Joseph W. Sarno

Sarno was born in 1921 and grew up in Amityville on Long Island. ==Career==

Sarno, a pioneer of the sexploitation film genre, completed his first adult-oriented feature, Nude in Charcoal, in 1961. Among his best-known films in the genre are Sin in the Suburbs (1964), which was about wife swapping, Flesh and Lace, The Swap and How They Made It (1966), in which his wife appeared, He was also well known for scenarios centering on issues of psycho-sexual anxiety and sexual identity development. During his sexploitation period, Sarno worked with such actors as Uta Erickson, Dyanne Thorne (star of the Ilsa series), Audrey Campbell (''Olga's House of Shame'' series), Michael Alaimo, Patricia McNair, Tod Moore, and his cousin, Joe Santos, who would become a regular on television's The Rockford Files. Beginning in 1968, Sarno's work became somewhat more explicit, predicting the emergence of softcore porn. His breakthrough feature Inga (1968) ==Personal life and death==

In 1970, Sarno married Peggy Steffans, who was 17 years his junior. Steffans was a non-sex performing actress, assistant director and costumer in several of his films. Together they had a son, Matthew. ==Critical reputation==

Singled out for praise by critic Andrew Sarris during the 1970s, Sarno's work has been acknowledged in recent years by tributes at the New York Underground Film Festival, the Torino Film Festival in Turin, Italy, the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, and The Andy Warhol Museum. Sarno has had a tribute at the British Film Institute in London and has given an honorary lecture at Lund University in Sweden. A Life in Dirty Movies is a 2013 Swedish documentary about Sarno and his wife, and their attempt to make one last film. ==Selected filmography==

• Sin in the Suburbs (1964) • The Swap and How They Make It (1966) • Moonlighting Wives (1966) • The Love Merchant (1966) • Deep Inside (1968) • Inga (1968) • All the Sins of Sodom (1968) • The Seduction of Inga (1968) • Daddy Darling (1970) • Deep Throat, Part II (1974) • Confessions of a Young American Housewife (1974) • Butterfly (1975) • Abigail Leslie Is Back in Town (1974) • ''Laura's Toys'' (1975) • Misty (1976) • Inside Jennifer Welles (1977) • All About Gloria Leonard (1978) • Inside Seka (1980) • Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981) • Suburban Secrets (2004) • A Life in Dirty Movies (2013) ==References==