To fans of cult director Jess Franco - indeed, European horror and exploitation movies in general - Lina Romay is something of a legend. Though never classically trained as an actress, she became the muse, lover and eventual wife of the Spanish director starring in over 100 of his movies.
Born Rosa María Almirall Martínez in Barcelona, Spain, on 17 July 1975, Lina had a captivating beauty that demanded attention in horror movies like Female Vampire and Die Marquise von Sade, or prison exploitation flicks like Caged Women and Wanda The Wicked Warden. And while other stars of the genre stopped at nudity, Lina pushed the boundaries in to masturbation, oral sex and eventually full-on hardcore penetration in her later movies. She died tragically 57 years young from cancer in 2012.
