Mary Mendum was born on February 21, 1952. She grew up in a poor family outside of Chicago. She began her acting career in the early '70s in stage productions of her then boyfriend Michael Butler such as "Hair" and "Lenny". Mendum started appearing in movies with small parts in adult pictures for director Chuck Vincent and posed for nude layouts in a few prominent men's magazines. She achieved her greatest enduring cult cinema popularity with her outstanding portrayal of Anne in Radley Metzger's movie The Image (1975).