Barbara Dare was born Stacy Mitnick on February 23, 1963 in Wichita Falls, Texas. Her father was a dentist in the Air Force and her mother was an alcoholic. Dare grew up in the Jewish faith in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Wayne Hills High School. She went on to earn a degree in Buying & Merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Barbara first got involved with the adult film industry in the mid-1980's because of her wild and uninhibited anything-goes lifestyle at the legendary New York City swinger's club Plato's Retreat. Dare became one of the first porn actresses to sign an exclusive contract with a production company after she signed a $100,000 contract deal with Essex Video. Barbara appeared in well over 100 explicit hardcore features.