[317], Historians have cited Turner as one of the most glamorous film stars of all time, an association that was made both during her lifetime[318][319][320] and after her death. After a trial in 2009, he was sentenced to 19 years to life. [225] Reviews were mixed,[226] although Variety praised her performance, writing: "Turner plays a character of changing moods, and her changes are remarkably effective, as she blends love and understanding, sincerity and ambition. [241] The same year, she starred in By Love Possessed (1961), based on a bestselling novel by James Gould Cozzens. This was a total shock," Crane told Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd. LANA TURNER - Music Finder Ralphie May's wife was a fellow comedian named Lahna Turner. An ailing Groucho Marx was the victim of elder abuse [133] By this period, Turner was at the zenith of her film career, and was not only MGM's most popular star, but also one of the ten highest-paid women in the United States, with annual earnings of $226,000. "Joan Rivers interviews Lana Turner". [216] The suit was settled out of court for a reported $20,000 in May 1962. Lex Barker, Actor singer She married with Lex Barker (54), in 1953. "I'm getting close to that point, honey. According to Closer Weekly, Turner was married eight times, including twice to the same man. "[330], Defenders of Turner's acting ability, such as Jessica Hope Jordan[331] and James Robert Parish,[332] cite her performance in The Postman Always Rings Twice as an argument for the value of her work. October 1968 203. She died in Los Angeles and buried in California . The clothes she wears are just like the clothes you pay to see her in on Saturday night at the Bijou. [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. "[152], During this period, Turner's personal finances were in disarray, and she was facing bankruptcy. [159] Her next film project was Latin Lovers (1953), a romantic musical in which Lamas had originally been cast. "[314] In addition, Basinger credits Turner as the first mainstream female star to "take the male prerogative openly for herself", publicly indulging in romances and affairs that in turn fueled the publicity surrounding her. Reid. [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. Lana Turner | Who2 Lana Turner's autobiography was finished just before her death. [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. [255] Weeks later, on May 9, 1969, she married Ronald Pellar, a nightclub hypnotist whom she had met at a Los Angeles disco. 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. "Guest: Lana Turner". [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]. [69] In contemporaneous press, it was noted she had been hospitalized for "exhaustion". [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. Spector's motive for killing Lana Clarkson is still unknown, And since Spector died at age 81 on Jan. 16, 2021, due to complications related to COVID-19, the world may never know the motive behind the murder. 79 Lana Turner 1955 Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images The 1958 stabbing death of Johnny Stompanato, a reputed mobster, was definitely a homicide, but what may never be known is whether it was committed by film star, Lana Turner, who had been his girlfriend, or Turner's 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane. She soon attracted attention by playing the role of a murder victim in her film debut, LeRoy's They Won't Forget (1937), and she later moved into supporting roles, often appearing as an ingnue. [11] In 2012, Complex named her the eighth-most infamous actress of all time.[347]. By the time this one comes out, it will be almost three years since I was last on the screen, in The Three Musketeers. In her reign as a movie goddess of the 1940s and early 1950s, Lana 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. [294] She underwent exploratory surgery to remove the cancer,[294] but it had metastasized to her jaw and lungs. SCREEN SIREN LANA TURNER DIES AT AGE 75 - The Washington Post Lana Turner's most memorable film is 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' (1946) , which marked the first time she was cast as a femme fatale, opposite John Garfield. [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. [197] Their meeting was initially happy, but they soon began fighting. [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. [53] Turner left Warner Bros. and signed a contract with MGM for $100 a week ($1,885 in 2021 dollars [43]). [96], In July 1942,[97] Turner met her second husband, actor-turned-restaurateur Joseph Stephen "Steve" Crane, at a dinner party in Los Angeles. [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'". Lana Turner died Thursday at 75. 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. Ronnie Turner's Cause of Death Revealed - yahoo.com The Tragedy Of Mark Ruffalo Just Gets Sadder And Sadder. [8] John was 24 years old at the time, and Mildred's father objected to the courtship. [69] She would later recall that Shaw treated her "like an untutored blonde savage, and took no pains to conceal his opinion". "[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. [111] A lifelong Democrat, she spent the remainder of the year campaigning for Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1944 presidential election. [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. The home is located within the Wallace Historic District, which is on the. [130] Cass Timberlane earned Turner favorable reviews, with Variety noting: "Turner is the surprise of the picture via her top performance thespically. Tina Turner's Oldest Son Craig Dies by Suicide at Age 59 - Peoplemag [125] She discovered she was pregnant with Power's child in the fall of 1947, but chose to have an abortion. Lana Turnerborn Julia Jean Mildred Francis Turner on February 8, 1921 in Wallace, Idahohad one of the most dramatic off-screen. [155] The Merry Widow proved more commercially successful than Turner's previous musical, Mr. Imperium, despite receiving unfavorable critical reviews. [76] After completing the film, Turner and co-star Garland remained lifelong friends, and lived in houses next to one another in the 1950s. [215] Stompanato's family sought a wrongful death suit of $750,000 in damages against both Turner and her ex-husband, Steve Crane. So did she. [144] A Life of Her Own was among the least successful of Cukor's films, receiving unfavorable reviews and low box-office sales. Lana Turner (/ln trnr/; born Julia Jean Turner; February 8, 1921 - June 29, 1995) was an American actress who over the course of her nearly 50-year career achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a dramatic actress as well as for her highly publicized personal life. The Final Years of Lana Turner: The Amazing True Story In the film, she portrayed the daughter of a wealthy patriarch who pursues a relationship with a man in love with her sister. 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. Lana Turner was married to seven men, including bandleader Artie Shaw. "That, and a sense of loss and of growing up too fast. [327] She has also been cited by scholars as a gay icon because of her glamorous persona and triumphs over personal struggles. "[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". He is survived by his wife, fellow comic Lahna Turner, and their two . [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. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) [Cora Smith]: Killed in a car accident while riding with John Garfield; we see the car go off the road . She was 74 years old when she died. [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. Why did Carole Lombard die? - New York Post [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". Cancer And Death. [64], In February 1940, Turner garnered significant publicity when she eloped to Las Vegas with 28-year-old bandleader Artie Shaw, her co-star in Dancing Co-Ed. Lana has always acted hastily and been guided more by her own ideas than by any advance any studio gave her. [264] Turner's remains were cremated and given to Cheryl. [167] Variety deemed the film "a big-scale spectacleEnd result of all this flamboyant polish, however, is only fair entertainment. 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 . The Chicago-born entertainer and one-time secretary was raised in Racine. Actress Lana Turner (born Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner) was one of America's most celebrated sex symbols during the 1940s and 1950s making over 50 films. ``She just took a breath and she was gone,'' her daughter, Cheryl Crane, was quoted as saying in Daily Variety, a trade newspaper. [22], The Turner family struggled financially, and relocated to San Francisco when she was six years old, after which her parents separated. [244] In September of that year,[245] Turner and May separated, divorcing shortly after in October. [276], Between 1979 and 1980, Turner returned to theater, appearing in Murder Among Friends, a murder-mystery play that showed in various U.S. Indeed, there is cause for suspicion that they didn't even bother to think. [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. [23] On December 14, 1930,[24] her father won some money at a traveling craps game, stuffed his winnings in his left sock, and headed for home. [41] While in the shop, she was spotted by William R. Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. [129] Production of Cass Timberlane was exhausting for Turner, because it was shot in between retakes of Green Dolphin Street. In 1936, when Turner was 15, she was discovered while purchasing a soda at the Top Hat Malt Shop in Hollywood. [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. [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. [228] Both films depicted the troubled, complicated relationship between a single mother and her teenage daughter. [104] She gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl, on July 25, 1943. "I fought against doing the picture, but I lost. [336] Jeanine Basinger has similarly championed Turner's acting, writing of her performance in The Bad and the Beautiful: "None of the sex symbols who have been touted as actressesnot Hayworth or Gardner or Taylor or Monroehave ever given such a fine performance. But the marriage was not a success, and in October 2015, Turner filed for divorce seeking joint custody of their two children. [65][66] Though they had only briefly known each other, Turner recalled being "stirred by his eloquence", and after their first date the two spontaneously decided to get married. I've been sprung. No, she died on 06/29/1995, 27 years ago. She stopped smoking after her diagnosis and, in February 1993, announced she was cancer free. [323] Turner often purchased her favorite styles of shoes in every available color, at one time accumulating 698 pairs. CONTACT DETAILS Web Site: . [153] Suffering from depression over her career and financial problems, she attempted suicide in September 1951 by slitting her wrists in a locked bathroom. Despite being a comedian, May had a serious side to him. The pair, per TCM, divorced shortly after. 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. [232][233] She was replaced by Lee Remick. The Tragic Life Of Lana Turner's Daughter, Cheryl Crane - Grunge.com The one lover more obsessed with sex than Sinatra Not so Lana. So what happened? [238] Turner moved in with him on his ranch in Chino, California, where the two took care of horses and other animals. [79] While the film was financially successful,[80] Time magazine panned it, calling it "a pretentious resurrection of Robert Louis Stevenson's ghoulish classic As for Lana Turner, fully clad for a change, and the rest of the cast they are as wooden as their roles. Lana Turner was one of the most enigmatic and iconic actresses of all time. 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. Lana Turner | Found a Grave [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. [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. These desires often lead the women to unfortunate places - mid-century Hollywood . The same year, she had what she referred to as a "religious awakening", and again began practicing her Catholic faith. [223], Released in the spring of 1959, Imitation of Life was among the year's biggest successes, and the biggest of Turner's career; by opting to receive 50% of the film's earnings rather than receiving a salary, she earned more than two million dollars. [67] Their marriage only lasted four months, but was highly publicized, and led MGM executives to grow concerned over Turner's "impulsive behavior". [26] "I know that my father's sweetness and gaiety, his warmth and his tragedy, have never been far from me," she later said. Actor (1945 - 1973 (bef.)) They were married on July 3, 2005, and had two kids, a daughter and a son. Tuesday, July 07, 2015 Lana Turner (1921-1995) Birth name: Julia Jean Turner Birthdate: Tuesday, February 8th, 1921 Location: Wallace, Idaho, USA Died: Thursday, June 29th, 1995 Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Cause of death: Throat cancer [186] Though grateful for the nomination, Turner would later state that she felt it was not "one of my better roles". "She'd completed. There was something smoldering underneath that innocent face. [82] The Turner-Gable films' successes were often heightened by gossip-column rumors about a relationship between the two. [7] Shortly after completing They Won't Forget, she made an appearance in James Whale's historical comedy The Great Garrick (1937), a biographical film about British actor David Garrick, in which she had a small role portraying an actress posing as a chambermaid. [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. Stompanato's rage reportedly reached its boiling point on the night of the 1958 Academy Awards when Turner refused to bring him as her date. [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. [145], In 1949, Turner was to star in A Life of Her Own (1950), a George Cukor-directed drama about a woman who aspires to be a model in New York City. [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. Who is Lana Turner dating? Lana Turner boyfriend, husband "[250] The role earned Turner a David di Donatello Golden Plaque Award for Best Foreign Actress that year. Lana Turner - Oral Cancer Foundation "She was doing fine. [275] In the fall of 1978, she appeared in a Chicago production of Divorce Me, Darling, an original play in which she portrayed a San Francisco divorce attorney. [269], In the early 1970s, Turner transitioned to theater, beginning with a production of Forty Carats, which toured various East Coast cities in 1971. [60] She was then cast in a supporting part as a "sympathetic bad girl" in Calling Dr. Kildare (1939), MGM's second entry in the Dr. Kildare series. [212] Despite this, Cheryl ran away from home multiple times and the press wrote about her rebelliousness. [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. Though Turner only appeared on screen for a few minutes,[46] Wilkerson wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that her performance was "worthy of more than a passing note". "[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. [52] Warner obliged, as he believed Turner would not "amount to anything". lana turner cause of death. [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. [63] The film was a commercial success, and led to Turner appearing on the cover of Look magazine. [316] Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen took note of the intersections between Turner's life and screen persona early in her career, writing in 1946: Lana Turner is a super-star for many reasons but chiefly because she is the same off-screen as she is on. [177], In 1956, Turner discovered she was pregnant with Barker's child, but gave birth to a stillborn baby girl seven months into the pregnancy. New cholesterol-lowering pill cuts the risk of heart attack and stroke 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. [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". [98] The two eloped to Las Vegas a week after they began dating. [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". 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. [202] Turner and Armstrong later returned with two Scotland Yard detectives to the rented house where she and Stompanato were staying. [114] The film was a box-office hit.[114][115]. [198] To avoid further confrontation, Turner and her makeup artist, Del Armstrong, called Scotland Yard in order to have Stompanato deported. "[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. [258], With few film offers coming in, Turner signed on to appear in the television series Harold Robbins' The Survivors. Lana Turner. "[38] With her mother's permission, Turner was referred by Wilkerson to the actor/comedian/talent agent Zeppo Marx. "[271] In 1975, Turner gave a single performance as Jessica Poole in The Pleasure of His Company opposite Louis Jourdan at the Arlington Park Theater in Chicago. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Department of Medical . William McGinley, holding the knife used to kill Johnny Stompanato, questions Lana Turner during the. [218], Turner has been noted by historians as a sex symbol, a popular culture icon[4][314] and "a symbol of the American Dream fulfilled Because of her, being discovered at a soda fountain has become almost as cherished an ideal as being born in a log cabin. [322] No matter the setting, Turner also took care to ensure she was always "camera-ready", wearing jewelry and makeup even while lounging in sweatpants. [78] MGM had initially cast Turner in the lead, but Tracy specifically requested Bergman for the part. [121] In the midst of filming Green Dolphin Street, Turner began an affair with actor Tyrone Power,[123][124] whom she considered to be the love of her life. Tina Turner' s oldest son, Craig Turner, has died by suicide, PEOPLE confirms. Sophie Turner nails casual chic in furry jacket and graphic . In her early 60s, Turner reportedly took a photo of herself at 27 to a plastic surgeon, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, and said, "This is what I want to look like." . Turner's notoriety was assured in 1958 when her lover, mobster Johnny Stompanato, was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife by her daughter Cheryl Crane. In the suit, Stompanato's son alleged that Turner had been responsible for his death, and that her daughter had taken the blame. [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. [205] Around 8:00p.m. on Friday, April 4, Stompanato arrived at Turner's rented home at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. 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. [86] "I adored Mr. Gable, but we were [just] friends," she later recalled. Turner's notoriety was assured in 1958 when her lover, mobster Johnny Stompanato, was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife by her daughter Cheryl Crane. Lana Turner spoke these words as aspiring actress Lora Meredith in Imitation of Life (1959), but they could have been uttered by almost any of her characters over her 4 decades in Hollywood. Lana Turner dating history, 2023, 2022, list of Lana Turner relationships. [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. [341] The Stompanato murder and its aftermath were also the basis of the Harold Robbins novel Where Love Has Gone (1962).