- Mike Jones
Michael F. “Mike” Jones is an author, personal trainer and a former escort and masseur who gained notoriety when he came forward with allegations that he had had a three-year affair with Ted Arthur Haggard, an American evangelical preacher and founder of the New Life Church.
- Heidi Fleiss
Heidi Lynne Fleiss (born December 30 1965), known as the "Hollywood Madam", is a former American madam. She was convicted in connection with her prostitution ring with charges including pandering and tax evasion. Her ring had numerous famous and wealthy clients. She was sentenced to 37 months in prison for tax evasion, (pandering charges were dropped) but served just 21. Her father, Doctor Paul M. Fleiss is a famous Intactivist (one who opposes circumcision).
- Belle de Jour
Belle de Jour is the "nom de plume" of a person who claims to have been a London call girl or high class prostitute. Under this banner she maintains a successful blog, "Belle de Jour: diary of a London call girl" which by 2003 had achieved selection by "The Guardian" as their blog of the year and has given rise to two books published in both the UK and US. A television series based on the first book was in development with Channel 4 in the UK, …
- John Holmes
John Curtis Holmes better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd (after the lead character in a series of related films), was one of the most famous male adult film stars of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and porno feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s, including at least one gay feature film and a handful of gay loops. He was best known for his exceptionally large penis, …
- Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Carol Wuornos]] (born Aileen Carol Pittman) (February 29 1956 - October 9 2002) was an American prostitute and convicted serial killer who was sentenced to death by the state of Florida in 1992. She ultimately received five additional death sentences. Wuornos admitted to killing seven men, in separate incidents, all of whom she claimed raped her (or attempted to) while she was working as a prostitute.
- Robert Pickton
Robert William ("Willie") Pickton (b. October 24, 1949) of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia is a third-generation, Canadian pig farmer who has been charged with the first degree murders of twenty-six women, many of them prostitutes and drug users from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Pickton is currently on trial for six of these murders. During the trial's first day, January 22, 2007, …
- Annie Sprinkle
Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, North America) is a former prostitute, stripper, porn film star, cable television host, porn magazine editor and writer, and sex film producer. She received a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in 1986. Currently, Sprinkle works as a performance artist and sex educator. According to "Curve" magazine, Sprinkle, who is bisexual, …
- Divine Brown
Divine Brown (born Estella Marie Thompson, 9 August 1969) is an American sex worker who gained considerable public recognition in 1995 when Hugh Grant, a British actor, was caught receiving oral sex from her in a car on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard. Both Brown and Grant were arrested, and considerable damage was done to Grant's public image. In the ensuing publicity, she appeared on a number of television shows, …
- Sophie Anderton
Sophie Anderton (born May 14 1977, in Bristol) is an English lingerie model and television personality.
- Mata Hari
Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle (7 August, 1876, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands - 15 October, 1917, Vincennes, France), a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for alleged espionage during World War I.
- Tracy Quan
Tracy Quan is an American writer and former call girl. She is best known for her Nancy Chan novels. In addition, Quan writes on issues related to sex and sex work and is involved in the prostitutes' rights movement.
- Charles Johnson
Captain Charles Johnson is the author of the 1724 book "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates", though his identity remains a mystery. No record of a captain by this name exists, and circumstantial evidence suggests "Charles Johnson" was really Daniel Defoe writing under a pen name, but this has yet to be proven. If true, the pseudonym was perhaps chosen to reflect the playwright Charles Johnson, …
- Mark Oaten
Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964, Watford) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom, and Member of Parliament for the Winchester constituency. Oaten served as the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, before resigning that position on 21 January, 2006 after a sex scandal involving male prostitutes was uncovered by the "News of the World" tabloid newspaper. Oaten has confirmed he will not be standing for re-election at the next general election.
- Albert Hamilton Fish
He was born in Washington, District of Columbia as Hamilton Fish , to Randall Fish (1795-1875) of Kennebec, Maine and his wife, Ellen (1838-?) , of Ireland. His father was 43 years older than his mother. Albert Fish later stated that his family had an extensive history of mental illness. He was the youngest of four, accompanying siblings Walter, Annie and Edwin.
- Xaviera Hollander
Xaviera Hollander (born 15 June, 1943) is a former call girl and madam. She was born Vera de Vries in Soerabaja, Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies) to a Jewish father and Christian mother. She is best known as the author of "The Happy Hooker: My Own Story" (1971, ISBN 0-06-001416-4). The book was notable for its frankness at the time and is considered a landmark of positive writing about sex.
- Bridgette Kerkove
Bridgette Kerkove (born Patricia Lynn Felkel on February 8 1977 in Los Angeles, California) is an American pornographic actress, director and producer. She grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from high school in Burbank. Kerkove began her porn career in January of 1999. Less than a year later she won the 2000 AVN Best New Starlet Award. In 1999, she broke the adult video record for the most sex scenes done in one year, performing in 203 sex scenes in 344 days.
- Gary Ridgway
Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), known as the Green River Killer, is one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. On November 30, 2001, as he was leaving a Renton, Washington factory where he worked, he was arrested for the murders of seven women whose deaths were attributed to the "Green River Killer". Four murders were linked to him through DNA and three through paint he used at his job.
- Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler (born February 22, 1942) is a former English model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair.
- Jessica Cutler
Jessica Cutler (born May 18 1978) is a former congressional staff assistant for former Senator Mike DeWine. In 2004, Cutler published a short-lived blog called "Washingtonienne" describing her life in Washington, D.C., USA, including the details of her active sex life. Her identity was revealed by the blog "Wonkette" in May 2004, which resulted in a scandal on Capitol Hill and her being fired. Cutler's blog is now known as "Jessica Cutler Online." In summer 2004, …
- Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Jane Kelly (c. 1863 - November 9, 1888) is widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London during the late summer and autumn of 1888. She was about twenty-five and in poverty at the time of her death. Reports of the time estimated her height at 5 feet and 7 inches (1.70 metres).
- Joe Dallesandro
Joseph Angelo (Joe) Dallesandro (born in Pensacola, Florida) is an American actor. Dallesandro was known for his voluptuous physical beauty, flesh-baring film appearances, and openness about his bisexuality. Although he never became a major mainstream star, Dallesandro is generally considered to be the most famous male sex symbol of American underground films of the 20th century.
- Philip Giordano
Philip Giordano (1963-) is the former Republican mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut and a convicted sex offender. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela to Italian parents and his family moved to the United States when he was two years old. A lawyer, former state representative and former Marine (1981 - 1985), Giordano served three terms as mayor after being elected for the first time in 1995. In 2000, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, losing to Joe Lieberman.
- Domino
Domino (born Ron) was a pornographic actor (porn star) who appeared in gay pornographic movies and magazines in the 1990s. He performed in the bottom role. He was popular with fans of gay porn for his smooth body and dark, handsome good looks. His was reported to be difficult for directors to work with, however. He also worked as a male prostitute.
- Lance
Lance Craner was one of the more popular gay porn stars during the 1980s. He was born David Alan Reis in Santa Barbara County, California (some sources say Oklahoma), on November 25, 1962. He was most well-known for his pairings with Leo Ford in "Leo & Lance" and "Blonds Do It Best", both directed by William Higgins. The two also often worked together as male prostitutes. Scant information exists about Lance's life off the screen, …
- Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll (born August 1, 1950 in New York City) is an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll is best known for his 1978 autobiographical work "The Basketball Diaries", which was made into a movie in 1995 starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Raised in New York City, Carroll attended several Catholic Grammar Schools from 1955 to 1963.
- Sunset Thomas
Sunset Thomas (born Diane Fowler on February 19, 1972) is an American pornographic actress. She was born in Sikeston, Missouri, but she spent much of her early years moving from state to state. She was runner-up for "Penthouse" Pet of the Year in 1998 and is a member of the Adult Video News Hall of Fame.
- Christiane F.
Christiane F. (full name: "Vera Christiane Felscherinow"), was born in Hamburg on May 20, 1962. Her family moved to West Berlin when she was a child. Christiane is famous for her struggle with her drug addiction, especially to heroin. When she was 12 years old, she first smoked hashish; by the time she was 14, she was a junkie and prostitute in the Bahnhof Zoo scene, an infamous group of teenaged drug-users and prostitutes (of both sexes) in Berlin.
- Valerie Solanas
Valerie Jean Solanas was an American radical feminist writer who struggled to be recognized for her writing but became famous for shooting the artist Andy Warhol in 1968. She wrote the "SCUM Manifesto", an essay on patriarchal culture.
- Robert Bauman
Robert Bauman (April 4, 1937-) is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 1st Congressional district of Maryland. He was elected to the House as a Republican in an August 1973 special election, replacing William O. Mills, who had died the previous May. He was re-elected in 1974, 1976, and 1978 but was defeated in 1980. In 1982, he was nominated by his party to run for the seat he had lost, but he withdrew from the race before election day.
- Air Force Amy
Air Force Amy is an adult entertainer and sexual escort who works at the Kit Kat Guest Ranch in Mound House, Nevada.
- Monica Coghlan
Monica Coghlan (3 May 1951 - 27 April 2001) was the prostitute at the centre of a scandal that involved English Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer in 1987. Although he won a libel case against the "Daily Star" newspaper, which had alleged that he slept with her, it was later revealed in a separate legal proceeding in 2001 that he had perjured himself in the trial. Archer was jailed himself for this in July 2001.
- Mary Of Egypt
Venerable Mary of Egypt (ca. 344 – ca. 421) is revered as the patron saint of penitent women, most particularly in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, but also in the Roman, Eastern Catholic and Anglican churches.
- Charles Kushner
Charles Kushner is a New Jersey real estate magnate and a major donor to Democratic politicians, most notably to Governor of New Jersey Jim McGreevey. On August 19, 2004, he pleaded guilty to tax violations and charges related to witness tampering. The witness tampering charges dealt with an incident in which Kushner tried to use a prostitute in a blackmail scheme. The plea deal does not require Kushner to cooperate with investigators, however.
- Helen Jewett
Helen Jewett (October 18, 1813 - April 10, 1836) was an upscale New York City prostitute whose murder and the subsequent trial and acquittal of her alleged killer, Richard P. Robinson, generated an unprecedented amount of media coverage.
- Bruno S.
Bruno S. is a German film actor, artist, and musician. Bruno was the unwanted son of a prostitute, was often beaten as a child, and spent much of his life in mental institutions. Bruno was spotted by director Werner Herzog in the documentary "Bruno der Schwarze - Es blies ein Jäger wohl in sein Horn" (1970). Herzog promptly cast Bruno, a street musician with no experience of acting, …
- Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram (May 10, 1849 - August 7, 1888) is considered by some to be a possible early victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper", who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London. Tabram's name is sometimes misspelled as "Martha Tabran," and she was at other times known as "Emma Turner" or "Martha Turner," taking the last name of the man with whom she had most recently lived.
- Alan Rudolph
Alan Rudolph is an American film director and screenwriter. Rudolph is the son of Oscar Rudolph (1911-1991), a television director and actor. He was a protégé of Robert Altman, and worked as an assistant director on Altman's film of Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye". Rudolph's own films tend to focus on isolated or eccentric characters and their relationships, and are frequently ensemble pieces including prominent elements of romanticism and fantasy.
- Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies (born 21 October, 1944) is famous mainly for her minor role in the Profumo affair which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.
- Ryan Idol
Ryan Idol is an American male adult entertainer of the 1990s who performed in adult themed movies catering mainly to gay audiences. He was born Marc Anthony Donais in Worcester, Massachusetts on 10 August 1966. He has French, Irish, and Native American ancestry. In February 1989, he appeared as the "Man of the Month" centerfold in "Playgirl" under the name Marc Anthony Donais.
- Pan Yuliang
Pan Yuliang was a Chinese painter born in 1899. Sold to a brothel as a child after the death of her parents, she was raised to become a prostitute. She attracted the attention of a wealthy official who bought her freedom and married her as a second wife. She began painting, eventually traveling to Paris to study, where she won some acclaim. Her paintings of nude models violated cultural norms in China and generated much controversy.