A very successful porn star who made about 70 movies between 1997 and 2000.

Born Stacy Baker, she was adopted at birth and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma with an abusive father who left her family when she was 10. As Dr. Drew might have predicted, she married an abusive husband right out of high school who was fond of watching and reading porn. He thought that his wife would make a good model, and he encouraged Stacy to send some amateur nude photos of herself to Gallery magazine, so that he would have something to show off to his friends. The magazine loved the pics and promptly invited Stacy to shoot an actual layout. A few months later, Hustler asked her to participate in a boy-girl photo shoot in Mexico. By this time, Stacy had taken quite well to doing nude layouts, and her husband had become much more jealous and possessive of her as a result, a classic example of the perils of getting what you wish for.

Finally, faced with a choice between sticking with her husband and continuing her career in the adult entertainment industry, Baker packed her things and flew out to California to get a start in porn movies. Since her first porn shoot happened to fall on Valentine's Day, she chose to work under the screen name Stacy Valentine.

She was an instant hit, due to the fact that she was naturally blond, she had a gorgeous face, she was in shape, she already had big fake breasts from her marriage, and, unlike colleagues Jenna Jameson or Stephanie Swift who had comparable good looks, she had no problems with shooting anal or DP scenes, or taking a facial cumshot. She eventually became a contract girl with the classy VCA Pictures, making a few big-budget pictures a year for more pay. During her career, she won the porn equivalents of an Oscar, a Palm D'Or, and two Golden Globes.

Baker found her newfound independance better than having to rely on men as she had done in Oklahoma. As for exploitation, she saw sex, admittedly "the only thing I'm good at", as the key to retaining that life. In her own words: "When I'm horny, I go to work. And when I want affection, I have my cats." Nonetheless, she maintained an on-again, off-again relationship with fellow performer Julian throughout much of her career in her porn. The relationship suffered, however, as Julian was not as willing or able to compartmentalize sex and love as well as Baker could. The couple split for good in 1998.

At the beginning of 2000, Baker announced her retirement from porn. She currently plans to open a clothing store in Southern California. As porn retirements tend to be pretty temporary, we shall have to wait and see if she stays away from the industry.

Most of the above came from the excellent documentary The Girl Next Door, by Christine Fugate. Fugate followed Baker around for most of the years 1997 and 1998, and got a very personal look into Baker's life.