The Mother Of A ‘The Walking Dead’ Star Was An Adult Film Star Known For Starring In ‘Deep Throat’

Before starring in the 10th season of The Walking Dead, I was familiar with actress Thora Birch, mostly for her work on American Beauty, Ghost World, and the daughter of Harrison Ford’s character in two Jack Ryan movies. What I did not know until a recent WTF with Marc Maron podcast, however, is that the parents of Thora Birch were adult film stars. In fact, her mother, Carol Connors, starred in Deep Throat, a highly influential 1972 adult film made Linda Lovelace famous (and the title was also the pseudonym of the informant who provided information to Woodward and Bernstein during Watergate).

Maron seemed a little hesitant at first about asking Thora Birch about her parents, but Birch — who plays Gamma on The Walking Dead — seemed open to talk about them but somewhat uncomfortable. Connors and her husband John Birch were adult-film stars throughout the 1970s, and starred together in Candy Goes to Hollywood, Connor’s sequel to Erotic Adventures of Candy, in which she starred opposite John Holmes. By the time Birch was born, however, her parents were mostly done with the adult-film business and Carol Connors switched gears and became a female bodybuilder.

As Thora Birch tells it, her parents were fairly conservative, not “in the religious sense,” but they were strict, very health-conscious and wouldn’t let Thora watch much TV. However, to give Thora something to do, her babysitter often took her to auditions for commercials, which is how she got started in the business at the age of four. Her parents eventually became her managers “for a period of time.” Birch also maintains a “good” relationship with her parents to this day (they are still married).

Meanwhile, while Connors was still working in the adult-film business, she also made several appearances on The Gong Show, where she introduced Chuck Barris, who may or may not have been an assassin for the CIA!

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC. This week’s episode is a doozy.

Source: WTF with Marc Maron