Lana Turner
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Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. |
Lana Turner (
February 8,
1921 –
June 29,
1995) was an
American film actress and
sex symbol. On-screen, Turner was well-known for the glamor and sensuality she brought to almost all her movies. Off-screen, she led a stormy and colorful private life which included seven husbands, numerous lovers, and a famous murder scandal.
Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner in
Wallace, Idaho, the daughter of John Virgil Turner, a miner from
Hohenwald, Tennessee and Mildred Frances Cowan, a 16-year-old Alabama girl. Until her film career took off, she was known to family and friends as Judy. Hard times eventually forced the family to re-locate to
San Francisco where John and Mildred soon separated.
On December 14th, 1930, John Turner won a bit of money at a travelling craps game, stuffed his winnings in his left sock, and headed for home. He was later found dead on a street corner, his left sock missing. The murder was never solved. Soon after, Mildred Turner developed health problems and was advised by her doctor to move to a dryer climate. She and her 10-year-old daughter moved to
Los Angeles in 1931.
Turner's discovery at
Schwab's Drug Store has become one of
Hollywood's most enduring show-business legends. The true story differs only slightly from that legend. As a 16-year-old student at Hollywood High, Turner decided to skip a typing class and buy a Coke at the Top Hat Cafe. There, she was spotted by
William R. Wilkerson, publisher of the
Hollywood Reporter. Wilkerson was taken by her good looks and referred her to actor/comedian/talent agent
Zeppo Marx. Marx's agency immediately signed her on and introduced her to film director
Mervyn LeRoy who cast her in her first film
They Won't Forget (1937).
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Turner in They Won't Forget. |
Turner earned the nickname the "Sweater Girl" due to a scene in
They Won't Forget, in which her
bosom bounced in a tight sweater. She reached the height of her fame in the
1940s and
1950s. During
World War II, Turner became a popular
pin-up girl due to her popularity in such films such as
Ziegfeld Girl,
Johnny Eager, and four films with MGM's king of the lot:
Clark Gable (the films' successes were only heightened by gossip column rumors about a relationship between the two).
After the war, Turner's career hit a new high with the classic
1946 film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice, co-starring
John Garfield. During the 1950s, Turner's films started to flop at the box-office, until she starred in
Vincente Minnelli's masterpiece
The Bad and the Beautiful and later the big screen adaptation of
Grace Metalious's best-selling novel
Peyton Place in which she was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress.
Douglas Sirk's
Imitation of Life also proved a big commercial success. Critics and audiences couldn't help noticing that both
Peyton and
Imitation borrowed from Turner's private life -- a single mother coping with a troubled teenage daughter.
Off-screen, Turner was married eight times to seven different husbands, and had many lovers, including
Tyrone Power (whom she calls the love of her life in her
autobiography),
Howard Hughes (who is reported to have given her
syphilis), and a minor gangster and abusive boyfriend named
Johnny Stompanato, who was fatally stabbed by Turner's daughter,
Cheryl Crane. The killing was deemed a justifiable homicide by coroner's inquest. Prior to Stompanato's death, he had stormed onto a movie set while Turner was filming
Another Place, Another Time, with costar
Sean Connery, later of
James Bond fame. Stompanato accused Connery of having an affair with Turner, and pointed a gun at him. Connery took the gun away from Stompanato, beat him, and threw him off the movie set. [
1] [
2] [
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Her husbands were:
*Bandleader
Artie Shaw (1940);
*
Actor-
restaurateur Josef Stephen Crane (1942-43, 1943-44);
**She married Crane a second time, after their first marriage was annulled because a previous marriage of his had not yet been finalized.
*
Millionaire socialite Henry J. Topping, Jr. (1948-52);
*Actor
Lex Barker (1953-57), whom she divorced after her daughter Cheryl claimed that he molested her;
*Rancher Fred May (1960-62);
*Businessman
Robert Eaton (1965-69);
*Nightclub hypnotist
Ronald Peller (a.k.a. Ronald Dante) (1969-72).
In the
1970s and
1980s, Turner appeared in several
television roles, most notably one season (1982-83) on the series
Falcon Crest, but the majority of her final decade was spent out of the public eye.
She died rather suddenly at the age of 74 in 1995 of complications from the throat cancer which was diagnosed in
1992, and which she had been battling ever since, at her home in
Century City, California.
She was survived by her only child, her daughter,
Cheryl Crane, and Cheryl's female
life partner, whom she said she accepted "as a second daughter". They inherited some of Lana's sizeable
estate, built through shrewd
real estate holdings and
investments. However, the majority of her estate was left to her maid.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Lana Turner has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6241 Hollywood Blvd.
The eminent American poet
Frank O'Hara wrote a poem titled "Lana Turner Has Collapsed" inspired by Turner after seeing a headline about her soon after her lover Stompanato's murder. The Stompanato incident is also alluded to in a short scene in the film
L.A. Confidential (1997).
A Star Is Born (1937)
They Won't Forget (1937)
Topper (1937)
The Great Garrick (1937)
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
The Chaser (1938) (scenes deleted)
Four's a Crowd (1938)
Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938)
Dramatic School (1938)
Calling Dr. Kildare (1939)
These Glamour Girls (1939)
Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
Two Girls on Broadway (1940)
We Who Are Young (1940)
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Honky Tonk (1941)
Johnny Eager (1942)
Somewhere I'll Find You (1942)
Strictly G.I. (1943) (short subject)
The Youngest Profession (1943) (Cameo)
Slightly Dangerous (1943)
Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) (Cameo)
Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)
Keep Your Powder Dry (1945)
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Green Dolphin Street (1947)
Cass Timberlane (1947)
Homecoming (1948)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
A Life of Her Own (1950)
Mr.Imperium (1951)
The Merry Widow (1952)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1953)
Latin Lovers (1953)
The Flame and the Flesh (1954)
Betrayed (1954)
The Prodigal (1955)
The Sea Chase (1955)
The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)
Diane (1956)
Peyton Place (1957)
The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958)
Another Time, Another Place (1958)
Imitation of Life (1959)
Portrait in Black (1960)
By Love Possessed (1961)
Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
Who's Got the Action? (1962)
Love Has Many Faces (1965)
Madame X (1966)
The Big Cube (1969)
Persecution (1974)
Bittersweet Love (1976)
Witches' Brew (1980)
*Her boyfriend when she attended Hollywood High was
Joseph Wapner, who would go on much later in life to be the judge of
the People's Court [
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Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Lana Turner *
Lana Turner at Classic Actresses*
Lana Turner Online
