Marlene Clark
Nude

Born on December 19, 1949, in Los Angeles, California, to a bus driver father and a factory worker mother, Marlene Clark wasn’t exactly born with a golden ticket to fame in her hand. She was raised in Harlem in New York City, where she studied Speech at the City College of New York. She started acting in plays and working as a model before she graced the screen for the first time in For Love of Ivy (1968). After that, she took on some uncredited roles in works such as Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Putney Swope (1969), but don’t worry — this bootyful babe worked her way up to bigger and better things. Marlene beamed into America’s living rooms weekly as the trash-talking “Janet Lawson,” serving as a foil to lecherous and conniving Redd Foxx on the classic television comedy of manners Sanford and Son (1976). How many Sanford viewers would have guessed that lippy Janet had a past as a revolutionary performer in such ethnically fueled productions as Switchblade Sisters (1975), Black Werewolf (1972), Black Mamba (1974), and Night of the Cobra Woman (1973)? And how many would have been pleasantly shocked to view clips of Clark’s bountiful, proudly hanging bosom and unabashedly protruding butt cushions in Clay Pigeon (1971), Slaughter (1972), or Ganja & Hess (1972)? But honestly, how many of you Sanford fans knew about Marlene’s past all along? Marlene quit acting in the late ’80s, leaving us with roles in works such as Head of the Class (1988). Mr. Skin hopes she’ll come back!