Actresses Who Portrayed Prostitutes In Film

garbo in "anna chistie"

In the modern era, I recall two very well: Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman

jane fonda and caupucine in "walk on the wild side"

Oscar Hookers - Every Female Oscar Winner Played A Sex Worker

Name the female Oscar winner, and they played a sex worker at one point in their career

brooke shields, "pretty baby"

deneuve, "belle du jour"

maclaine in "irma la douce" and maybe, "the apartment" (pass around kept woman)

R4 Really? I don't recall ever playing a harlot.

Simone Signoret in "Le Ronde"

Vivian Leigh in "Waterloo Bridge"

Bernadette Peters in "Pennies from Heaven"

[quote] Really? I don't recall ever playing a harlot. —Olivia de Havilland

She played a character sold into slavery in Captain Blood 1936

Anna Karina in Godard's VIVRE SA VIE (62).

Distaff: Richard Gere in Schrader's AMERICAN GIGOLO (80).

Every one of them on your list was an Oscar winner or nominee -- except for one. (You can guess).

You've come a long way, baby!

Babs, "The Owl and the Pussycat"

Melania Mecouri, "Never on a Sunday"

R12 Errol Flynn's character is also sold into slavery in that movie - does that make Captain Blood a sex worker too?

Marsha Mason, "Cinderella Liberty"

Kathleen Turner, "Crimes of Passion"

Kim Novak, "Kiss Me Stupid"

Jennifer Jason Leigh, "Last Exit to Brooklyn"

[quote] Errol Flynn's character is also sold into slavery in that movie - does that make Captain Blood a sex worker too?

When women are sold into slavery it is usually for one thing, unlike men who are sold into slavery.

It's Susan HAYward. She won the Oscar for her knock-out performance in I Want To Live.

Impressed with the recollections here.

R24 / OP what about my website at R4 ?

Here are the 15 actresses who have won an Oscar for playing a hooker at link

Barbara Stanwyck in Capra's LADIES OF LEISURE (30).

Dorothy Mackaill in Wellman's SAFE IN HELL (31).

Loretta Young in Wellman's MIDNIGHT MART (33).

Question for DL elders

Claire Trevor won an Oscar for Key Largo 1949

Did she play a hooker in that film?

R25, I appreciate seeing the list. It's amazing the names and films noted.

Barbra twice- Owl and the Pussycat, and Nuts

Gaye Dawn was a beaten-up "B Girl", so on the continuum, she would have prostituted herself from time to time before she became pig-gangster Johnny Rocco's punching bag.

Thanks R29!

Oh please, Olivia has never played a whore, no matter how you turn it. She even turned down the role of Blanche DuBois by saying "a lady just doesn't say or do those things on the screen". If her character in Captain Blood had anything to do with prostitution she'd turn down that one too.

TO EACH HIS OWN: Oscar-winner Olivia de Havilland plays a young woman who opened her legs for a pilot and had a bastard baby as a result. In that context, she would have been considered a whore, darlin',

R34 Olivia had an affair doesn't make her a sex worker.

R33 no matter how you spin it, her character was sold into slavery. Here is the video. Errol Lynn character says that now she is his, he can do what he wants with her.

Omg, the flashbacks...I loved Cinderella Liberty.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Speedway Junky.

Tallulah Banghead in Faithless (1932)

Not THAT old, but have seen it on Classic Movies. One of her best roles.

Garbo (again) for her version of "Camille", and Greta Scacchi for her turn in the same role a few decades later

Mae West wrote and starred in a play called Sex. She played a prostitute named Margie La Monte (1927).

West was sentenced to 10 days in jail.

When did Oscar winner Deanna Durbin play a sex worker?

[quote] When did Oscar winner Deanna Durbin play a sex worker?

1944 Robert Siodmak’s Christmas Holiday

Lynn Redgrave: "The Happy Hooker"

no contest

Raquel Welch: "A House is not a Home"

Nicole Kidman: "Moulin Rouge"

Kristen Stewat: "Welcome to the Rileys"

Cybil Shepherd: "Secrets of a Married Man"

Sophia Loren in "The Life of Sophia Loren"

Shelly Long: "Night Shift"

Miriam Hopkins as the tragic Ivy in the 1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Nancy Kwan: "The World of Suzie Wong"

Susan Hayward, again, for "Ada"

Anna Karina, again, for Vadim's "Circle of Love"

Louise Brooks: "Diary of a Lost Girl"

Helen Mirren: "Hussy"

Deneuve, again: "Hustle"

Marion Cotillard: "The Immigrant"

Stockyard Channing in Grease.

Halle Berry: "Jungle Fever"

Not female though. River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho.

& Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy

Shirley Jones, again, "The Cheyenne Social Club"

Amanda Seyfried: "Chloe"

Jennifer Love Hewitt: "The Client List"

Expect Marlene Dietrich played one somewhere along the way.

Now compare this to "Actors who have portrayed male prostitutes in Film".

Richard Gere... and... the list grows very thin, very fast.

[quote] Now compare this to "Actors who have portrayed male prostitutes in Film". Richard Gere... and... the list grows very thin, very fast. ' Which was the point of the site Oscar Hookers. That every Oscar Winning Actress had once played a sex worker, yet Oscar Winning Actors, zero Sex worker roles.

Mark Wahlberg: Boogie Nights Jon Voight: MIdnight Cowboy River Phoenix: My Own Private Idaho Joe Dellasandro: Flesh, and Heat David Arquette and Lukas Haas: Johns Patrick Dempsey: Loverboy Michael Imperioli: A River Made to Drown In Adrien Brody: Summer of Sam Dermot Mulroney: The Wedding Date

Ok R68 how many Oscar winning Actors have played a sex worker?

Jon Voight, who else?

With Oscar winning actresses it is 100%

I was reinforcing the discrepancy, not contradicting it, by showing how few actors played prostitutes relative to the legions of actresses who did.

Ingrid Bergman---Arch of Triumph

Joan Crawford ---Rain

Bette Davis--Of Human Bondage

Marlene Dietrich ---Dishonored

Hedy Lamarr ("kept woman")---Lady of the Tropics

Mary Astor---Act of Violence

Marjorie Rambeau---The Primrose Path

Ava Gardner--The Angel Wore Red

Sophia Loren---Marriage Italian

Constance Towers--The Naked Kiss

Marilyn Monroe---The Cop and the Anthem

Jean Peters---Pickup on South Street

Joan Bennett---Manhunt

Rita Hayworth --Miss Sadie Thompson

Jane Russell---Revolt of Mamie

Marlon Brando --The Fugitive Kind ("party boy")

Horst Buchholz--Confessions of Felix Krull

Helmut Berger--Ash Wednesday

Keanu Reeves--My Own Private Idaho

Joe Dallessandro---Heat

Paul Newman---Sweet Bird of Youth

Jeff Chandler---Female on the Beach

Bekim Fehmiu---The Adventurers (With Olivia de Havilland as his client!)

Warren Beatty--Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (with Vivien Leigh as his client)

Bruce A. Young, as Jackie, the black transgender aprostitute in Risky Business.

Elizabeth Berkley in "Showgirls."

Anna Magnani, "Mamma Roma"

Faye Dunaway as the only whore in a small cajun town in Scorchers. She's really funny in it, getting to show a rare comedic side.

Helen Lawson, "Sin Street," "Red-Headed Sinner," and "Ill Repute." All pre-Code.

Jennifer Jason Leigh in the machinist

[quote] Every Female Oscar Winner Played A Sex Worker

Well that can't be true.

What about Linda Hunt?

Others?

Peggy Ashcroft

Faye Dunaway played another prostitute in 'DOC' .

I could never buy someone paying M for sex.

Linda Hunt played a Saloon Madam in Silverado

Peggy Ashcroft played Shen Te (a hooker) in The Good Woman of Setzuan 1956

Anything else?

Divine and Lainie Kazan, "Lust in the Dust."

Joan Bennett-Scarlet Street

Oscar-winning actresses who did NOT play prostitutes Greer Garson

Theresa Wright

Joan Fontaine

Grace Kelly

Shirley Booth

Anne Bancroft

Luise Rainer

Geraldine Page

Olivia de havilland

Mercedes McCambridge

Judy Holliday

Fay Bainter

Hillary Swank

Katharine Hepburn

R84 can you read? It says SEX WORKER

Greer Garson - Courtesan in William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors

Theresa Wright - Tea & Sympathy (Play)

Joan Fontaine - Waterloo Bridge (Radio)

Grace Kelly - Episode of Suspense

Shirley Booth - Coastwise (Play)

Anne Bancroft - Mary Magdeline

Luise Rainer - Sold Slave in The Good Earth

Geraldine Page - The Thirteenth God. (Play)

Olivia de havilland - Captain Blood (sold into slavery)

Mercedes McCambridge - Cages (Play)

Anything else?

Judy Holliday

Fay Bainter

Hillary Swank

Katharine Hepburn

Sorry didn't see the rest

Judy Holliday - Kiss Them for Me (play)

Fay Bainter - Move On, Sister (play)

Hillary Swank - Quiet Days in Hollywood

Katharine Hepburn - Night Hostess (play)

ok anything else?

They didn't play sex workers/whores/prostitutes in MOVIES. And Rainer and deHavilland don't count.

R87 the thesis is that every Oscar winning actress has played a sex worker. Last time I checked plays are considered acting.

Slavery is a form of sex work, like it or not.

The title of this thread: Actresses who played prostitutes in movies

Learn to read.

And R89 you wrote

Oscar-winning actresses who did NOT play prostitutes

Learn to write

Jamie lee Curtis in Trading Places.

Lisa Todd and several others playing french bawds in the 1969 western: Paint Your Wagon, staring Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, & Jean Seberg.

did Diane Keaton play a hooker?

Why can't I see all the posts?

For the 80s I only see the late 80s.

[quote] did Diane Keaton play a hooker?

She got paid for sex in Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Someone paid M for sex? Was it science fiction?

How about Brenda Fricker?

I'll stump the panel yet!!!!!!

R97 she played Heidi Fleiss madam in the made for tv move The Heidi Fleiss story

wicked wicked west

Susan Sarandon didn't play a whore. She played a slut!

Susan Sarandon in Pretty Baby

Pretty Baby

Julia Fucking Roberts? In "Pretty Woman"?

Jesus H. Christ, why didn't you just put Jessica Rabbit on the list.

"Roberts gave a gritty and realistic performance of the challenges faced by women in the often dark and dangerous world of sex work, " said NO ONE EVER.

R103 she got an Oscar nomination for Pretty Woman

She still sucked.

Really, R103!

Well that changes everything I ever thought about her giggling her way through that role while pressing her upturned nose against the camera.

Thank you so much for the correction.

Eileen Heckart? Cloris Leachman? Tatum O'Neal? Lee Grant? Goldi Hawn?

^R104

Leachman; "Butch Cassidy...."

Eric Roberts @ r103, the topic line says "Actresses Who Portrayed Prostitutes in Film," not "Actresses Who Gave Great Performances as Prostitutes On Film."

heckart, maybe not on film, but on TV in "Hello From Bertha" [Four by Tennessee Williams] and on stage "Doxie in a Cup of Change"

Lee Grant: Genet's "The Balcony"

Tatum O'neal: "Certain Fury"

You may call that performance if you like, R110...

But I've had more than sufficient of Miss Roberts.

Goldie Hawn: "The Heist" aka "Dollars"

Babs

Nuts

I agree, R116, and she has been fucking nuts for decades...

Now let's get back to the discussion of actors who played prostitutes on film.

Babs

Nuts

Zellweger? Zeta-Jones? Estelle Parsons?

Bette Davis-Marked woman

Jane Fondness

R41, when she was the passaround girl at Universal. Desperately trying to dethrone our little Judy.

Michelle Pfeiffer in "Fabulous Baker Boys"

Pam Grier in "The Bronx Fort Apache"

Shelley Long in "Swing Shift"

R125 *"Night Shift"

Paul Newman--Sweet Bird of Youth

Marlon Brando --Fugitive Kind

Jeff Chandler--Female on the Beach

Frank Sinatra--Pal Joey

William Holden--Sunset Boulevard

Tommy Berggren--The Adventurers

Warren Beatty--Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Helmut Berger--Ash Wednesday

Horst Buchholz--Felix Krull

Jon Voight--Midnight Cowboy

Hugh O'Brian--Love Has Many Faces

Richard Gere--American Gigolo

David Bowie--just a Gigolo

Charles Boyer--Hold Back the Dawn

Vincent Price--Laura

Hollywood's hookers are usually thinly disguised manic pixie dream girls. It's rare for an actual real hooker to be portrayed. Only recent ones that come to mind are Theron in Monster and the woman who played Wendy on Breaking Bad.

Thank goodness no one mentioned Rob Schneider as Deuce Bigalow.

Renee Zellweger - Deceiver

Catherine Zeta-Jones - West End production of Bugsy Malone

Estelle Parsons - 2 plays - Malcolm (1966) & The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968)

Fuck you, Sam Rothstein

I played whores in Miami Blues, Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Machinist and The Men's Club, gave nasty phone sex while changing dirty diapers in Short Cuts, and got raped, gang-raped, gave blowjobs and showed my tits in every other movie!

Hollywood Hookers

Jill Clayburgh in HUSTLING. But I think it was a TV movie.

Kathy Baker in STREET SMART. Morgan Freeman was her pimp.

Nancy Allen was a good prostitute in Dressed to Kill

Actual Q: was Michelle Pfeiffer's character in Scarface a prostitute or just a regular gangster's moll? I always get that character confused with the similar Sharon Stone character in Casino, who I think was an ex-prostitute turned gold-digging junkie gangster's moll, right? Both were fabulous!

Giulietta Masina in "Nights of Cabiria"

Surprised that nobody has mentioned that in the glossy beloved super glamorous romantic 1961 Manhattan of Breakfast at Tiffanys both beautiful movie star lovers are openly depicted as greedy opportunistic whores.

Not that there is anything wrong with being a greedy opportunistic whore. Just ask anyone who works for a corporation.

R1$8, did you check upthread? Someone else HAS mentioned it!

They mentioned BOTH? I thought they mentioned just Hepburn. Rare in old Hollywood or even contemporary Hollywood that the two romantic leads are both big sluts. Now in gay indie films it's a whole other story.

Keaton was a streetwalker in a fantasy sequence in "Goodbar". Guess that counts -- but may be as close as she got. 5 seconds of screentime, I think. (But she is great in the scene).

Jill Clayburgh - Hustling [1975]

The Ultimate Hooker performance: Sharon Stone in Casino

I just watched Jill Clayburg in Hustling on youtube. She really was quite good.

Fonda in Klute though is just riveting and so complex.

Have I played a hooker?

Angela Lansbury - The Long, Hot Summer

Goop in Hard Eight

Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights

Thread closed

Barbra also in For Pete's Sake, as a part time job.

Shirley MacLaine in Sweet Charity. She was said to be a dance hall hostess but that was code or why else was she too ashamed to tell her fiancé about it.

Huppert in heaven's gate

These two

How could Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas not have earned a spot in the poll? That is one of the most heart breaking performances ever. I still wish she had won the Oscar but Susan Sarandon won that year for playing St. Helen. It killed me when she lost because you just knew it was her one shot AND her performance was truly the best of the year.

I will also jog everyone’s memory and remind folks of Anna Maria Halsford’s turn as hooker Naomi in St. Elmo’s Fire. Man, that movie has not aged well. The hooker had to be black. The gay guy was Ron the Decorator, a total swish who was there to just horrify the Reagan loving audience.

Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights was not a prostitute. She was a porn actress. Some people might say that is a slim difference but I don't recall her tricking.

Isabelle Huppert in Special Treatment.

I don't think Judy Garland (who got a special juvenile Oscar for Wizard of Oz) ever played a prostitute, did she?

[quote] [R24] / OP what about my website at [R4] ?

Your website is absolutely ridiculous. They include Hattie McDaniel for playing a maid to a prostitute in "Blonde Venus"! And Trsa Wright for playing the sympathetic wife who has sex with the sexually confused boy in "Tea and Sympathy"! (" Some might argue that the role is not of a prostitute. But you can also say that the character of Laura prostituted herself. So she could restore Tom’s manhood."--no, you could NOT argue that because no money changes hands.)

Lillian Gish turned down the Belle Watling role. I don't think she was suited for it anyway. and what about actresses who played prostitutes with empathy? Marilyn Monroe? Dorothy Lamour (Darwin Porter)? Joan Crawford? 157 replies, and, after a quick search, nobody has mentioned the greatest portrayal of a prostitute at all?Syl miles in Midnight Cowboy. But let's get back to the topic, what actress morphed from the real profession to playing them on the screen?

[quote] To her credit [Jane Wyman] never did play parts like a prostitute or a drug addict. However she did play a saloon girl in the 1936 film Benegal Tiger. This was an uncredited part, meaning she was a background player.

[quote] As written about in the Linda Hunt entry, Saloon Girls provided company to lonely men and kept them drinking. The more the men drank, the more money they made as they worked on commission. Some Saloon Girls even turned tricks, with the Saloon getting a kickback.

What bullshit.

Daryl Hannah as the exhausted, careworn hooker with a shy soft side in SPEEDWAY JUNKY (1999). It’s one of the best never-seen performances of this kind. Hannah is so beautiful in it but so brittle too, like a living embodiment of koi no Yokan. Everything she did in this film worked, and not a gesture or word wasted. This part convinced me Hannah could work.

Jordan Brower also played a prostitute in this movie and was equally mesmerising in his stumbling and sweet way, if babygay hustlers even count in this poll. His character was flippant about his work in a fashion befitting his youth, but also quite clearly careworn & disappointed by it.

Trivia: this movie was actually written to capitalise on the success of MOPI and is considered a cheap pastiche, but truth be told the main prostitute/hustler characters in SPEEDWAY are better realised than the mumbling artsy leads in MOPI.

Ah, didn’t see R37’s post.

I stand by my comment though, and feel that JTT gave the least believable turn in SPEEDWAY JUNKY - yes, even Jesse Bradford gave more (there, I said it). JTT played his hustler role as if it were a bit-part in a mob movie, which cheapened it.

Hannah & Brower outshone him totally, and I’m still upset neither have won any acclaim for their performances in the film.

Peggy Wood in 'The Sound of Music'

Anouk Aimée in 'Lola'. Directed by French Jacques Demy (who also directed the Umbrellas of Cherbourg).

So when did Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy or Maggie Smith play prostitutes?

Kathy Bates in Shadows and Fog, and Cheri.

Maggie Smith won an Emmy for playing a Former hooker in "My House in Umbria"

Jessica Lange played a hooker on broadway in "Triple Play"

R159 so then what did Saloon Girls do back in the day? What did the job entail?

[quote] And Teresa Wright for playing the sympathetic wife who has sex with the sexually confused boy in "Tea and Sympathy"!

So why did she sleep with him?

Ridiculous to say Teresa's character was a sex worker.

Melina Mercouri--Never on Sunday

Zachary Scott --sort of kept in Mildred Pierce

Vivien Leigh--exquisite in Waterloo Bridge

Jean Harlow--Red Dust

Kay Francis--almost everything

Eleanor Parker --Of Human Bondage

Paulette Goddard--Hold Back the Dawn

Ingrid Bergman--Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde

Miriam Hopkins--" " " "

Barbara Stanwyck--Baby Face

Garbo--Romance, Camille

Dietrich--Dishonored, Blonde Venus

Shirley Temple--Dimples

Anne Baxter--The Razor's Edge

A 23-year old Rachel Ward as "Dominoe" in the 1981 film "Sharkey's Machine" -

(Oh, and Burt Reynolds stared in and directed the film. The film's soundtrack features Randy Crawford, backed by the Crusaders, singing "Street Life" for the opening theme song.)

[quote]Anne Bancroft - Mary Magdeline

Mary Magdalene wasn't a prostitute. Nowhere in the Bible is this stated.

R167 "What did the job entail? "

Tail.

R67 R69, you asked one year ago (!) if other best actor Oscar winners ever played a sex worker in films. How about Leonardo DiCaprio in Basketball Diaries ? At one point, his Jim Carroll, a drug addict, ends up in the streets, and has to reluctantly turn to prostitution.

For those who mentionned Shirley Mclaine, don't forget Irma La Douce!

I would also argue that Paul Newman was a gigolo in Sweet Birds of Youth. Yes ?

Kim Novak--Kiss Me Stupid, Of Human Bondage

Simone Signoret--Casque d'Or

Ava Gardner --The Angel Wore Red

Agnes Moorhead --a madam in The Revolt of Mamie Stover

[quote] [R159] so then what did Saloon Girls do back in the day? What did the job entail?

Here's your answer:

[quote] Now, east of the Mississippi River, women didn’t go in saloons, but the west was different. To the “proper” woman, there were two kinds of improper ones: saloon girls and prostitutes. And to this “proper” miss, these were lumped together and considered a necessary evil.

[quote] But to saloon girls, what they did was vastly different than the prostitutes. Only in the roughest of saloons were the ‘’girls” and prostitutes one and the same. Otherwise, saloon girls held themselves higher than the prostitutes and wouldn’t be caught dead associating with one.

[quote] So what exactly was a saloon girl? They were workers, hired by the saloon to entertain the lonely men. And men in the West tended to be lonely. They outnumbered the women three to one in most places. In California in the mid-1800s, the population was ninety percent male! The saloon girls’ job was to dance with the men. They sang to them, talked to them, and otherwise kept them in the saloon buying drinks and playing games.

[...]

[quote] As I mentioned, the saloon girls were there to dance with the men. Dancing usually started at eight or so in the evening. Each "turn” lasted about fifteen minutes and a popular girl could average as many as fifty dances a night. Often times they could make more a night than a working man could make in a month. Because of this, it was rare for them to double as a prostitute. In fact, many ladies of ill repute found they could make more money as a dance hall girl.

[quote] Most saloon girls were considered "good" women by the men. And in most places the women were treated as "ladies.” True, Western men tended to hold all women in high regard, but the saloon girls and/or the saloon keeper demanded the respect. Any man who mistreated one of these women was quickly deemed an outcast. If he insulted one, he would most likely be shot and killed.

[quote] So why did she sleep with him?

Out of sympathy. She loves him and doesn't think he's gay (he's not sure if he is or he isn;t), and wants to prove to him that he's not by sleeping with him (we never find out what happens when they have sex--but we do know she did not ask him for payment).

Another nominated actor who portrayed a prostitute but wasn't nominated for those roles though : Jude Law in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and A.I..

Sigourney Weaver in (the fairly blah) Half Moon Street.

Ahem,..... my dear Eldergay child I know it is late and MY movie portrayal slipped your mind !!! I will forgive you for not including me in the poll for my Oscar Nominated Roll in Lady Sings the Blues !!! I am still sending love !!! When you are looking at me I am looking at you !!!!!! ( even if you are having a senior moment and are forgetful sometimes !! ) Much Love !!!!!

Helen Lawson in "Old Strumpet with a Trumpet," the little-seen sequel to "Young Man with a Horn."

Bruce Jenner in "Cant Stop the Music "

Juliette Greco in The Roots of Heaven. She even offers to pay someone to sleep with her, as opposed to vice versa.

[quote]Jessica Lange played a hooker on broadway in "Triple Play"

The question listed Jessica Tandy, not Lange

Who the hell bumped this old thread? This OP was the straight guy shilling his creepy "hooker actresses" blog.

R176 ah, so Cathy Cavadini’s Tanya in AN AMERICAN TAIL II was training to be a saloon girl and not a whore. I get it, now.

Miss Kay Lenz

Liza in Rent-a-Cop.

Elizabeth Shue deserved more than an honorable mention, she should have been on the list.

The more realistic roles.

Judy Landers was magnificent in Stewardess School