Peggy Steffans, Actress and Widow of Sexploitation Director Joseph Sarno, Dies at 87

Peggy Steffans, who appeared in such 1960s soft-porn movies as The Bed and How to Make It!, The Sex Cycle and Come Ride the Wild Pink Horse for her future husband, sexploitation filmmaker Joseph W. Sarno, has died. She was 87.

Sarno died Friday of respiratory failure at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, her son, film editor Matthew Sarno, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The petite, green-eyed Steffans was often billed as Cleo Nova in the movies written and directed by Sarno. She quit acting after they wed in 1970 but continued working with him as an assistant director, costume designer, set decorator, script supervisor, production designer, etc.

The two were together until his death in 2010 at age 89, with their story captured by Swedish filmmaker Wiktor Ericsson in his 2013 documentary, The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies.

“What a testimony to Joe’s life and to mine, that the documentary about…