How Ashlyn Gere Went from My Classroom to Porn Stardom

How Ashlyn Gere Went from My Classroom to Porn Stardom

By Jack Sheehan •

It was 1980 and the first day of the fall semester in English 101 at UNLV. A roomful of 18- and 19-year-olds sat stone-faced, braced for the unpleasant. The anxiety on their faces suggested the moments before a root canal. I would be assigning a short in-class essay to get a feel for the talent, or lack thereof, that I would be molding over the next four months. As I wrote my name on the blackboard, I heard the click click click of pointed heels on the tile. I paused and turned. It was a dazzling young woman with short brown hair. She gave me a sheepish smile and shrugged. "Sorry," she said. "I couldn't find the room."

She wore hermetically sealed jeans and a gold waist chain. In the interest of maintaining teacher-student decorum, I did my best to act unimpressed as she slid coyly into a front-row desk. My 18-year-old male students weren't as restrained. One actually whistled, which drew some giggles.

Hers was the first essay I read when I returned to my office. The topic was "My Dream Career." She wrote about wanting to become an actress, about how one day she would make her mark in Hollywood.

Well, there's no denying she became a film star.

To her thousands of fans who faithfully rent or buy her movies or subscribe to her website or pay a cover charge to see her dance, and to the members of her genre who have elected her to their hall of fame, Ashlyn Gere is a major star. But she rarely gets approached in shopping malls for an autograph, and even those who do recognize her are probably reluctant to admit it.

How she came to be one of the most popular actresses ever to have wild sex on camera, and how for more than a decade she has sustained a career in a business that chews up and spits out most young women in a year or two, interested me both personally and professionally. Despite the fact that she was irresistibly cute and demurely sexy as a student at UNLV, and athletic and charismatic enough to be a four-year cheerleader for the Runnin' Rebel teams of the Jerry Tarkanian glory years, I never would have guessed that of the hundreds of students I taught in my five years in front of a classroom, she would be the one to pursue porno as a career. She just seemed too bubbly and innocent. After one semester she gave me a coffee mug with the name "Brillo" inscribed on it, a clear reference to my being follicly challenged. I kidded her that it was too late for apple-polishing, that the final grades had been turned in. She said, "Oh, whatever grade I get is fine. I just wanted you to know that I enjoyed the class" ...