Linda Susan Boreman (January 10, 1949 – April 22, 2002), more commonly referred to by her onetime stage name Linda Lovelace, was an American pornographic actress famous for her performance in the 1972 hardcore porn film Deep Throat. Although the film was an enormous success at the time, it was later alleged by Boreman that her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, had threatened and coerced her into the performance. Boreman described what went on behind the scenes in her autobiography Ordeal. She later became a "born again" Christian and a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.
Boreman was born in The Bronx, New York, to a working-class family. She was raised in an unhappy family as the daughter of John Boreman, a police officer who was seldom home, and Dorothy Boreman (née Tragney), a waitress who was a harsh, domineering mother. She attended private Catholic schools, including Saint John the Baptist (Yonkers, New York) and Maria Regina High School. Linda was nicknamed "Miss Holy Holy" in high school because she kept her dates at a safe distance. When Boreman was 16, her family moved to Davie, Florida after her father retired from the New York City Police Department. At age 20, she gave birth to her first child, which her mother gave up for adoption. Shortly afterwards, Linda returned to New York City to live and go to computer school. There, she was involved in an automobile accident, sustaining injuries that were serious enough to require her to undergo a blood transfusion. The transfused blood had not been properly screened for hepatitis contamination, which caused her to need a liver transplant 18 years later.