Bambi Woods

Bambi Woods
Bambi Woods in Debbie Does Dallas
Born	(1955-07-12) July 12, 1955 (age 61)
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	115 lb (52 kg)
No. of adult films	4 (per IAFD)

Bambi Woods was the stage name of a now-retired pornographic actress and exotic dancer best known for her appearance as the title character in the 1978 film Debbie Does Dallas. Her meteoric success in the Golden Age of Porn, and disappearance intrigued adult industry writers and caused interest in her whereabouts, and a myth about her having met a sordid fate several years after her heyday began to be accepted as fact. According to the director of Debbie Does Dallas there was no sensational truth or mystery, as he had 'Woods' traced decades later, and found she simply did not wish to disrupt her life with publicity.

Woods was known for her first role as the eponymous character of "Debbie" in the 1978 feature adult film Debbie Does Dallas. She received top billing, and a photo of her in a bogus uniform was prominently advertised on theater marquees where she was falsely described as a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Woods had previously tried out for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in real life, but was cut during auditions. Her partners in the non-simulated sexual intercourse she engaged in for the film included Robert Kerman, and others drawn from the small group of veteran performers who appeared in most US hard-core pornography made in the US during that era. Woods said her involvement in adult films was arranged by a female friend to whom she owed money. The producer/director, Jim Clark, said he created the stage name 'Bambi Woods' in an allusion to the Disney character: "I named her Bambi Woods. There wasn't any real reason behind it. Bambi ... a deer. In the woods. Do you want to get deeper?". One reviewer in a TV documentary about the film expressed the opinion that Woods's demeanor during sex scenes was in keeping with her pseudonym, being reminiscent of a deer caught in car headlights.

Woods’s pornographic film career occurred towards the end of the Golden Age of Porn, when the filmmakers operated in a legal grey area, making them vulnerable to extortion by organised criminals who controlled distribution. Unlike current pornography in the US, there was no mandatory verification and record keeping of participants’ true identities, and the real names of even the most prolific remained unknown outside their profession until decades later when the identities of almost all famous performers were circulated on the internet. Despite the huge profits being made, female performers’ fees rarely exceeded the low hundreds of dollars. Although Woods ostensibly performed in Debbie Does Dallas as a one-off to clear a debt, she spent all her earnings, so the still-owed friend arranged for her to become an exotic dancer. An interviewer, told about the background to Woods’s career, remarked of the creditor that she had ‘a heart of gold’.