Laura Gemser

Biography

Laurette Marcia "Laura" Gemser (born October 5, 1950, Java, Indonesia) is a Dutch-based actress of Indo descent. She is known for her work with director Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, in particular, for doing a set of exploitation-style and Black Emmanuelle films. Gemser has also been credited as Moira Chen, most notably in Love Is Forever (1983). Gemser left Indonesia in 1955, at the age of four, and moved with her parents to the Netherlands. She grew up in the Dutch city of Utrecht, where she attended the MULO Regentesseschool high school. After that, she attended the Artibus Art School in Utrecht, where she specialized in fashion design. In 1975 she moved to Italy. After modelling in various magazines in the Netherlands and Belgium, Gemser began to take part in some soft erotic films. She became internationally recognised after starring in a number of Black Emanuelle films in the 1970s. Her most mainstream and well-received role was as Laotian refugee Keo Sirisomphone in Michael Landon's 1983 American television movie, Love Is Forever, in which she was credited as Moira Chen.[citation needed] Gemser continued to do films: at times, she worked with her actor husband, Gabriele Tinti. In the 1990s, she left the movies to do costume designing for film. In addition, she lost her husband, who died of cancer in 1991. Today she lives in retirement and low profile in Rome, but she is still remembered as one of the many beautiful women who played the sensual adventuress Emmanuelle.

Photos