Remembering Terri Hall, NYC's Most Exotic Multihyphenate

In showbusiness there are lots of people called "multihyphenates" i.e. people who practice more than one craft. Examples: writer-director, director-producer, actor-wrestling star, actress-lifestyle entrepreneur, etc. 

I consider myself a bit of a multiphenate too but the late Terri Hall might be NYC's most exotic and interesting one.

Born in 1953 and originally from upstate New York, Terri came to NYC in high school to train as a ballerina. She had some success, dancing for companies such as American Ballet Theatre (like me) and, overseas, the Monte Carlo City Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet Company. She must have been a really good dancer because those were (and are) some of the top ballet companies in the world. But her ballet career was short -- it appears that drugs and mental illness might have contributed to that -- and by the age of 21 she was doing adult films.

But even in that notorious business, Terri had some success. For the next ten years she made many such films, including some "golden age classics" like The Opening of Misty Beethoven and The Story of Joanna. She worked with many of the top directors and performers of this time like the legendary (and legendarily well-endowed) John Holmes. 

Eventually Terri left the adult biz but didn't disapear from performing right away: she worked as a model for famous photographers, including for the even more notorious  and controversial Robert Mapplethorpe. The work she did for him and others was so noteworthy that it was even displayed at the Whitney Museum! 

Sadly Terri didn't live long -- eventually she left NYC, wound up in Pennsylvania, had various health problems, and apparently died in 2007. She would have only been 53/54 years old -- gone too soon. 

And yet she left her mark.

Even though Terri Hall wasn't some great beauty, her allure was undeniable. She just had that "thing." And how many us can say that we danced with top ballet companies, starred in some classic adult films with famous stars, and modeled for NYC's most famous photographer? That's an amazing legacy -- and an amazing multihyphenate one: a ballerina-adult star-photographer model. 

Only in NYC!