1976)
• Sweet Cakes (1976)
• China Lust (1976)
• Jade Pussycat (1977)
• Babyface (1977)
• Young Students (1977)
• China de Sade (1977)
• Stormy (1980)
• Exhausted (1981)
• Swedish Erotica 10 (1981)
• Erotic World Of Linda Wong (1985)