[294] She underwent exploratory surgery to remove the cancer,[294] but it had metastasized to her jaw and lungs. [27] Her mother worked 80 hours per week as a beautician to support herself and her daughter,[30][31] and Turner recalled sometimes "living on crackers and milk for half a week". Her hands were trembling so she could barely read the script. [187], In January 1958, Paramount Pictures released The Lady Takes a Flyer, a romantic comedy in which Turner portrayed a female pilot. The last time I begged for a good story they gave me The Prodigal. [9] She became "thrilled" by the ritual practices of the church,[9] and when she was seven, her mother allowed her to formally convert to Roman Catholicism. [55] Instead, she was assigned opposite teen idol Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in the Andy Hardy film Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). "[89], At the advent of US involvement in World War II, Turner's increasing prominence in Hollywood led to her becoming a popular pin-up girl,[90] and her image appeared painted on the noses of U.S. fighter planes, bearing the nickname "Tempest Turner". 1. [53] Turner left Warner Bros. and signed a contract with MGM for $100 a week ($1,885 in 2021 dollars [43]). The physical allure is just as heavy when she looks at a headwaiter as when she looks at a hero. [71] In the film, she portrayed Sheila Regan, an alcoholic aspiring actress based on Lillian Lorraine. In a role that allows her the gamut from tomboy to the pangs of childbirth and from being another man's woman to remorseful wife, she seldom fails to acquit herself creditably. [212] Despite this, Cheryl ran away from home multiple times and the press wrote about her rebelliousness. Why did Carole Lombard die? - New York Post Lex Barker, Actor singer She married with Lex Barker (54), in 1953. [297], In September 1994, Turner made her final public appearance at the San Sebastin International Film Festival in Spain to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award,[298] and was confined to a wheelchair for much of the event. [154] She was saved by her business manager, Benton Cole, who broke down the bathroom door and called emergency medical services. [77], Following the success of Ziegfeld Girl, Turner took a supporting role as an ingnue in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), a Freudian-influenced horror film, opposite Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman. [194][195] Turner would also claim that on one occasion he drugged her and took nude photographs of her while unconscious, potentially to use as blackmail. [68] In the spring of 1940, after the two had divorced, Turner discovered she was pregnant and had an abortion. [273][274] Critic Elaine Matas noted of a 1977 performance that Turner was "brilliant" and "the bright spot in an otherwise mediocre play". [189] Stompanato had close ties to the Los Angeles underworld and gangster Mickey Cohen, which he feared would dissuade her from dating him. According to Closer Weekly, Turner was married eight times, including twice to the same man. [128] As of early 1946, Turner was set for the role, but schedules with Green Dolphin Street almost prohibited her from taking it, and by late 1946, she was nearly recast. "[321], According to her daughter, Turner's obsessive attention to detail often resulted in dressmakers storming out during dress fittings. [263][264] Turner married a total of eight times to seven different husbands,[212] and later famously said: "My goal was to have one husband and seven children, but it turned out to be the other way around. [47] The film earned her the nickname of the "Sweater Girl" for her form-fitting attire, which accentuated her bust. On the evening of April 4, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane stabbed 32-year-old Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of her mother, actress Lana Turner, at Turner's rented home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California. [147] On May 24, 1950, Turner left her handprints and footprints in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. [190] He pursued Turner aggressively, sending her various gifts. Lana Turner - Wikimedia Commons In an interview, Turner said: "I even go running around in the jungles of New Zealand in a dress that's filthy and ragged. [197] Their meeting was initially happy, but they soon began fighting. [22], The Turner family struggled financially, and relocated to San Francisco when she was six years old, after which her parents separated. "[163] Upon returning to the United States in September 1953, Turner married actor Lex Barker,[97] whom she had been dating since their first meeting at a party held by Marion Davies in the summer of 1952. [218], In the wake of negative publicity related to Stompanato's death, Turner accepted the lead role in Ross Hunter's remake of Imitation of Life (1959) under the direction of Douglas Sirk. [69] She would later recall that Shaw treated her "like an untutored blonde savage, and took no pains to conceal his opinion". [61] Turner's onscreen sex appeal in the film was reflected by a review in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which she was characterized as "the answer to 'oomph'". Stompanato was known to have been physically abusive to Turner. [21] She expressed interest in performance at a young age, performing short dance routines at her father's Elks chapter in Wallace. [63] The film was a commercial success, and led to Turner appearing on the cover of Look magazine. [4] While she consistently embraced her glamorous persona, she was also vocal about her dedication to acting[121] and attained a reputation as a versatile, hard-working performer. [100] After discovering she was pregnant in November 1942, Turner remarried Crane in Tijuana in March 1943. [344][345] In 2002, artist Eloy Torrez included Turner in an outdoor mural, Portrait of Hollywood, painted on the auditorium of Hollywood High School, her alma mater. [132] Homecoming was well received by audiences, and Turner and Gable were nicknamed "the team that generates steam". [341] The Stompanato murder and its aftermath were also the basis of the Harold Robbins novel Where Love Has Gone (1962). I'm so f-g tired of being Ava Gardner." While their brief marriage was turbulent, Gardner thanks first husband Mickey Rooney for her sexual education. Reid. [125][33] During this time, she also had romantic affairs with Frank Sinatra[126] and Howard Hughes, the latter of which lasted for 12 weeks in late 1946. [172][173] The production was rushed to accommodate a Christmas release and was completed in only three months, but it received unfavorable reviews from critics. [156], Turner's next project was opposite Kirk Douglas in Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), a drama focusing on the rise and fall of a Hollywood film mogul, in which Turner portrayed an alcoholic movie star. [300][301], Cheryl and her partner Joyce LeRoy, whom Turner said she accepted "as a second daughter",[302] inherited some of Turner's personal effects and $50,000 in Turner's will. [329] Basinger considers her the "epitome of the Hollywood machine-made stardom". Lahna Turner, Ralphie May's Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Upon Turner's death, John Updike wrote in The New Yorker that she "was a faded period piece, an old-fashioned glamour queen whose fifty-four films, over four decades didn't amount, retrospectively to much As a performer, she was purely a studio-made product. stabbed Turner's lover Johnny Stompanato to death. Lana Turner Age: 74 (age at death) years Birthday: 8th February, 1921 Birthplace: Wallace, Idaho, USA Died: 29th June, 1995 Place of Death: Century City, California, USA Cause of Death: Throat cancer Height: 5' 3" (160 cm) Weight . CONTACT DETAILS Web Site: . No one who adored her in movies would be disappointed to meet her in the flesh. [171] After completing Diane, Turner was loaned to 20th Century-Fox to headline The Rains of Ranchipur (1955), a remake of The Rains Came (1939), playing the wife of an aristocrat in the British Raj opposite Richard Burton. [256] According to Turner, Pellar (also known as Ronald Dante or Dr. Dante)[257] falsely claimed to have been raised in Singapore and to have a Ph.D. in psychology. [312] Film scholar Richard Dyer cites Turner as an example of one of Hollywood's earliest stars whose publicized private life perceptibly inflected their careers: "Her career is marked by an unusually, even spectacularly, high degree of interpenetration between her publicly available private life and her films not only do her vehicles furnish characters and situations in accord with her off-screen image, but frequently incidents in them echo incidents in her life so that by the end of her career films like Peyton Place, Imitation of Life, Madame X and Love Has Many Faces seem in parts like mere illustrations of her life."[313]. [70], In 1940, Turner appeared in her first musical film, Two Girls on Broadway, in which she received top billing over established co-stars Joan Blondell and George Murphy. [247], In 1966, Turner had her last major starring role in the courtroom drama film Madame X, based on the 1904 play by Alexandre Bisson, in which Turner portrayed a lower-class woman who marries into a wealthy family. Popular African-American vocalist and entertainer Barbara McNair dazzled audiences with her singing prowess and exceptional beauty for well over four decades until her death on February 4, 2007 of throat cancer in Los Angeles. [35][36][e] One version of the story erroneously has her discovery occurring at Schwab's Pharmacy,[39] which Turner claimed was the result of a reporting error that began circulating in articles published by columnist Sidney Skolsky. Turner left the majority of her estate to her maid, Carmen Lopez Cruz, who had been her companion for 45 years and caregiver during her final illness. [125] She discovered she was pregnant with Power's child in the fall of 1947, but chose to have an abortion. [11] In 2012, Complex named her the eighth-most infamous actress of all time.[347]. [42], In December 1936, Marx introduced Turner to film director Mervyn LeRoy, who signed her to a $50 weekly contract with Warner Bros. on February 22, 1937 ($942 in 2021 dollars [43]). [57] The film was a box-office success,[58] and her appearance in it as a flirtatious high school student convinced studio head Louis B. Mayer that Turner could be the next Jean Harlow, a sex symbol who had died six months before Turner's arrival at MGM. Lana Turner - Celebrity Death - Obituaries at Tributes.com Not so Lana. [251], In late 1968, she began filming the low-budget thriller The Big Cube, in which she portrayed a glamorous heiress being dosed with LSD by her stepdaughter in hopes of driving her insane and receiving the family estate. These Freudian Montage Shots Show Mental State of Jekyll Changing to Hyde", "Lana's Kisses Sell Bonds Without Her Fancy Speech", "The Story is the Same But Hollywood Has Changed", "Movie of the Week: The Postman Always Rings Twice", "Lana Turner To Play Lead In 'Green Dolphin Street", "Hepburn's Screen Career Unaffected by Frankness", "Lana Turner Says She Is Now the Home-Girl Type", "Lana Turner leaves Footprints At Grauman's Chinese Theater", "Pinza Is Tops, Lana Is Dull In 'Mr. It's the Lana Turner Story, Told by the Sweater Girl Herself Turner's private life drew in the public eye from her many marriages and romances, hitting its sensational peak when her lover,. [262] She filed for divorce in January 1970,[97] after which she claimed to be celibate for the remainder of her life. [315] Film scholar Jessica Hope Jordan considers Turner an "implosion" of both a "real-life image and star image" and suggests that she utilized one to mask the other, thus rendering her representative of the "ultimate femme fatale". Her acting skills were more than adequate, but first and foremost, how the camera loved her. [29], While baptized a Protestant at birth,[32] Turner attended Mass with the Hislops, a Catholic family with whom her mother had temporarily boarded her in Stockton, California. [220] The production was difficult for Turner given the recent events of her personal life, and she suffered a panic attack on the first day of filming. . Occupations. "I do owe Mickey one thing: he taught me how much I enjoyed sex." Rooney was a player. [38], By Turner's own account, she was a junior at Hollywood High School when she skipped a typing class and bought a Coca-Cola at the Top Hat Malt Shop[34][40] located on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and McCadden Place. [322][325] Film historians Joe Morella and Edward Epstein have observed that, unlike many female stars, Turner "wasn't resented by female fans", and that women made up a large part of her fan base in later years. "[69] By the mid-1940s, Turner had been married and divorced three times, had given birth to her daughter Cheryl and had numerous publicized affairs. Post author: Post published: February 26, 2023; Post category: . Lana Turner was married to seven men, including bandleader Artie Shaw. He was replaced by Ricardo Montalbn. The coroner's report described the cause of death as: 'Stab wound of abdomen penetrating liver, portal vein and aorta, with massive haemorrhage.' In court, however, he stated that the single stab wound to the abdomen sliced the deceased's kidney, struck a vertebrae and twisted upwards, puncturing his aorta. Dana Andrews Dies; Actor Was a Success but Not a Star She is the vamp of today as Theda Bara was of yesterday. [52] Warner obliged, as he believed Turner would not "amount to anything". [139][140] Studio head Louis B. Mayer threatened to suspend her contract, but Turner managed to leverage her box-office draw with MGM to negotiate an expansion of her role in the film, as well as a salary increase amounting to $5,000 per week ($60,678 in 2021 dollars [43]). Article. Lana Turner | Found a Grave This article is about the actress. In 1982, she accepted a much-publicized and lucrative recurring guest role in the television series Falcon Crest, which afforded the series notably high ratings. [22] In the mid-1930s, Turner's mother developed respiratory problems and was advised by her doctor to move to a drier climate, upon which the two moved to Los Angeles in 1936.[22][25]. [34] She soon became a protge of LeRoy, who suggested that she take the stage name Lana Turner, a name she would come to legally adopt several years later. In the suit, Stompanato's son alleged that Turner had been responsible for his death, and that her daughter had taken the blame. Lex was most well known for playing Tarzan in a 5 Tarzan films between 1949 - 1953 . [76] After completing the film, Turner and co-star Garland remained lifelong friends, and lived in houses next to one another in the 1950s. No, she died on 06/29/1995, 27 years ago. [307], By the 1950s, both critics and audiences began noting parallels between Turner's rocky personal life and the roles she played. Ava Gardner's deathbed confessions reveal stories of booze, sex and stardom [92], Throughout the war, Turner continued to make regular appearances at U.S. troop events and area bases, though she confided to friends that she found visiting the hospital wards of injured soldiers emotionally difficult. [11] She was an admirer of Bette Davis, whom she cited as her favorite actress. Lana Turner Death Fact Check, Birthday & Date of Death - Dead or Kicking "She was doing fine. Lana Turner (February 8, 1921 - June 29, 1995) was an American actress in 1937-1962. Lana Turner - Wikipedia [127], Turner's next film was the romantic drama Cass Timberlane, in which she played a young woman in love with an older judge, a role for which Jennifer Jones, Vivien Leigh and Virginia Grey had also been considered. Actor (1945 - 1973 (bef.)) - IMDb Mini Biography By: Ray Hamel and Denny Jackson Family (2) Trade Mark (2) Attractive figure Blonde hair Trivia (64) Born at 12:30pm-PST Her person became her persona. Per the official city of Wallace website, the Turner home in Wallace was located at 217 Bank Street, immediately west of downtown Wallace. [281] She was suffering from an alcohol addiction that had begun in the late 1950s,[270] was missing performances and weighed only 95 pounds (43kg). [231], Shortly before the release of Imitation of Life in the spring of 1959, Turner was cast in a lead role in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder, but walked off the set over a wardrobe disagreement, effectively dropping out of the production. [97] She later claimed Topping's drinking problem and excessive gambling as her impetus for the divorce. The pair, per TCM, divorced shortly after. Mature, it has taken the audience through such a lengthy and tedious amount of detail that it has not only frayed all possible tension but it has aggravated patience as well. In the 1980s she had a recurring role on the TV series Falcon Crest. Ronnie Turner was 62 when he died last Thursday. [165][166] She was reluctant to appear in the film because of the character's scanty, "atrocious" costumes and "stupid" lines, and during the shoot struggled to get along with co-star Edmund Purdom, whom she later described as "a young man with a remarkably high opinion of himself". [116] She portrayed Cora, an ambitious woman married to a stodgy, older owner of a roadside diner, who falls in love with a drifter and their desire to be together motivates them to murder her husband. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner's office, Ronnie died due to "complications of metastatic. Lana Turner | Infoplease [87][88] James Agee of Time magazine was critical of co-star Robert Taylor's performance and noted: "Turner is similarly handicapped: Metro has swathed her best assets in a toga, swears that she shall become an actress, or else. [260] Meanwhile, after six months of marriage, Turner discovered Pellar had stolen $35,000 she had given him for an investment. Following her film debut in . [99][100] Their marriage was annulled by Turner four months later upon discovering that Crane's previous divorce had not yet been finalized. [41] While in the shop, she was spotted by William R. Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. [113] She was then cast as the female lead in Week-End at the Waldorf, a loose remake of Grand Hotel (1932) in which she portrayed a stenographer (a role originated by Joan Crawford). [248] A review in the Chicago Tribune praised her performance, noting: "when she takes the stand in the final (with Keir Dullea) courtroom scene, her face resembling a dust bowl victory garden, it's the most devastating denouement since Barbara Fritchie poked her head out the window. (The killing was later ruled justifiable homicide.) [239][217] The following year, she made her final film at MGM with Bob Hope in Bachelor in Paradise (1961), a romantic comedy about an investigative writer (Hope) working on a book about the wives of a lavish California community; the film received a mostly positive critical reception. Some of the stars are magnetic dazzlers on celluloid and ordinary, practical, polo-coated little things in private life. I'll work for nothing, just give me a good story. Lana Turner - Turner Classic Movies Lana Turner Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth Lana Turner. [120] Turner commented on her decision to take the role: I finally got tired of making movies where all I did was walk across the screen and look pretty. . [288] In September, Turner released an autobiography entitled Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth. Lana Turner dating history, 2023, 2022, list of Lana Turner relationships. cities. [244] In September of that year,[245] Turner and May separated, divorcing shortly after in October. "[310] She also likened her to Clara Bow, adding: "Both of them, trusting and lovable, use their hearts instead of their heads. Cheryl, who is Lana's daughter with second husband Steve Crane, was tried and acquitted for Stampanato's death. [258], With few film offers coming in, Turner signed on to appear in the television series Harold Robbins' The Survivors. LANA TURNER - Music Finder [105][106], Meanwhile, publicity over Turner's remarriage to Crane led MGM to play up her image as a sex symbol in Slightly Dangerous (1943), with Robert Young, Walter Brennan and Dame May Whitty, in which she portrayed a woman who moves to New York City and poses as the long-lost daughter of a millionaire. Lana Turner had an affair with Howard Hughes Lana Turner had an affair with Paul Newman Lana Turner had an affair with Tyrone Power Lana Turner's former husband was Artie Shaw Lana Turner . She was 75. [170], MGM then gave Turner the titular role of Diane de Poitiers in the period drama Diane (1956), which had originally been optioned by the studio in the 1930s for Greta Garbo.