Julie Strain was an American actress and model who was Penthouse Pet of the Month in June 1991 and later chosen as the magazine's Pet of the Year in 1993.
Strain was born in Concord, California. A graduate of Diablo Valley College, she had an extensive athletic background. She eventually made her way to Las Vegas and later Hollywood, California.
With over 100 films to her credit, including various films by the infamous action/sexploitation film director Andy Sidaris, Strain has come to be known as the "Queen of the B-movies". In addition, she was Penthouse Pet of the Month for June 1991 and Penthouse Pet of the Year for 1993. She has also had her likeness attached to numerous comic book characters and animation items. For example, she did the voice acting for the main character in the animated movie Heavy Metal 2000 and was the basis for the third person shooter Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.
Much of her youth was wiped from her memory, as she suffered a case of retrograde amnesia due to a severe head injury suffered in a fall from a horse. In November 2018 it was announced that she was in the late stages of dementia, believed to be a result of that injury, and was receiving hospice care at home.
In 1997, Heavy Metal published Strain's autobiography, Six Foot One and Worth the Climb. It was heavily illustrated with stills from her film and modeling career, plus paintings by Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell and Olivia De Berardinis.
All of her sex scenes in B movies were simulated. But she did do one hardcore scene in her career in 1991's Penthouse: Fast Cars Fantasy Women. In the U.S. it was softcore film with all the sex simulated. But it Europe, there was an uncut version. Julie plays the role of a police officer who pulls over a blonde female driver. In the U.S. version, they make out and simulate having sex. But in the European version, Julie performs lesbian cunnilingus on her blonde partner and she is clearly shown licking her pussy. Julie performs fellatio on the baton and then allows her blonde partner to penetrate and fuck her with the baton. It is unclear why the usually softcore Strain performed this hardcore scene that would be only shown in the uncut European version since Strain had turned down numerous offers to do hardcore pornography over the years.
Strain died in 2021. She had been in hospice care since 2018 and suffered from severe dementia. She damaged her brain from a fall from a horse in her 20s, and while she was able to recover and lead a normal life, it began to greatly affect her again as she grew older and entered her mid-50s.
