I don't think many people would question that porn, or at least being a porn performer, is very much a young person's industry. The vast majority of performers are under 35 and you usually have to be at least under 21 when you are looking to make your breakthrough or debut to have the best chance of breaking in to porn. Then again, the same could be said of many different types of performance media, and it's certainly not a criticism of porn at all.

But there can't have been many performers in the history of studio porn that have gone on to make a great career for themselves that regularly passes into the mainstream and been older than Savanna Samson was when she debuted. Her first movie saw her hit the screen at the age of 32 and now, approaching her 41st birthday in the next few days or so, she is still working as hard and as impressively as she did when she made her debut over 9 years ago. And not just at porn either.

Despite by no means being frightened of giving an interview or two (being such a huge name star, it's probably best that you don't mind giving them), it's actually very difficult to find out what Savanna did with her life prior to becoming an exotic dancer and close friend of Howard Stern in the mid-nineties. All that we know for sure is that she grew up and trained as a ballet dancer along with her 4 sisters, and that she has a potent mixture of Scottish, German, Italian and Irish in her blood that contributes to her ravishing looks.

Her entry into adult entertainment mainly came as a regular stripper on Howard Stern's television show, but it-s widely suspected that her porn debut came in the movie Rocco Meats An American Angel In Paris in 1999 which, allegedly, she starred in after her boyfriend had a fantasy about her having sex with a pornstar. She was believed to be extremely unhappy with the result though after she viewed the film and refused to watch it all after bursting into tears.

As the experience proved to be such an unhappy one, the name of Savanna Samson would not be seen again in porn circles until 2002. In the two years between, she gave birth to her first son and was well on the way towards divorcing her then husband. In 2002 she was quickly signed to Vivid as one of their contract girls, and has been so for 6 years now. Unusually for a mainstream pornstar, she has shot almost all of her movies for that same company. Looking at the accolades she-s attracted, it-s not difficult to see why she resisted straying to other companies.

Vivid quickly began putting her in some of its very biggest titles. A role in Looking In in 2003 saw her take away two AVN Awards including one of the ceremony's biggest gongs - for Best Actress. She quickly became established as one of the company's top stars within a few months of being signed up, and her mainstream interests, which still see her making a fair number of TV appearances, have not seen her porn career slow down one iota.

If anything, the appearances seem to strengthen her resolve to continue as a star. Whilst stars such as Tera Patrick and Jenna Jameson struggled to make headway in the mainstream industry, Savanna Samson was still happy burrowing away with occasional appearances, and almost became seen as the acceptable face of porn within the mainstream. 2006 would see her become even more mainstream when she launched her own label of wines which were well received by wine critics, by some remarkable occurrence.

More AVN Awards followed in 2005 and 2006, whilst in 2007 she signed a recording contract to an acclaimed label with major connections within the music industry. This most talented of ladies then snapped up the lead in a one-off reality TV show called MILF for Showtime TV before more award nominations and a role in the hugely successful sequel to The Devil In Miss Jones.

2008 continued to expand her array of talents when she appeared in a skit on the Daily Show With Jon Stewart and, in her 42nd year on the planet, celebrated her 6th AVN Award for a scene in Debbie Does Dallas Again. She-s been described in some quarters as being the industry's ‘renaissance woman, with so many interests and so many talents in so many areas that she continues to add to seemingly with every passing year.

The fact that she shows no sign of slowing up in her forties and indeed seems to be getting busier has led some to wonder how she finds time for it all. That she still finds so much time for porn in her working life is almost certainly to our advantage. And if recent titles like 59 Seconds are anything to go by, you wouldn't bet against her hitting double figures for AVN Awards before she hangs up her bra.

PROFILE:-

Name - Savanna Samson
Porn aliases - None
Place of birth - Rochester, New York, USA
Nationality / Ethnicity - German / Italian / Scottish / Irish-American
Date of birth - October 14th, 1967
Official website - www.clubsavannasamson.com
Debut year - 1999
Specialist niches / genres - Various hardcore
Mainstream exposure - Ed, (1 episode) (TV series, 2000) Saturday Night Live (cameo, 1 episode) (TV series, 2006), The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (1 episode) (TV series, 2008). Also has own acclaimed wine label and also a record deal with Koch Records.
Must-see movies / titles - Looking In (2003), The Masseuse (2004), Dual Identity (2003), The New Devil In Miss Jones (2004), Debbie Does Dallas Again (2007)
Must-see sites - Vivid