Documentary Review: Platinum Princess: The Story of Seka
If a cat has nine lives, adult film legend Seka has lived ten.
The two-hour-plus documentary Platinum Princess: The Story of Seka tells the harrowing tale of arguably the most famous adult film actress in history.
And what a tale it is.
Seka was born Dorothiea Ivonniea Hundley in 1954 in Radford, Virginia.
Her mentally ill mother, along with her stepfather, one day abruptly abandoned her, and for two weeks she went to school on her own, came home, and responsibly did her homework, eating what remained in the refrigerator.
The child assumed they’d come back, only they didn’t.
With three living parents, she ultimately landed in an orphanage where she contracted spinal meningitis.
Eventually, young “Dottie” begged a Bible-thumping aunt to take her in, and the scenario was tumultuous. Desperate to escape, the teen eloped and married her boyfriend, Frank Patton, in 1972, a week after her 18th birthday.
Ironically, the future porn icon had an anxiety attack on her wedding night, locked the bathroom door, where she slept on the floor, and remained a virgin.
Her new husband got her a job in a massage parlor, which she naively accepted, and she soon wanted out of the job and the marriage.
Later, she became a clerk at an adult bookstore and began dating the owner, Ken Yontz. At 5’8 and statuesque, the former high school beauty queen with the blessings of Ken fell into porn, where she quickly rose to the very top of the business under the moniker Seka.
The film interestingly delves into her thoughts on various co-stars of that era, as well as the ever-growing burden that the controlling Ken became.
Seka was one of the few porn stars of that era to attain mainstream celebrity, appearing in cameos in mainstream films, performing a skit on Saturday Night Live, and dating comedy legend Sam Kinison.
She made headlines by testifying before the Attorney General’s Meese Commission, defending the adult industry and arguing that the Commission was biased and predetermined in its conclusions. She states that she enjoyed her work and felt pornography was being scapegoated for social problems without credible evidence.
The documentary chronicles her hard partying ‘80s, a variety of business deals gone awry, and personal betrayals that have plagued the resilient star who has always bounced back from the brink.
Happily, she met and married her current husband, Carl, some twenty years ago and describes him as “the love of my life.”
Now 72, the still sharp, funny, insightful, and self-deprecating Seka lives in Bible Belt Kansas City, Missouri. She is interviewed in snippets throughout the film. You only wish there were a whole lot more of her in it. Filmmaker Tony Waters makes the misguided choice of having a narrator speak throughout, often quoting Seka rather than going directly to the source. At times, Platinum Princess: The Story of Seka, regrettably, plays like a YouTube video.
Nonetheless, the film is well worth watching, as it chronicles, in well-researched depth, a remarkable, turbulent life and a true survivor’s tale.
–Evan Ginzburg
Evan Ginzburg is a published author, with his latest book, Grindhouse, Arthouse, and Wrestling Flicks, released in 2026. He was an Associate Producer on the Oscar-nominated movie “The Wrestler” and the acclaimed wrestling documentary “350 Days.” He is a 30-plus-year veteran of film, radio, and TV, and the Senior Editor for Pro Wrestling Stories.
You can watch Platinum Princess: The Story of Seka on Seka.com, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
You can read more about Seka in my book Wrestling Rings, Blackboards and Movie Sets available on Amazon.
Wrestling Rings, Blackboards, and Movie Sets: Ginzburg, Evan: 9798305812329: Amazon.com: Books
