Gloria Leonard – Actress, Biography, Onlyfans, Twitter, Instagram

Gloria Leonard (born Gale Sandra Klinetsky; August 28, 1940 – February 3, 2014) was an American pornographic actress during the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984) who later became the publisher of High Society magazine. As a board member of Adult Video Association and its successor the Free Speech Coalition, Leonard was an outspoken advocate for the adult film industry and free speech rights.

In the 1960s, Leonard was a registered representative for the bond trading firm of Schweickert & Company. She later went into public relations and worked for Elektra Records. Later in the 1970s, she worked for a film production company in the Caribbean. Upon her return to New York, looking for work, she contacted casting agent Dorothy Palmer, who apparently failed to tell Leonard that the acting role she cast her in was for an adult film.

Leonard began appearing in hardcore pornography in 1974 and appeared in approximately 40 film/projects from 1976 to 1984, in films including Odyssey: The Ultimate Trip (1977), directed by Gerard Damiano, The Trouble With Young Stuff, All About Gloria Leonard (both of which were written and directed by Joseph W. Sarno), Fortune Smiles, Maraschino Cherry and Taboo: American Style. She is best known for her role in The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Radley Metzger’s erotic reimagining of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. She retired from acting in 1984.

She directed several films for companies such as Adam & Eve, VCA Pictures, and Vivid Entertainment.

In 1977, she was hired as the publisher of High Society magazine, a position she held for 14 years while continuing to act and appear in films. She was hired by the magazine's publisher Carl Ruderman, who wanted a female publisher of a men's magazine. Adult-industry historian Ashley West stated in an interview that Ruderman expected her to be a figurehead, but that she took the position seriously. West said, "Gloria really would visit wholesalers herself, had relationships with all the distributors, would hire and fire staff, would supervise layouts, would recommend and decide upon the content, so really became a hands-on editor, at least in the first five or six years of her stint at High Society."

Leonard is also credited with two successful ideas that each became cottage industries: the publishing of nude celebrity photos and phone sex lines. Starting out as a feature that showcased risqué photos of celebrities like Jodie Foster and Goldie Hawn, usually lifted from film stills, the former became a spin-off venture of High Society called Celebrity Skin magazine in 1986. Over its 25-year run Margot Kidder, Ann-Margret and Barbra Streisand unsuccessfully attempted to sue the magazine after it published nude photos of them.