What Is Traci Lords' Net Worth and Salary?
Traci Lords is an American actress, producer, director, writer, and singer who has a net worth of $1 million. Traci Lords began her career amidst controversy in the adult industry and went on to enter several genres in mainstream entertainment. Some of her mainstream films include "Cry-Baby" (1990), "Serial Mom" (1994), "Underworld" (1996), "Blade" (1998), "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" (2008), "Excision" (2012), and "Devil May Call" (2013), and she had recurring roles on "Roseanne" (1994–1995), "Melrose Place" (1995), and "Profiler" (1997–1998). Traci entered the adult industry when she was just fifteen years old, using a fake ID. Shortly after she turned 18, authorities discovered that she had been underage and used her case to clobber the porn industry. As a minor, she could not be charged and was rather seen as a victim of the industry who was drugged and made to do things against her wishes.
Lords went on release the 1995 album "1000 Fires" and the 2004 EP "Sunshine," and her singles "Control" and "Last Drag" were top 10 hits on the "Billboard" Hot Dance Club Songs chart. She wrote and directed the 2005 short film "Sweet Pea," and she served as a producer on the films "Beverly Hills Copulator" (1986), "Traci Takes Tokyo" (1986), "Traci, I Love You" (1987), "Extramarital" (1998), and "Excision" (2012). She also released the 2003 autobiography "Traci Lords: Underneath It All," which debuted at #31 on "The New York Times" Best Seller list. In 2015, Traci appeared on the hit ABC reality television series "Celebrity Wife Swap," on which she traded lives with actress Jackée Harry.
Earnings
In a 2003 interview, Traci claimed that she earned a total of $40,000 over the three year period that she starred in adult films. In her memoir, which was released that same year, she pegged the number a little lower at $35,000. That's the same as $90,000 – $100,000 in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation. At one point, she also claimed to be broke, having spent the entirety of her income – which was all paid in cash – on drugs, alcohol, and other lifestyle expenses. Lords' manager has disputed those estimates, claiming that at her peak Traci was earning $300,000 per year. If true, that would be like earning around $750,000 per year in today's dollars.
Early Life
Traci Lords was born Nora Louise Kuzma on May 7, 1968, in Steubenville, Ohio. She is the daughter of Patricia and Louis Kuzma, and her father was a steelworker. Traci and her three sisters, Lorraine, Grace, and Rachel, moved to their great-grandmother's house with their mother after their parents got divorced, but their abusive, alcoholic father was given partial custody of them. When she was 12 years old, Traci and her sisters moved to Redondo Beach, California, with Patricia and her new boyfriend. Lords attended Redondo Union High School, but she dropped out at the age of 15 to begin working in the porn industry. In her autobiography, Traci wrote that Patricia's boyfriend, Roger Hayes, was a drug abuser and that he molested her while she was sleeping. In a 2003 "Dateline" interview, Lords revealed that she had been sexually assaulted at the age of 10 as well, stating, "I was raped by this boy, an older boy in school that I was completely in love with. And it changed my life completely. It was the single most traumatizing thing that ever happened to me in my life."
Career
At the age of 15, Lords began working as a babysitter for a friend of Roger Hayes, and the woman offered to get Traci a fake ID to help her improve her job opportunities. The new ID stated that Lords' name was Kristie Elizabeth Nussman and that she was 20 years old. In early 1984, Traci answered a newspaper ad for Jim South's World Modeling Talent Agency, and Hayes accompanied her to the office, posing as her stepfather. After Lords signed with the agency, she began booking jobs as a nude model, appearing in publications such as "Juggs" and "Velvet." When she was chosen to model in the September 1984 issue of "Penthouse" magazine (the 15th-anniversary issue), she was asked for her stage name, and she chose "Traci" because it was a popular name she liked and "Lords" because she was a fan of "Hawaii Five-O" and its star Jack Lord. Traci appeared in her first pornographic movie, "What Gets Me Hot!," in 1984, and after she turned 16 and starred in the AVN Award-winning porn spoof "Talk Dirty to Me Part III," she was dubbed the "Princess of Porn." When she was 17, she formed the Traci Lords Company with her then-boyfriend/manager Stuart Dell, and they produced the films "Traci Takes Tokyo," "Beverly Hills Copulator," and the unreleased "Screamer" for Vantage International.
In the spring of 1986, authorities were informed that Traci hadn't been of legal age when she was starring in porn movies, and they arrested the owners of X-Citement Video, Inc. and Lords' movie agency. Within a few weeks, adult movie theatres and video stores began removing Traci's films to avoid being prosecuted for the distribution of child pornography. Only one of Lords' pornographic movies is legally available in the U.S.; she filmed "Traci, I Love You" two days after she turned 18. After spending some time in therapy, Traci studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, then she landed guest-starring roles on "Wiseguy" (1988), "Married… with Children" (1989–1991), "MacGyver" (1989–1990), "Highlander" (1993), "Tales from the Crypt" (1993), and "Nash Bridges" (1997). Around this time, she also appeared in the Stephen King TV movie "The Tommyknockers" (1993) and the films "Not of This Earth" (1988), "Fast Food" (1989), "Cry-Baby" (1990), "Shock 'Em Dead" (1990), "Raw Nerve" (1991), "Intent to Kill" (1992), and "Serial Mom" (1994), "Virtuosity" (1995), "Underworld" (1996), and "Blade" (1998). In the '90s, Lords had recurring roles as Stacy Flagler on ABC's "Roseanne" (1994–1995), Rikki Abbott on Fox's "Melrose Place" (1995), and Sharon Lesher on NBC's "Profiler" (1997–1998), and she appeared in Color Me Badd's 1991 music video "I Wanna Sex You Up."
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Traci landed lead roles in 2000's "Chump Change" and "Epicenter," then she appeared in the films "Manhood" (2003), "Frostbite" (2005), "Crazy Eights" (2006), "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" (2009), and "Princess of Mars" (2009). She also played "Bubbles" in the 2008 Kevin Smith-directed comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" alongside Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, and Jason Mewes. From 2000 to 2001, Lords had a recurring role as Jordan Radcliffe on the Canadian sci-fi drama "First Wave," and she later guest-starred on "Gilmore Girls" (2003), "Will & Grace" (2005), "Wanted" (2005), and "Andy Barker, P.I." (2007). From 2013 to 2019, she appeared in eight episodes of the YouTube/Netflix series "EastSiders," and she played Jane McKinney on the Viaplay series "Swedish Dicks" from 2016 to 2018. Traci won several awards for her performance in the 2012 psychological horror film "Excision," then she appeared in "Devil May Call" (2013), "Cemetery Tales Presents: A Tale of Two Sisters" (2018), "Manipulated" (2019), "Nicole, her Ex & the Killer" (2020), "Waking Up Dead" (2021), and "The Farm" (2021).
Personal Life
Traci was married to Brook Yeaton from September 29, 1990, to January 1, 1996, and to Ryan Granger from June 26, 1999, to February 1, 2000. She married Jeff Gruenewald on February 23, 2002, and they welcomed son Joseph Gunnar Lee on October 7, 2007. Lords has been a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ community, and in a 2012 interview with "GayCalgary Magazine," she stated, "I witnessed a close friend die of AIDS in the nineties and his partner was denied all access to him in the hospital. That's what started my activism." Traci also said in the interview, "Some of my dearest friends are gay and I hate the ways they suffer. It' s wrong."
Awards and Nominations
In 1987, Traci was inducted into the "Adult Video News" Awards Hall of Fame, but according to IMDB, her spot in the hall of fame "appears to have been revoked when it was discovered she was under-age when her career started." Lords also earned "Adult Video News" Award nominations for Best New Starlet (1985), Best Actress – Shot-On-Video Feature for "The Adventures of Tracy Dick: The Case of the Missing Stiff" (1986), and Best Sex Scene in a Feature Film (shared with Jay Serling) for "Bad Girls III" (1986). In 1985, she was nominated for Starlet of the Year and Video Vixen by the X-Rated Critics' Organization. In 2001, Traci won a Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Actress for "Chump Change" at the US Comedy Arts Festival, and in 2012/2013, "Excision" earned her a CinEuphoria Award for Best Supporting Actress – International Competition, a "Fangoria" Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Fright Meter Award for Best Supporting Actress, and a Molins Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Actress. Traci received a Best Guest Star – Drama nomination for "Eastsiders" at the 2014 Indie Series Awards, and in 2019, she earned a Best Actress nomination for "Cemetery Tales: A Tale of Two Sisters" at the Terror in the Bay Film Festival.
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