Brigitte Lahaie

Brigitte Lahaie (born on 12 October 1955 in Tourcoing, France) is a radio talk show host, actress and former pornstar from France. She began her career at age 15 with a minor role in Africa Erotica (1970) and performed in pornographic films from 1976 through 1980. Often called the "Queen of French Porn", her father was a banker, and her mother was an accountant. Brigitte also has two brothers and a sister. Lahaie moved with her sister to Paris, France in 1975 and worked in a shoe store prior to getting her first film job through a newspaper advert. Brigitte began performing in explicit hardcore movies in 1976 just a year following the legalization of hardcore pornography in France. After establishing herself as a star attraction in adult fare, Brigitte played a small role in the horror picture The Grapes of Death (1978) for cult cinema director Jean Rollin. Lahaie went on to tackle a lead role in Fascination (1979) for Rollin. Moreover, in the early 1980's Brigitte decided to stop doing porn and made a concentrated effort to appear in more traditional mainstream films under the alias Brigitte Simonin. (She has small parts in such mainstream movies as Diva (1981) and Henry & June (1990).) In addition, Lahaie published an autobiography in 1987, recorded and released a pop single, and even did a successful one-woman stage show about her life and career before going on to become the hostess of her own daily talk radio show that largely centers on issues concerning sexuality and relationships. Brigitte was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame as a Film Pioneer in 2014. She chose to be listed as "Brigitte Lahaie" since her surname is a transfer to French from her Flemish name, "vanmeerhaeghe," in which "higher" means "hedge," since "la haie" is "the hedge" in French.