Other names Barbara Cunningham Ethnicity Caucasian | Name Aja Aja Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) | |
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Born July 14, 1963 ( 1963-07-14 ) Tampa, Florida, U.S. Died September 18, 2006(2006-09-18) (aged 43)Mexico No. of adult films 276 as performer(including compilations)17 as director(per IAFD) Similar Tracey Adams, Tori Welles, Ashlyn Gere | ||
Aja (July 14, 1963 – September 18, 2006) was the stage name of an American pornographic actress, adult film director, and exotic dancer.
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Aja (actress)
Career
Aja starred in director John Leslie's Adult Video News' Best Video of the Year award-winning Mad Love (1988) in a scene described as "notably [...] surreal" by author and Ohio University Telecommunications graduate studies director Joseph W. Slade. AVN later declared the film one of the 500 best of all time, also describing Aja's scene as "strange"; she starred in two others among their 500 best, Alex deRenzy's Ghostess with the Mostess and Paul Thomas' The Naked Stranger, all in her first year as a performer, winning AVN's "Best New Starlet" in 1989.
In 1990, she starred in director Sharon Kane's Stairway to Paradise, a film that was the subject of a study by University of California, Los Angeles professor of psychiatry and human sexual relations specialist Robert Stoller. In casting the film, writer Jim Holliday "wanted Aja in the worst way and Sharon agreed. Aja is very box-officeable."
According to the Internet Adult Film Database Aja stopped filming new scenes in the early 2000s, though videos that feature her performances continue to be released through 2014.
Appearances
On September 16, 1992, she was one of four porn performers participating in the Porn-AM Golf Tournament in Denver, Colorado, which was organized by J. R. Wolfe as a benefit for the Adult Film and Video Association of America's recently formed Free Speech Legal Defense Fund.
In 1994, Carnal Comics published a comic book rendition of her biography and how she became a porn performer, which was reprinted three times.
Death
Aja was reported to have died in Mexico on September 18, 2006.