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Mary Millington (born Mary Ruth Quilter^[1]^[2], November 30, 1945 – August 19, 1979) was the stage name of one of Britain's most successful porn stars of the 1970s.

Career

Known as Britain's version of Linda Lovelace, she began her career in the 8mm hardcore loops of John Jesnor Lindsay, the first- and most famous- being Miss Bohrloch which won the “Golden Phallus Award” at the Wet Dream Festival held in November 1970 in Amsterdam. Millington starred in around a dozen short hardcore films for John Lindsay, although only four (Miss Bohrloch, Oral Connection, Betrayed and Oh Nurse) have so far resurfaced. These were followed by soft core shorts by Russell Gay (Response,1974) and Harrison Marks (Sex is My Business, circa 1974) and top shelf magazine modeling.

Sex is My Business was shot late on a Saturday night at a sex shop, located on London’s Coventry Street. The storyline concerns a powerful aphrodisiac being dropped by a customer, whose potency renders the shops’ staff and customers sex crazy. Millington, dressed in a short see-through dress, is the films main focus of attention, playing a member of staff who drags a customer into the back room for some multi-position sex, thoughtfully turning on the shops CCTV camera so others can watch. Sex is My Business was considered something of a ‘lost’ film until a Super 8mm print of the film was located and privately transferred to DVD in 2008. The film subsequently made its internet debut on the 26th July 2008 at the site ZDD Visual Explosion.^[3]

Millington became well-known thanks to her appearances in millionaire David Sullivan's porn magazines and films, having been introduced to him by her Sex is My Business co-star Maureen O’Malley in February 1975. She gained further notoriety for her starring role in Sullivan's 1977 sex comedy Come Play with Me. This was followed by roles in The Playbirds (1978), in which she was ironically cast as a policewoman, as well as Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair (1979) and Queen of the Blues (1979). She also appeared in other sex movies such as Eskimo Nell (1975), Intimate Games (1976) and Derek Ford's What's Up Superdoc! (1978). Millington's final appearance was in the Sex Pistols film Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle directed by Julien Temple, which was released theatrically in March 1980. However, neither she nor her punk rock co-star Sid Vicious lived to see the completion of the movie.

In 1978 she was attached to appear in a hardcore porn film called 'Love is Beautiful', to have been directed by Gerard Damiano. However, despite Millington and Damiano being pictured together at that year's Cannes Film Festival, the movie (meant to have been produced by David Grant’s Oppidan Films) never materialized. Potential co-stars may have included Harry Reems, Gloria Brittain and Lisa Taylor.

One of Millington's most outrageous moments was being photographed topless outside 10 Downing Street. In which Millington, while posing for an innocuous picture with a policeman outside Number Ten, decided to unzip her top, exposing her breasts for the photograph, much to the surprise of those also present which included fellow Come Play With Me actress Suzy Mandel, Whitehouse photographer George Richardson (who took the picture anyway) and the policeman in question (who tried to confiscate the reel of film). According to Simon Sheridan’s biography of Millington “For this stunt Mary was conditionally discharged and bound over to keep the peace”^[4] . Millington's film Come Play With Me still stands as one of the longest-running films in British movie history, and ran continuously at the Moulin Cinema in London's West End from 1977 to 1981. In a publicity stunt for the second year anniversary of the film’s opening, both Suzy Mandel and Millington posed in lingerie on the Moulin cinema’s marquee^[5].

Death

Mary Millington committed suicide at age 33, using a deliberate overdose at her home in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey. Her life had begun a downward spiral into drug use and depression following continual police raids on her sex shops. She left a suicide note which was found near her body.

She was buried at the St Mary Magdalene Church, Betchetts Green Road in the village of South Holmwood, Surrey. Her tombstone is situated at the rear of the churchyard and bears the surname "Maxted" – her married name. She is buried in the same grave as her mother, Joan Quilter, who died in 1976.

Legacy

A posthumous exploitation film about her life was released in London in October 1980, entitled Mary Millington's True Blue Confessions. In 1996 Channel Four television screened a tribute to her entitled Sex and Fame: The Mary Millington Story featuring an interview with David Sullivan.

Twenty years after her death, the author and film historian Simon Sheridan put Mary's life into context in his critically acclaimed biography Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington. Further information about her career can be found in Sheridan's follow-up book Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema, the third edition of which was published in April 2007^[6].

In 2004 Millington’s historic importance was recognized by her inclusion into the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography^[7], edited by Colin Matthew and Brian Harrison. Her entry was written by Richard Davenport-Hines.

2008 saw a London exhibition of the work of the late glamour photographer Fred Grierson, which included several little-seen pictures of Mary taken by Grierson at June Palmers’ Strobe Studios in the early 1970s.

Filmography

Miss Bohrloch (short 1970)
Oh, Nurse! (short 1971)
Oral Connection (short 1971)
Betrayed (short 197?)
Secrets of a Door to Door Salesman (1973, scenes cut)
Response aka Go Down, My Lovely (short 1974)
Sex is My Business (aka Sex Shop) (short 1974)
Eskimo Nell (film) (1974)
Erotic Inferno (1975)
I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight (1975)
Private Pleasures (1975) (shot in Sweden)
Keep It Up Downstairs (1976)
Intimate Games (1976)
Come Play with Me (1977)
The Playbirds (1978)
Queen of the Blues (1979)
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (posthumous 1980)
Mary Millington's True Blue Confessions (posthumous 1980)
Mary Millington's World Striptease Extravaganza (posthumous 1982)
Sex and Fame: The Mary Millington Story (TV documentary 1996)

Magazine appearances

Around the World in 80 Lays (Beryl Grant) 197?
Sexpert Vol 2 No. 8 197?
Knave Vol.6 No.3 1974 cover and 8 pages inside inc centerfold
Fiesta Vol.8 No.5 1974
Caprice Plus No.4 197?
New Direction Vol.5 No.8 197?
Supermag No.4 197?
Late Night Extra 1974 as "Nancy Astley"
Titbits (No. 4613, August 1-7 1974, "Eskimo Nell")
Fiesta Vol 8 no 5 1974 inside photograph of Mary on the London Underground
Janus Vol.4 No.7 circa 1975 (cover picture)
Janus Vol.4 No.8 circa 1975 (cover picture)
Beautiful Britons No.238 September 1975
Rustler vol 1 no 5 1976 small cover photo , and inside photo shoot 5 pages ,11 photographs.
Club International jan 1976 vol 5 no 1 - 5 pages as " Mia" with Pat Astley
Beautiful Britons No.247 June 1976
Playbirds Vol.1 No.1 197?
Playbirds Vol.1 No.2 197? cover and 15 pages inc colour photographs
Playbirds Vol.1 No.3 197?
Playbirds Vol.1 No.4 197?
Playbirds Vol.1 No.6 197?
Playbirds Vol.1 No.8 197? Mary at the Frankfurt trade fair
Playbirds Vol.1 No.16 197? cover and inside
Playbirds Vol.1 No 21 197? cover only
Playbirds Vol.1 No 24 197? inside
Continental Film Review (vol 25 no 6, 1978) "The Playbirds"
Continental Film Review (vol 25 no 7, 1978) "The Playbirds"
Cover Girl Vol.1, No.3 circa 1978
Cover Girl Vol.1, No.6 circa 1978
Private No.28 197?
Park Lane No.15 197?
Weekend Sex No.17 197?
Whitehouse No.10 197?
Whitehouse No.15 197? cover 5 pages article inside
Whitehouse No.16 197? 10 pages inc colour photographs and centre spread
Whitehouse No.40 197? colour trade ad for " playbirds " film and 4 page synopsis
Whitehouse No.47 197? colour trade ad for the david galaxy affair plus 4 page article on film
Weekend Sex No.31 197?
Park Lane No.10 197? 5 pages article plus 2 pages colour photographs
Park Lane No.11 197? 8 pages article
Park Lane No.23 197?
Ladybirds No.1 197?
New Action MS no 28 Mary meets Rosemary England photo shoot + queen of the blues trade ad
Playbirds erotic film guide no 1 Mary cover come play with me feature
Climax No.14 197?
Exciting Cinema No.18 “Mary Millington meets Rosemarie England in the Flesh” circa 1979
International Cover Girls No.14 1979
Revel no 3 tribute to Mary

David Sullivan’s magazines were often undated, as such the only way of dating them is by which Sullivan produced films were being promoted inside the magazines, i.e. a Sullivan magazine which promotes Come Play With Me would be from 1976/1977, ones promoting The Playbirds would be circa 1978, and ones promoting Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair from 1979.

References

^ Simon Sheridan Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington 1999 (FAB Press, Guildford)
^ Birth name cited at http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/2982
^ Mary Millington rarity found
^ Sheridan, Simon 1999. Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington FAB Press ISBN 0-9529260-7-5
^ Suzy Mandel and Mary Millington pictured April 1979
^ Sheridan, Simon 2005. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema Reynolds & Hearn Books ISBN 1-903111-92-7
^ Inclusion referenced at http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=69621191088971

Millington, Mary and Weldon, David 1979. The Amazing Mary Millington Futura ISBN 0708814530

Biography

Simon Sheridan Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema 2007 (third edition) (Reynolds & Hearn books)
Simon Sheridan Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington 1999 (FAB Press, Guildford)
Mary Millington & David Weldon The Amazing Mary Millington (Futura, 1979)

{{subst:#if:Millington, Mary|}} [[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1945}}

|| UNKNOWN | MISSING = Year of birth missing {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1979}}||LIVING=(living people)}}
| #default = 1945 births

}}]] {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1979}}

|| LIVING  = 
| MISSING  = 
| UNKNOWN  = 
| #default =

}}

[1] Simon Sheridan Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington 1999 (FAB Press, Guildford)

[2] Birth name cited at http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/2982

[3] Mary Millington rarity found

[4] Sheridan, Simon 1999. Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington FAB Press ISBN 0-9529260-7-5

[5] Suzy Mandel and Mary Millington pictured April 1979

[6] Sheridan, Simon 2005. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema Reynolds & Hearn Books ISBN 1-903111-92-7

[7] Inclusion referenced at http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=69621191088971

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@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Mary Millington committed [[suicide]] at age 33, using a deliberate [[overdose]] at her home in [[Walton-on-the-Hill]], [[Surrey]]. Her life had begun a downward spiral into drug use and [[Clinical depression|depression]] following continual police raids on her sex shops. She left a [[suicide note]] which was found near her body.
-She was buried at the St Mary Magdalene Church, Betchetts Green Road, [[South Holmwood]], Surrey. Her tombstone is situated at the rear of the churchyard and bears the surname "Maxted" – her married name. She is buried in the same grave as her mother, Joan Quilter, who died in 1976.
+She was buried at the St Mary Magdalene Church, Betchetts Green Road in the village of [[South Holmwood]], Surrey. Her tombstone is situated at the rear of the churchyard and bears the surname "Maxted" – her married name. She is buried in the same grave as her mother, Joan Quilter, who died in 1976.
 ==Legacy==