Lana Turner denied any romantic involvement with Clark Gable, but that did not stop her from making several more movies with him after Lombard's death. [118] Reviews of the film, including Turner's performance, were glowing, with Bosley Crowther of The New York Times writing it was "the role of her career". She is the most glamorous actress since Jean Harlow. Lex Barker, Actor singer She married with Lex Barker (54), in 1953. Pamela Tiffin She was 74 years old. The detectives advised Stompanato to leave and escorted him out of the house and to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to the U.S.[203], On the evening of March 26, 1958, Turner attended the Academy Awards to observe her nomination for Peyton Place and present the award for Best Supporting Actor. "She'd completed. [296] The cancer was found to have returned in July 1994. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt's Transformation Has Been Simply Stunning. [201] Connery answered by grabbing the gun out of Stompanato's hand and twisting his wrist, causing him to run off the set. [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. [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. [190] He pursued Turner aggressively, sending her various gifts. [246] The two married in June of that year at his family's home in Arlington, Virginia. Dana Andrews, whose film portrayals ranged from a sensitive, tough-talking detective in the 1944 movie "Laura" to a bombardier returning to a . She was 75. [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. [184] She also received critical acclaim, with Variety noting that "Turner looks elegant" and "registers strongly",[185] and, for the first and only time, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. [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. [121] In August 1946, it was announced she would replace Katharine Hepburn in the big-budget historical drama Green Dolphin Street (1947), a role for which she darkened her hair and lost 15 pounds. In the 1980s she had a recurring role on the TV series Falcon Crest. [154] The following year, she began filming her second musical, The Merry Widow. [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. Birthday: February 8, 1921 Date of Death: June 29, 1995 Age at Death: 74 Live Live Death Statistics Worldwide and The United States Is Lana Turner's father, John Virgil Turner, dead or alive? [210] More than 100 reporters and journalists attended the April 12, 1958 inquest, described by attendees as "near-riotous". [229] During this time, Turner's daughter Cheryl privately came out as a lesbian to her parents, who were both supportive of her. "[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". "[146] Although unenthusiastic about the screenplay, Turner agreed to appear in the film after executives promised her suspension would be lifted upon doing so. [189] Stompanato had close ties to the Los Angeles underworld and gangster Mickey Cohen, which he feared would dissuade her from dating him. [97] During her early pregnancy, she filmed the comedy Marriage Is a Private Affair, in which she starred as a carefree woman struggling to balance her new life as a mother. [277] Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune praised her performance, writing that, "though she is still a very nervous and inexpert actress, she is giving by far her most winning performance". "[337], Because of the intersections between Turner's high-profile, glamorous persona, and storied, often troubled personal life, she is included in critical discussions about the Hollywood studio system, specifically its capitalization on its stars' private travails. - 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 [11] In 2012, Complex named her the eighth-most infamous actress of all time.[347]. "Guest: Lana Turner". [99][100] Their marriage was annulled by Turner four months later upon discovering that Crane's previous divorce had not yet been finalized. [102][103] Turner was urged by doctors to undergo a therapeutic abortion to avoid potentially life-threatening complications, but she managed to carry the child to term. After the war, Turner was cast in a lead role opposite John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), a film noir based on James M. Cain's debut novel of the same name. stabbed Turner's lover Johnny Stompanato to death. Lana Turner's father was murdered when she was a child. Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner: Date of death: . After 18 years at MGM, I'm a free agentI used to go on a bended knee to the front office and say, please give me a decent story. Heart Attack. [183] Released in December 1957, Peyton Place was a major blockbuster success, which worked in Turner's favor as she had agreed to take a percentage of the film's overall earnings instead of a salary. [101] Turner's blood condition resulted in Cheryl being born with near-fatal erythroblastosis fetalis. Multiple accounts have the ashes still in Cheryl's possession, while other accounts say the ashes were scattered in the ocean, but which ocean and location varies by the sources. Many of the aircraft had dedications or nose art honoring MGM's Stars. Lana Turner was married to seven men, including bandleader Artie Shaw. [79] The studio recast Turner in the smaller role, though she was still given top billing. . Turner spent most of the 1970s in semi-retirement, making her final film appearance in 1980. Lana Turner, original name Julia Jean Mildred Francis Turner, (born February 8, 1920/21, Wallace, Idaho, U.S.died June 29, 1995, Los Angeles, California), American film actress known for her glamorous looks and sexual allure. Her tempestuous personal life -- seven marriages, a stable of lovers, and a very public murder scandal -- only increased her reputation as a larger-than-life screen and sex goddess. [205] Around 8:00p.m. on Friday, April 4, Stompanato arrived at Turner's rented home at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. [258] She was diagnosed with throat cancer in the spring of 1992. [176] Turner gleefully told a reporter at the time that she was "walking around in a daze. [234] Instead, Turner took a lead role as a disturbed socialite in the film noir Portrait in Black (1960) opposite Anthony Quinn and Sandra Dee, which was a box-office success despite bad reviews. I don't wear any make-up and my hair's a mess." [291][292] During her contract with MGM, photographs that showed her holding cigarettes had to be airbrushed at the studio's request in an effort to conceal her smoking. [86] "I adored Mr. Gable, but we were [just] friends," she later recalled. 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. Turner, who disclosed in May 1992 that she had been treated for throat cancer, died at her Century City home with her daughter Cheryl Crane at her side, police Officer Sonia Monaco said. Tina Turner's son Ronnie Turner 's cause of death has been revealed. [64] The following year, she had a lead role in her second musical, Ziegfeld Girl, opposite James Stewart, Judy Garland and Hedy Lamarr. [224][230] Worried she was still suffering from the trauma of Stompanato's death, Turner sent Cheryl to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. [188] While shooting the film the previous spring, she had begun receiving phone calls and flowers on the set from mobster Johnny Stompanato, using the name "John Steele". Lana was 74 years old at the time of death. 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. During the course of the book it's evident Turner led a charmed life of opportunity with the perks of showbiz royalty on one hand and on the other hand she had a dramatic dark personal life with more twists and turns than most daytime drama scripts. Miss Turner was discovered in. [191] Turner was "thoroughly intrigued" and began casually dating him. [327] She has also been cited by scholars as a gay icon because of her glamorous persona and triumphs over personal struggles. [258], With few film offers coming in, Turner signed on to appear in the television series Harold Robbins' The Survivors. Her next marriage was to Joseph Stephen Crane in 1942 (via Livingly ). . Lana has always acted hastily and been guided more by her own ideas than by any advance any studio gave her. [114][134], In late 1947, Turner was cast as Lady de Winter in The Three Musketeers, her first Technicolor film. "[310] She also likened her to Clara Bow, adding: "Both of them, trusting and lovable, use their hearts instead of their heads. [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. [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. [303] Cheryl challenged the will, and Cruz said that the majority of the estate was consumed by probate costs, legal fees and medical expenses.[304]. He was replaced by Ricardo Montalbn. 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. [35] Wilkerson was attracted by her beauty and physique, and asked her if she was interested in appearing in films, to which she responded: "I'll have to ask my mother first. [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. [218] In popular music, Turner was referenced in songs recorded by Nina Simone[342] and Frank Sinatra,[343] and was the source of the stage name of singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey. [293][294] In a press release, she stated that the cancer had been detected early and had not damaged her vocal cords or larynx. [92] During the tour, she began promising kisses to the highest war bond buyers; while selling bonds at the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, she sold a $5,000 bond to a man for two kisses,[93] and another to an elderly man for $50,000. Nittolo and Liotta got engaged in December of 2020. [265] Variety noted of her performance: "Under the circumstances, Turner's performance as Carrie, the perverted dame of the English manor, has reasonable poise. According to his son, Arthur Marx, it was the only time he ever saw his father cry. The last time I begged for a good story they gave me The Prodigal. Throughout much of her life, Lana Turner was a heavy smoker. At 16, she was signed to a personal contract by Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy, who took her with him when he transferred to MGM in 1938. California state prison officials said Spector died Saturday at age 81 of natural causes at a hospital. 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. Lana Turner relationship list. [270] A review in The Philadelphia Inquirer noted: "Miss Turner always could wear clothes well, and her Forty Carats is a fashion show in the guise of a frothy, little comedy. Read Complete Obituary Photos Imperium', "The Screen in Review; 'Betrayed,' War Story, Opens at the State", "In a 1958 inquest, killing of Lana Turner's boyfriend was detailed", "Lana Turner Says She's Had It; Won't Marry Again", "Lana Turner Suspense Film Strains Credibility", "Lana Turner, Fifth Husband Separate; No Divorce Yet", "Lana Makes Melodrama 'Madame X' Credible", "Lana Turner in 'Divorce' Entertains Just Being Lana", "Music, Dance, Drama, Comedy Highlight Winter Play Season", "Lana Turner, the Sultry Actress, Is Dead at 75", "Lana Turner to Appear On CBS's 'Falcon Crest', "PPT's Shaktman led city's theatrical renaissance", "Lana Turner reveals she has throat cancer", "Lana Turner recovering after throat cancer surgery", "Lana Turner Determined to Beat Cancer Recurrence", "Lana Turner's Troubled Legacy Shows Signs of Life After Death: Tales of Suzy Bombmaker a "Politically Incorrect" boss and the judge who said too much", "Appeals Court Allows Lana Turner's Daughter to Challenge Trust Provisions", "GLS 592: The Hard Boiled Dames of Film Noir", "It only took 30 years for "My Baby Just Cares For Me" to be a hit", "Lana Del Rey has legs, a stalker, four Grammy nominations and a possible Broadway musical", "The 50 Most Infamous Actresses of All Time", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lana_Turner&oldid=1138339762, Converts to Roman Catholicism from Protestantism, United Service Organizations entertainers, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 04:01. Nevertheless, she insisted she would not give up her glamorous image. [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. [53] Turner left Warner Bros. and signed a contract with MGM for $100 a week ($1,885 in 2021 dollars [43]). Atty. [272] From 1976 to 1978, she starred in a touring production of Bell, Book and Candle, playing Gillian Holroyd. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. [323] Turner often purchased her favorite styles of shoes in every available color, at one time accumulating 698 pairs. Her acting skills were more than adequate, but first and foremost, how the camera loved her. Turner on her representation in press[305], When Turner was discovered, MGM executive Mervyn LeRoy envisioned her as a replacement for the recently deceased Jean Harlow and began developing her image as a sex symbol. Her popularity continued through the 1950s in dramas such as The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Peyton Place (1957), the latter for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. [187], In January 1958, Paramount Pictures released The Lady Takes a Flyer, a romantic comedy in which Turner portrayed a female pilot. [333][334][335] In a 1973 Films in Review retrospective on her career, Turner was referred to as "a master of the motion picture technique and a hardworking craftsman". [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. [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. [97] They remained friends throughout her later life. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner's office, Ronnie died due to "complications of metastatic. [97] Topping proposed to her at the 21 Club in New York City by dropping a diamond ring into her martini, and they married shortly after in April 1948 at the Topping family mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. [224] Imitation of Life made more than $50 million in box office receipts. So what happened? During the early 1940s, Turner established herself as a leading lady and one of MGM's top stars, appearing in such films as the film noir Johnny Eager (1941); the musical Ziegfeld Girl (1941); the horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941); and the romantic war drama Somewhere I'll Find You (1942), one of several films in which she starred opposite Clark Gable. "[102], Turner returned to feature films with a lead role in the 1974 British horror film Persecution, in which she played a disturbed wealthy woman tormenting her son. According to Closer Weekly, Turner was married eight times, including twice to the same man. [153] Suffering from depression over her career and financial problems, she attempted suicide in September 1951 by slitting her wrists in a locked bathroom. In a 1958 inquest, killing of Lana Turner's boyfriend was detailed Deputy Dist. Groucho Marx wept at the funeral. Even the love goddess Lana Turner, who co-starred with Burton in The Rains Of Ranchipur, enjoyed a fling with him in his trailer. Is Lana Turner still alive? [92], Arriving to sell bonds in her hometown of Wallace, Idaho, she was greeted with a banner that read "Welcome home, Lana", followed by a large celebration during which the mayor declared a holiday in her honor. She is far more deadly because she lets her audience relax. [76] After completing the film, Turner and co-star Garland remained lifelong friends, and lived in houses next to one another in the 1950s. [221] Her co-star Juanita Moore recalled that Turner cried for three days after filming a scene in which Moore's character dies. [64] In the midst of her marriage to Shaw, she starred in We Who Are Young, a drama in which she played a woman who marries her coworker against their employer's policy. [22], The Turner family struggled financially, and relocated to San Francisco when she was six years old, after which her parents separated. [47] Her first starring role for MGM was scheduled to be an adaptation of The Sea-Wolf, co-starring Clark Gable, but the project was eventually shelved. [276] During rehearsals, a stagehand told reporters that Turner was "the hardest working broad I've known". [101] Though she wanted multiple children, Turner had Rh-negative blood, which caused fetal anemia and made it difficult to carry a child to term. That licked me. 1. However, Turner notes in her autobiography that her birth certificate lists Julia Jean Turner as her official birth name. [186] Commenting on her image, she once told a journalist: "Forsaking glamour is like forsaking my identity. [69] She would later recall that Shaw treated her "like an untutored blonde savage, and took no pains to conceal his opinion". [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. [164], In 1955, MGM's new studio head Dore Schary had Turner star as a pagan temptress in the Biblical epic The Prodigal (1955), her first CinemaScope feature. [121][122] The film was produced by Carey Wilson, who insisted on casting Turner based on her performance in The Postman Always Rings Twice. "[4] Critic Leonard Maltin noted in 2005 that Turner "came to crystallize the opulent heights to which show business could usher a small-town girl, as well as its darkest, most tragic and narcissistic depths". [9][33] Turner subsequently attended the Convent of the Immaculate Conception[10] in San Francisco, hoping to become a nun. I tried to persuade the studio to give me something different. [235][236] Ray Duncan of the Independent Star-News wrote that Turner "suffers prettily through it all, like a fashion model with a tight-fitting shoe". [104] She gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl, on July 25, 1943. According to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner's office, Ronnie died from complications of metastatic colon carcinoma, an advanced-stage type of cancer which originates in the colon and. [341] The Stompanato murder and its aftermath were also the basis of the Harold Robbins novel Where Love Has Gone (1962). Lana Turner Lana Turner ( / ln / LAH-n; [a] born Julia Jean Turner; February 8, 1921 - June 29, 1995) was an American actress. She was the subject of the poem "Lana Turner has collapsed" by Frank O'Hara,[340] and was depicted as a minor character in James Ellroy's novel L.A. [78] MGM had initially cast Turner in the lead, but Tracy specifically requested Bergman for the part. [311] The likeness was most evident in Peyton Place and Imitation of Life, both films in which Turner portrayed single mothers struggling to maintain relationships with their teenage daughters. The project was shelved for several months, and Turner told journalists in December 1949: "Everybody agrees that the script is still a pile of junk. [161] The films were Flame and the Flesh, in which she portrayed a manipulative woman who takes advantage of a musician, and Betrayed, an espionage thriller set in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands; the latter marked Turner's fourth and final film appearance opposite Clark Gable. So did she. [122] Turner later recalled she was surprised about replacing Hepburn, saying: "I'm about the most un-Hepburnish actress on the lot. Advertisement More from Distractify All but One of the Ninja Turtles Are Dead in 'The Last Ronin' Comic "[266] In April 1975, Turner spoke at a retrospective gala in New York City examining her career, which was attended by Andy Warhol, Sylvia Miles, Rex Reed and numerous fans. [212] Despite this, Cheryl ran away from home multiple times and the press wrote about her rebelliousness. [224][307] However, her image in 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice marked a departure from her strictly-sex symbol screen persona to that of a full-fledged femme fatale. [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. [33] In 1965, she met Hollywood producer and businessman Robert Eaton, who was ten years her junior, through business associates. [150] "The script was stupid," she recalled. [199][200] Stompanato got wind of the plan and showed up on the set with a gun, threatening her and Connery. Lana Turnerborn Julia Jean Mildred Francis Turner on February 8, 1921 in Wallace, Idahohad one of the most dramatic off-screen. (The killing was later ruled justifiable homicide.) Mildred was four days shy of her 17th birthday when she gave birth to her only child. [83] In January 1942, she began shooting her second picture with Gable, titled Somewhere I'll Find You;[84] however, the production was halted for several weeks after the death of Gable's wife, Carole Lombard, in a plane crash. [219] She portrayed a struggling stage actress who makes personal sacrifices to further her career. [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). The death was categorized as natural. William Joseph Shields (10 March 1888 - 14 January 1961), known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. Burton reportedly said: 'She set out to get me, and I let. "[227] Critics and audiences could not help noticing that the plots of Peyton Place and Imitation of Life both seemed to mirror certain parts of Turner's private life, resulting in comparisons she found painful. An ailing Groucho Marx was the victim of elder abuse He was convicted of killing actress Lana Clarkson in 2003 at his castle-like mansion on the edge of Los Angeles. [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. [130] Cass Timberlane earned Turner favorable reviews, with Variety noting: "Turner is the surprise of the picture via her top performance thespically. [14][15] She was the only child of John Virgil Turner, a miner from Montgomery, Alabama, of Dutch descent, and Mildred Frances Cowan from Lamar, Arkansas, who had English, Scottish and Irish ancestry. Turner, who had been treated for throat cancer, apparently died of natural causes, a police spokeswoman, Ramona Baety, confirmed to The Associated Press. Some of the stars are magnetic dazzlers on celluloid and ordinary, practical, polo-coated little things in private life. October 1968 203. [309], After Turner's first marriage in 1940, columnist Louella Parsons wrote: "If Lana Turner will behave herself and not go completely berserk she is headed for a top spot in motion pictures. [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'". The pair, per TCM, divorced shortly after. Liotta was 67 at the time of his death, and although no official cause of death has been revealed, sources told PEOPLE that there is no foul play suspected in his passing. [17], The family lived in Burke, Idaho at the time of Turner's birth,[18] and relocated to nearby Wallace in 1925,[d] where her father opened a dry cleaning service and worked in the local silver mines.