Raven-haired Clair Dia was born Emily Smith, a redhead, in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She attended City College in San Francisco and majored in occupational therapy. She then worked as a secretary before traveling the country and making porn loops for traveling cash, which landed her in the October 1971 Playboy article "The Porno Girls." Her feature debut was in What About Jane: An Erotic Soap Opera (1972). During an early screening of this film, she, a castmate, and the director were arrested and thrown in jail on obscenity charges, but spent only four hours there before being released. Clair went on to star in over 20 adult films and directed two more (she had attended Berkeley Film Institute where she studied filmmaking). Even in the films she directed, Clair managed to appear in brief walk-on roles.
The Cheerleaders
1973
Doctor Dracula
1978
Lucifer's Women
1974
Legends of Porn
1987
Summer Heat
1979
Naked Afternoon
1976
Her Last Fling
1977
Little Sisters
1972
Carnal Haven
1978
The Health Spa
1978
Screwples
1979
3 A.M.
1975
Desires Within Young Girls
1977
The Nurses
1971
What About Jane
1972
The Journey of O
1976
Love Secrets
1976
April Love
1972
Rings of Passion
1973
Ramage (Mobility Cathexis)
1972
Sharon's Rosebud
1976
Fantastic Orgy
1977