Lana Turner
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| Lana Turner | |
 Lana Turner in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. |
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| Birth name | Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner |
| Born | February 8, 1921 Wallace, Idaho |
| Died | June 29, 1995 (aged 74) Century City, Los Angeles, California |
Lana Turner (February 8, 1921 – June 29, 1995) was an Academy award-nominated American film actress. On-screen, she was well-known for the glamor and sensuality she brought to almost all her movie roles. Off-screen, she led a stormy and colorful private life which included seven husbands, numerous lovers, and a famous murder scandal.
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[edit] Biography
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 14, 1930, John Turner won a bit of money at a traveling 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 robbery and murder was never solved. Soon after, Mildred Turner developed health problems and was advised by her doctor to move to a drier 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 struck by her beauty and physique, and referred her to the 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).
Turner earned the nickname "The Sweater Girl" from her form-fitting attire in a scene in They Won't Forget. 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' success was 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 starred in a series of films that failed to succeed at the box office, a situation which MGM attempted to remedy by casting her in musicals. The first, 1951's Mr. Imperium, was a flop, while 1952's The Merry Widow was more successful. She gave a widely-praised performance in Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful, and later starred with John Wayne in the adventure film The Sea Chase. She was then cast in the epic The Prodigal, but the film and her performance in general were not well received. After 1956's Diane, MGM opted not to renew her contract.
Turner's career recovered briefly after appearing in the hugely-successful big screen adaptation of Grace Metalious's best-selling novel, Peyton Place, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Another few box office failures followed (Another Time, Another Place, for example) when the 1958 scandal surrounding the death of Johnny Stompanato threatened to derail her career completely. Fearing she would never work again,[citation needed] Turner accepted the lead role in Ross Hunter's re-make of Imitation of Life under the direction of Douglas Sirk. Universal Studios capitalized on her new-found notoriety. The result was one of the biggest hits of 1959, not to mention the biggest hit of Turner's career. Since Turner had accepted a percentage of the box-office receipts in lieu of salary, she was paid handsomely for the role. 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.
In 1961, she made her last film appearance under her old contract with MGM, starring with Bob Hope in Bachelor in Paradise. Other highlights of this era include two Ross Hunter productions: 1960s Portrait in Black and 1966's Madame X which would prove to be her last major starring role.
[edit] Personal life
Of her many love affairs, Turner reportedly once said "I liked the boys, and the boys liked me." 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), Victor Mature, Howard Hughes, Fernando Lamas, and a small-time hood named Johnny Stompanato.
Rumors have circulated about supposed affairs with Frank Sinatra and almost every one of her male co-stars. A tryst with Robert Taylor is said to have contributed to the dissolution of his marriage to actress Barbara Stanwyck. Mickey Rooney claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Turner that resulted in a pregnancy and a subsequent abortion. (Turner denied any such affair.)
Her husbands were:
- Bandleader Artie Shaw (1940) Married only four months, Turner was 19 when she and Shaw eloped on their first date. She later referred to their stormy and verbally abusive relationship as "my college education."
- Actor-restaurateur Josef Stephen Crane (1942-43, 1943-44) Turner and Crane's first marriage was annulled after she discovered that Crane's previous divorce had not yet been finalized. After a brief separation (during which Crane attempted suicide), they re-married to provide for their newborn daughter, Cheryl.
- Millionaire socialite Henry J. Topping, Jr. (1948-52) Topping proposed to Turner at the 21 Club in Los Angeles by dropping a diamond ring into her martini. Although worth millions when they married, Topping suffered heavy financial losses due to poor investments and excessive gambling. Turner finally divorced Topping when she realized she could no longer afford to keep them in the lavish lifestyle to which they had grown accustomed.
- Actor Lex Barker (1953-57), whom she divorced after her daughter Cheryl claimed that he molested her;
- Rancher Fred May (1960-62);
- Robert P Eaton (1965-69);[1] who later went on to write "The Body Brokers," a behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood movie world, featuring a character named Marla Jordan, based on Turner
- Nightclub hypnotist Ronald Peller (a.k.a. Ronald Dante) (1969-72).
[edit] The Stompanato murder case
Turner met Johnny Stompanato during the spring of 1957, shortly after ending her marriage to Lex Barker. At first, Turner was susceptible to Stompanato's good looks and prowess as a lover, but after she discovered his ties to the LA underworld (in particular, his association with gangster Mickey Cohen), she tried to break off the affair out of fear of bad publicity. Stompanato was not easily deterred however and over the course of the following year, he and Turner carried on a relationship filled with violent arguments, physical abuse, and repeated reconciliations. In the fall of 1957, Stompanato followed Turner to England where she was filming Another Time, Another Place, costarring Sean Connery, later of James Bond fame. Fearful that Turner was having an affair with Connery, Stompanato stormed onto the set brandishing a gun. Connery managed to land a single punch to Stompanato's jaw and took away his gun. Stompanato was soon after escorted away by security guards (see [2], [3], [4]).
On the evening of April 4, 1958, Turner and Stompanato began a violent argument in Turner's house at 730 N. Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. Fearing her mother's life was in danger, Turner's 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane grabbed a kitchen knife and ran to Turner's defense. Many theories abound as to what happened afterward, but in the end, Crane ended up stabbing Stompanato and killing him. The case quickly became a media sensation, but was later deemed a justifiable homicide at a coroner's inquest, at which Turner provided dramatic testimony. Some observers have said her testimony that day was the acting performance of her life.
[edit] Later life
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, Los Angeles, California. She was, until her death, a very heavy smoker.
She was survived by her only child, her daughter, Cheryl Crane, and Cheryl's female life partner Joyce "Josh" LeRoy, 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, Carmen Lopez Cruz.
[edit] Influence
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).
The American singer Tom Russell mentions Turner in his song "Tijuana Bible," which chronicles the death and (fictionalized?) secrets of Johnny Stompanato. Specifically, the song opens with the lyric "Lana Turner's daughter killed Johnny Stompanato, because Johnny beat up Lana down on Fifth and Alvarado."
[edit] Filmography
- 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)
- Thwarted (1991)
[edit] Trivia
- Her boyfriend when she attended Hollywood High was Joseph Wapner, who would achieve fame on The People's Court (see [5]).
- After shaving her eyebrows to play a Mongol serving maid in 1938's The Adventures of Marco Polo, Turner's eyebrows never grew back. For the rest of her life, her eyebrows had to be glued or drawn on.
- Turner is one of a dozen stars to be name-checked during the spoken portion of Madonna's 1990 megahit "Vogue".
- The Top Hat Cafe where Lana was "discovered" was located on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and McCadden Place.
