LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Porn star Marilyn Chambers, who made waves in the 1970s by having screen sex with an African-American, has been found dead at her Los Angeles home at the age of 56, coroner’s officials said yesterday.

The Los Angeles coroner’s office said an autopsy would be carried out to determine the cause of her death late on Sunday night.

Chambers, whose real name was Marilyn Taylor, broke into the adult film industry by appearing in the 1972 film Behind the Green Door, which was among the first pornographic films released widely in the United States to attract mainstream attention.

The adult film caused a stir in part because Chambers was seen having sex with African-American porn star Johnny Keyes.

Chambers made more than 25 porn movies, trading on her earlier role as the blonde cover girl on the Ivory Snow soap box, where she posed holding a baby under the tag line “99 & 44/100% pure”.

She also made several films with late porn star John Holmes, who died of AIDS complications in 1988, and she had flings with careers in music and politics. Chambers ran for US vice president in 2004 on the Personal Choice Party ticket and released the disco single “Benihana” in 1976.

Chambers had a bit part in the 1970 Barbra Streisand film The Owl and the Pussycat, and starred in the 1977 David Cronenberg horror movie Rabid. But after establishing herself as a pornographic film star, she was never able to break into mainstream films.