Patrice Donnelly
Nude

Good looks can be an androgynous quality, such as in the sculpted, clear angles in the face of actress Patrice Donnelly. Is the athletically-lean brunette so handsome in a womanly way that she actually exhibits a feminine prettiness beneath her butch exterior? Or does her intrinsic female comeliness shine through despite years of devoting herself to sportsmanlike pursuits? (Patrice was a star hurdler who attended the 1976 Summer Olympics but was eliminated in the heats.) The debate is rendered moot by Donnelly’s clothes-doffing, lesbianic workout in Personal Best (1982), a saga of female Olympic hopefuls training for some sort of special nude competition. Join the jockless jocks in the steam room. Pretty, buff Patrice cracks a quick split of beav as the all-nude centerpiece in a clutch of athletic naked chicks lounging in the sheen of a steam bath. Look for full muff in the mist. If you squint, you can also see the miscellaneous private parts of Jodi Anderson, Emily Dole, Jan Glotzer, Mariel Hemingway, Kari G. Peyton, Maren Seidler, Pam Spencer, and Martha Watson. It’s no wonder that Personal Best earned a “Hall of Fame Nudity!” distinction from Mr. Skin. That movie was Patrice’s personal best, but she acted in several other projects, including the feature American Anthem (1986) and the short Gay Propaganda (2002). She accrued another nude credit after the 1996 documentary The Celluloid Closet used footage of her Personal Best sexcapades. Other than that, Patrice is a One Nude Role Wonder, but that’s better than no nude roles at all.