C.J. Laing, born Wendy Miller on August 1, 1956, in New York City, grew up in a middle-class family with little documented detail about her early education. A fan of 1970s San Francisco music and a Grateful Dead groupie, she hitchhiked to San Francisco in her late teens, living in a communal house with the Angels of Light, a performance troupe, per Wikipedia. To earn money, she auditioned for the Mitchell Brothers, known for Behind the Green Door (1972), and debuted in their adult film loops series Juke Joint in 1974 at age 18, using the alias Gwen Starr. Returning to New York, she was cast by the Buckley Brothers in her first theatrical adult feature in 1975 with Jamie Gillis, adopting the stage name C.J. Laing. She appeared in over 50 films and loops during the 1970s, primarily with East Coast directors like Radley Metzger, Roberta Findlay, and Shaun Costello. Notable films include Anyone But My Husband (1975, as frustrated housewife Nora Pelham), Barbara Broadcast (1977, as sexy reporter Roberta), Dominatrix Without Mercy (1976, as a mistreated hooker), and Water Power (1977, as vice detective Irene Murray), with her raw, intense scenes—often involving anal, bondage, and fisting—noted for their kinkiness, per IMDb and IAFD. Laing was often cast in victim roles, including brutal rape scenes in Sex Wish (1976) and The Taking of Christina (1976), reflecting the era’s “roughie” subgenre. Roughies were a subgenre of exploitation films from the 1960s and 70s, often associated with the grindhouse cinema tradition. These films typically feature a mix of sex and violence, including depictions of male violence against women, sometimes involving kidnapping, rape, or murder.