---
alias:
- Candice Vadala
- Candice Marion Vadala
category: Crime & Abuse Networks
created: 2026-09-23
died: 2015-09-07
location: Mattituck, New York
relations:
- fn: 1
  start: 1984
  type: founded
  with: '[[Femme Productions]]'
- fn: 2
  role: founder, per Reason; founding member, per The Suffolk Times
  start: 1992
  type: founded
  with: '[[Feminists for Free Expression]]'
summary: Adult film actress who in 1984 founded Femme Productions to make adult films
  from a woman's perspective, and a founder of Feminists for Free Expression.
tags:
- Person
- AdultFilm
- FemmeProductions
- FreeSpeech
- RCHorsch
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Candida Royalle (born Candice Marion Vadala in Brooklyn; died September 7, 2015) was an adult film actress of the 1970s who in 1984 founded [Femme Productions](/organizations/femme-productions/) to produce "adult films from a woman's perspective." She died of ovarian cancer at her home in Mattituck, New York, at 64.[^1]

### Career

Royalle performed in the mid-1970s in [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) and appeared in adult films including *Thoroughly Amorous Amy* and *Fascination* before moving to writing, producing and directing.[^1][^2] Femme Productions released 18 films between 1984 and 2007, 13 of them directed by Royalle; its best known included *Three Daughters* (1986) and *Sensual Escape* (1991). Two others, *Lovers* (1993) and *Lovers 2* (1994), were directed by [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/) under the name "RC Hürsch."[^2][^3] In the 1990s she arranged distribution of Femme titles through the adult-goods company Adam and Eve, with a line of vibrators. Her 1992 film *Revelations* she described as "my response to the right-wing attacks on the adult industry."[^2] According to the performer Annie Sprinkle, she co-founded Club 90, a support group of adult film performers, in about 1985.[^1]

### Free Expression

In 1992 she founded, according to *Reason,* or was a founding member of, according to *The Suffolk Times,* Feminists for Free Expression, a nonprofit that opposed censorship legislation and defended free speech in courts, on campuses and in the press.[^1][^2] Femme was founded, *Reason* noted, at the time Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon were testifying to legislators that pornography was abusive by nature. Royalle wrote *How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do* (2004) and in 2014 received a doctorate in human sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.[^1][^2]

[^1]: Young, Rachel. "Candida Royalle, feminist erotic filmmaker, dies in Mattituck at 64," *The Suffolk Times,* September 12, 2015. https://suffolktimes.archive.timesreview.com/2015/09/candida-royalle-feminist-pornographic-filmmaker-dies-in-mattituck-at-64/
[^2]: Brown, Elizabeth Nolan. "Feminist Porn Producer and Free-Speech Advocate Candida Royalle Dies," *Reason,* September 14, 2015. https://reason.com/2015/09/14/rip-candida-royalle/
[^3]: Internet Adult Film Database, "RC Hürsch," director credits *Lovers* (Femme Productions, 1993) and *Lovers 2* (Femme Productions, 1994). https://www.iafd.com/title.rme/id=b609e8df-4df6-46c4-8925-639ed9e91852