TURNER, Lana

Nationality: American. Born: Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner in Wallace, Idaho, 8 February 1920. Education: Attended Hollywood High School. Family: Married 1) the musician Artie Shaw, 1940 (divorced 1940); 2) Joseph Stephen Crane, 1942 (divorced 1944), daughter: Cheryl Christine; 3) Henry J. Topping, 1948 (divorced 1952); 4) the actor Lex Barker, 1953 (divorced 1957); 5) Fred May, 1960 (divorced 1962); 6) Robert Eaton, 1965 (divorced 1969); 7) Ronald Dante, 1969 (divorced 1972). Career: 1937—film debut in A Star Is Born; contract with the director Mervyn LeRoy; role in They Won't Forget led to publicity as "Sweater Girl"; 1938–56—contract with MGM; 1958—formed Lanturn Productions; 1966—formed Eltee Productions; 1969—in TV series The Survivors; 1971—on stage in 40 Carats; 1983—in TV series Falcon Crest. Died: Of throat cancer, in Century City, California, 29 June 1995.

Films as Actress:

1937

A Star Is Born (Wellman) (as extra); They Won't Forget (LeRoy) (as Mary Clay); The Great Garrick (Whale) (as Auber)

1938

The Adventures of Marco Polo (Mayo) (as Nazama's maid); Love Finds Andy Hardy (Seitz) (as Cynthia Potter); The Chaser (Marin) (as Miss Rutherford); Rich Man, Poor Girl (Schunzel) (as Helen Thayer); Dramatic School (Sinclair) (as Mado); Four's a Crowd (Curtiz)

1939

Calling Dr. Kildare (Bucquet) (as Rosalie); These Glamour Girls (Simon) (as Jane Thomas); Dancing Co-Ed (Every Other Inch a Lady) (Simon) (as Patty Morgan)

1940

Two Girls on Broadway (Choose Your Partner) (Simon) (as Pat Mahoney); We Who Are Young (Bucquet) (as Margy Brooks)

1941

Ziegfeld Girl (Leonard) (as Sheila Regan); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Fleming) (as Beatrix Emery); Honky Tonk (Conway) (as Elizabeth Cotton)

1942

Johnny Eager (LeRoy) (as Lisbeth Bard); Somewhere I'll Find You (Ruggles) (as Paula Lane)

1943

Slightly Dangerous (Ruggles) (as Peggy Evans/Carol Burden); The Youngest Profession (Buzzell) (as herself); DuBarry Was a Lady (Del Ruth) (as herself)

1944

Marriage Is a Private Affair (Leonard) (as Theo Scofield West)

1945

Keep Your Powder Dry (Buzzell) (as Valerie Parks); Weekend at the Waldorf (Leonard) (as Bunny Smith)

1946

The Postman Always Rings Twice (Garnett) (as Cora Smith)

1947

Green Dolphin Street (Saville) (as Marianne Patourel); Cass Timberlane (Sidney) (as Virginia Marshland)

1948

Homecoming (LeRoy) (as Lt. Jane "Snapshot" McCall); The Three Musketeers (Sidney) (as Milady Countess Charlotte de Winter)

1950

A Life of Her Own (Cukor) (as Lily Brannel James)

1951

Mr. Imperium (You Belong to My Heart) (Hartman) (as Fredda Barlo)

1952

The Merry Widow (Bernhardt) (as Crystal Radek); The Bad and the Beautiful (Minnelli) (as Georgia Lorrison)

1953

Latin Lovers (LeRoy) (as Nora Taylor)

1954

The Flame and the Flesh (Thorpe) (as Madeline); Betrayed (The True and the Brave) (Reinhardt) (as Carla Van Owen)

1955

The Prodigal (Thorpe) (as Samarra); The Sea Chase (Farrow) (as Elsa Keller); The Rains of Ranchipur (Negulesco) (as Edwina Esketh); Diane (David Miller) (title role)

1957

Peyton Place (Robson) (as Constance MacKenzie)

1958

The Lady Takes a Flyer (Arnold) (as Maggie Colby); Another Time, Another Place (Lewis Allen) (as Sara Scott)

1959

Imitation of Life (Sirk) (as Lora Meredith)

1960

Portrait in Black (Michael Gordon) (as Sheila Cabot)

1961

By Love Possessed (John Sturges) (as Marjorie Penrose); Bachelor in Paradise (Arnold) (as Rosemary Howard)

1962

Who's Got the Action? (Daniel Mann) (as Melanie Flood)

1965

Love Has Many Faces (Singer) (as Kit Jordan)

1966

Madame X (Rich) (as Holly Anderson)

1969

The Big Cube (Tito Davison) (as Adriana Roman)

1971

The Last of the Powerseekers (Doniger, Leytes, and Henreid—for TV) (as Tracy Carlyle Hastings)

1974

Persecution (Terror of Sheba; The Graveyard) (Chaffey) (as Carrie Masters)

1976

Bittersweet Love (David Miller) (as Claire)

1978

Witches' Brew (Shorr)

Publications

By TURNER: book—

Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth, New York, 1982.

On TURNER: books—

Wright, Jacqueline, The Life and Loves of Lana Turner, New York, 1960.

Morella, Joe, Lana: The Public and Private Lives of Miss Turner, New York, 1971.

Rosen, Marjorie, Popcorn Venus, New York, 1973.

Basinger, Jeanine, Lana Turner, New York, 1976.

Valentino, Lou, The Films of Lana Turner, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1976.

Paris, James, The Hollywood Beauties, New Rochelle, New York, 1978.

Pero, Taylor, Always, Lana, New York, 1982.

Crane, Cheryl, with Cliff Jahr, Detour: A Hollywood Story, New York, 1988.

Wayne, Jane Ellen, Lana: The Life and Loves of Lana Turner, New York, 1995.

On TURNER: articles—

Current Biography 1943, New York, 1943.

Valentino, Lon, "For Love of Lana," in Show (Hollywood), January 1970.

Raborn, G., "Lana Turner," in Films in Review (New York), October 1972.

Dyer, Richard, "Four Films of Lana Turner," in Movie (London), Winter 1977–78.

"Legendary Lady," in Harper's Bazaar (New York), September 1982.

Thomson, David, "A Life of Imitation," in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1988.

Obituary in New York Times, 1 July 1995.

Obituary in Variety (New York), 10 July 1995.

"Never to Be Forgotten," in Psychotronic Video (Narrowsburg), no. 21, 1995.

Updike, John, "Legendary Lana," in New Yorker, 12 February 1996.

Hevia, E., "El colchon de Lana," in Nosferatu (San Sebastian), January 1997.

Lana Turner has come to epitomize the concept of the classical Hollywood movie star. She is identified with glamour, artifice, and excess. The last is not only associated with her on-screen image but also with her offscreen identity. In fact, numerous critics have suggested that Turner's offscreen activities are her primary claim to fame. Aside from the many marriages, the most spectacular instance of her notoriety was the 1958 killing of Turner's gangster lover by her teenaged daughter. The incident catapulted Turner into the realm of celebrity status and it is this distinction that gives her star image a strong contemporary edge. The situation, in deed and coverage, has been only recently surpassed by the media's responses to O. J. Simpson and the double murder. That the scandal has become incorporated into the culture was evidenced by Woody Allen's September which features a famous actress and her daughter, who, as a teenager, allegedly killed the mother's lover.

If scandal is an aspect of Turner's contemporary identity, another is a very specific filmic image. The image, Turner dressed in white shorts and halter and wearing a turban, is taken from The Postman Always Rings Twice which, in addition to connecting Turner to an illicit lover and murder, presents the actress at her most sexual. It is fitting that she is summed up in a static image since Turner's identity is not associated strongly with performing or a distinctive personality. Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull underscores this point in its fleeting but unmistakable reference to the actress—Cathy Moriarty appears, in a poolside scene, in a facsimile of the above-mentioned sunsuit, and, significantly, the context is a nonverbal sequence.

Turner's image as a celebrity is probably reinforced by her films which, on the whole, are not distinguished. Nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to claim that her film career is negligible. Turner, in addition to having an ability to project sexual desire, cultivated a very feminine identity, to the extent that her presence, in terms of grooming and gesture suggested artifice. But Turner is not a passive onscreen presence. Rather, she tends to play women who struggle and refuse to settle for less than what can be had. These characterizations suggest a woman who is desperate and, therefore, reckless; yet, Turner's behavior is often constrained and she, unlike actresses such as Joan Crawford, seems incapable of fully challenging or overriding gender and, in numerous instances, class dictates. Arguably, this happens because she is too fully aligned to femininity, hence a socially controlled identity. Turner's skill resides in her ability to articulate her situation and the insecurities it produces; beneath the somewhat glacial and carefully constructed exterior image, there is a person who is anxious, fearful, and needs help. It is perhaps this tension which contributes to her appeal as it foregrounds the conflicting responses women experience under patriarchy.

Turner's star image is tightly bound to her sexuality. Such films as The Prodigal and Diane, in which Turner is paired with weak male co-stars and virtually carries the films herself, suggest that it is her sexual desire that makes her an exciting and transgressive figure. This on-screen emphasis on sex was mirrored offscreen through the marriages and the affairs; yet Turner's offscreen identity was mediated by an emphasis on her as a woman who wanted a lasting marriage, who was a good mother and who was serious about her career. The many contradictions in her identity exploded with the real-life stabbing of her lover and these same contradictions are skillfully utilized by Douglas Sirk in Imitation of Life.

Although Turner continued to work into the late 1970s, her film career effectively ends with Madame X. From the 1980s onward, Turner shied away from public exposure and the decision to avoid the limelight invested her latter-day image with a degree of dignity. While Turner never fully gained critical acceptance as a performer, she proved herself to be an extremely professional and hard-working woman; and she managed to make an indelible mark on the Hollywood cinema through her presence and star image.

—Richard Lippe

Turner, Lana

(b. 8 February 1920 in Wallace, Idaho; d. 29 June 1995 in Los Angeles, California), actress who epitomized glamour in Hollywood’s golden years, despite an off screen life touched by scandal.

Born Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner in the small mining town of Wallace, Idaho, Turner was the only child of John Virgil Turner and Mildred Frances Cowan. After Julia (known as “Judy”) was born, the family drifted from town to town, finally settling in San Francisco, where her parents eventually separated. Her father, a smooth-talking miner, gambler, and bootlegger, was murdered after an all-night crap game in San Francisco sometime around Christmas in 1930. When Turner was fifteen, she and her mother, a beautician, moved to Hollywood, where she attended Hollywood High School.

The legend that she was discovered while sipping a strawberry soda at Schwab’s drugstore in Hollywood is not exactly true. In fact, she was drinking a Coca-Cola at the Top Hat Café across the street from her high school in January 1936 when she was spotted by W. R. (“Billy”) Wilkerson, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, who asked her if she would like to appear in movies. After signing with the talent agency of Zeppo Marx (brother of the famous Marx Brothers comedy team), she won a bit role in A Star Is Born (1937) and even made a screen test for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. Her big break came when she was cast as Mary Clay in Warner Brothers’ production of They Won’t Forget (1937). Playing a teenage girl whose murder sparks a firestorm of bigotry and lawlessness in a southern town, Turner sauntered down a street early in the film, wearing a skintight sweater and skirt. Her brief appearance prompted a barrage of publicity, and she became known as the “Sweater Girl.” Although there are conflicting accounts, Turner claims that it was at this point that she changed her name from Judy to Lana.

After playing minuscule roles in The Great Garrick (1937) and The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), Turner moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the urging of Mervyn LeRoy, who had directed her in They Won’t Forget. As moviegoers responded to her blonde beauty and her aura of innocent sexuality, her roles became increasingly prominent in such movies as Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938), and Calling Dr. Kildare (1939). She was soon starring in These Glamour Girls (1939), Dancing Co-Ed (1940), and Two Girls on Broadway (1940), films that relied more on her glamorous looks than on her modest acting ability. Her best role to date came in Ziegfeld Girl (1941), in which she played an ambitious chorus girl whose relentless search for stardom ends with her demise. During this early period of her career, Turner married twice, first in February 1940 to the bandleader Artie Shaw, whom she divorced only seven months later, and then in July 1942 to the restaurateur Stephen Crane, whom she divorced in 1944. Despite a contentious, much-publicized marital relationship with Crane, they had a daughter in July 1943.

As a major star in MGM’s galaxy of players, Turner was frequently cast opposite the studio’s most popular leading men, including Spencer Tracy (Dr. ]ekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1941; Cass Timberlane, 1947), Robert Taylor {Johnny Eager, 1942), and Clark Gable. Gable was her most felicitous costar—his rugged masculinity played well against her kittenish, seductive ways in Honky Tonk (1941), Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942), and Homecoming (1948). Other roles, in such films as Weekend at the Waldorf (1945), Green Dolphin Street (1947), and The Three Musketeers (1948), revealed a competent but unexceptional actress. After completing The Three Musketeers, Turner married the sportsman and millionaire Henry J. (“Bob”) Topping in May 1948; they divorced in December 1952.

Only one of Turner’s films in the 1940s was exceptional, and it featured one of her best performances. In The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), adapted from James M. Cain’s novel, she played Cora, the seductive, scheming wife of an older man (Cecil Kellaway), who plots his murder in league with a drifter (John Garfield), whom she seduces. Dressed entirely in white as an ironic contrast to the utter blackness in her heart, Turner gave a full-throttle performance that riveted the audience’s attention.

Turner’s films in the 1950s were mostly mediocre, but she managed to retain her aura of Hollywood glamour, lavishly costumed in such movies as The Merry Widow (1952), Latin Lovers (1953), The Prodigal (1955), and Diane (1955). On loan to other studios, she appeared in The Sea Chase (Warner Brothers, 1955), opposite John Wayne, and The Rains of Ranchipur (Fox, 1955), a remake of The Rains Came, opposite Richard Burton. In MGM’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), she gave what is arguably her best performance. As the alcoholic, jaded actress Georgia Lorrison, who is turned into a star and then discarded by the ruthless producer Kirk Douglas, she revealed the emotional fragility behind the Hollywood glitter. The scene in which she becomes hysterical as she drives away from her deceitful lover is one of her finest moments in film. In September 1953, Turner married her fourth husband, the actor Lex Barker, whom she divorced in July 1957. Around the same time, her contract with MGM came to an end.

In 1958, Turner became deeply involved in one of the most sensational crimes in Hollywood history. On an evening in April, her lover, the mobster Johnny Stompanato, allegedly threatened to disfigure her during a heated argument. Fearful for her mother’s life, Turner’s daughter, Cheryl, then fourteen, stabbed him to death with a carving knife. The crime, and the subsequent trial, prompted banner headlines in newspapers across the country. A jury exonerated Cheryl with a finding of justifiable homicide. Devastated by the event, Turner feared that her career was now at its lowest ebb.

She was bolstered, however, by the strongly favorable reaction to her performance in Peyton Place (1957), based on—and superior to—Grace Metalious’s best-selling novel, which had been made before the Stompanato scandal but was released almost simultaneously with Cheryl’s trial. Playing Constance MacKenzie, a repressed mother who finds new love in the secret-ridden town of Peyton Place, Turner gave a persuasive performance that won her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Many of Turner’s films in the late 1950s and 1960s reflected the public’s perception of the actress as a woman with a troubled but active romantic life.

In Portrait in Blacky (1960), she conspired with her lover, Anthony Quinn, to murder her husband. In By Love Possessed (1961), she played a woman unhappily married to the wealthy Jason Robards, Jr., who begins a torrid affair with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Love Has Many Faces (1965) cast her as another rich, bored woman, this time with a shady past and a beach boy lover (Hugh O’Brian). Turner’s most successful films of this period, however, were glossy remakes of durable stories, such as Imitation of Life (1959) and Madame X (1966), which gave her the chance to stretch her acting ability. She also appeared in several comedy films, including Bachelor in Paradise (1961), with Bob Hope, and Who’s Got the Action? (1962), with Dean Martin. During the 1960s, Turner, who enjoyed the company of men, continued her pattern of marriage and divorce: her husbands included the businessman and rancher Fred May (1960–1962), the producer Robert P. Eaton (1965–1969), and the nightclub hypnotist Ronald Dante (1969–1972).

Turner remained off the screen for three years; when she returned, the roles were few and far between, and the films were poor. In The Big Cube (1969), she played a mother at the mercy of her daughter’s unscrupulous lover, and in Persecution (1973, also released as Sheba and The Terror of Sheba), she was a nasty woman ultimately murdered by her vengeful son. Her final film was called Bittersweet Love (1976). In her later years, she appeared occasionally on television, most notably in the series The Survivors (1969–1971), and also onstage in the comedy Forty Carats. She died in Los Angeles of throat cancer at the age of seventy-five and was cremated.

Over the years, Hollywood’s “Golden Girl” may have been tarnished by scandal, and her off screen life may have become fodder for tabloid headlines. Yet at the peak of her fame, she glowed with a radiance that virtually defined “movie star,” and her blonde beauty was indisputably the stuff of dreams.

Lana Turner’s autobiography, Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth, was published in 1982. Other books on her life and career include Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, Lana: The Public and Private Lives of Miss Turner (1971); Jeanine Basinger, Lana Turner (1976); Lou Valentino, The Films of Lana Turner (1976); and Jane Ellen Wayne, Lana: The Life and Loves of Lana Turner (1995). Turner’s daughter, Cheryl Crane, related her own story in Detour: A Hollywood Story, written with Cliff Jahr (1988). An article by John Updike, “Legendary Lana,” is in the New Yorker (12 Feb. 1996). Obituaries appear in the New York Times (1 July 1995) and Variety (10-16 July 1995).

Ted Sennett

Lana Turner

The rise of Lana Turner (1920-1995) from humble origins to Hollywood stardom made her an inspiration to a generation of young American women. She achieved great popular acclaim during her acting career, but her personal life was marred by a series of failed marriages and scandals.

Lana Turner was born on February 8, 1920 into a financially strained family that lived in the rural area of Wallace, Idaho. Her father, Virgil, held a variety of jobs, including miner, insurance salesman, and bootlegger. As the family struggled to make ends meet, they moved often and Turner's education suffered. In 1928, her parents separated, and she moved with her mother to stay with friends in Modesto, California. Turner's mother took a job in San Francisco and was reunited with her daughter after discovering that friends in Modesto had physically abused the child. In 1930, while Turner and her mother were in California, Virgil was killed after winning a high-stakes craps game. Turner and her mother remained in San Francisco for three years before moving to Los Angeles in 1933.

Miraculous Discovery

The Turners did not have an easy life in Los Angeles. It was difficult for a single parent to make a living during the Great Depression, but Turner's mother made her daughter attend high school instead of taking a job to supplement the family income. Turner did not apply herself fully as a student, but that cavalier attitude had a totally unexpected consequence. One afternoon in 1936, she decided to have lunch at a nearby restaurant instead of attending classes. Accounts differ as to where she was eating, but it is thought that she was either at Schwab's drugstore (as Hollywood publicists later insisted), the Top Hat Cafe, or Currie's Ice Cream Parlor. As she ate her meal, Turner was noticed by Billy Wilkerson, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter. Wilkerson was so taken by her wholesome good looks that he introduced Turner to Zeppo Marx, a member of the Marx Brothers comedy team, who also ran a casting agency for the film industry. Marx immediately recognized what Wilkerson had seen in Turner and introduced her to Warner Brothers' film director Mervyn LeRoy, who in turn decided to cast her in his upcoming film They Won't Forget. LeRoy suggested that Turner adopt the first name of "Lana," advice which she readily accepted. In a matter of days Turner had gone from being a poor high school student to a film actress earning $50 per week, a handsome sum at the time.

Turner's first film appearance was as a little-noticed extra in the classic, A Star is Born, but her second performance in They Won't Forget had an electrifying effect. As Turner herself recounted years later, she and her mother attended the first screening of the film and were mortified by the whistles from men in the audience when Turner appeared onscreen wearing a tight fitting sweater. In fact, Turner would come to be known as the original "Sweater Girl." Although the enthusiastic male response may have embarrassed Turner, to Hollywood filmmakers, such reaction meant only one thing-box office success.

Professional Success and Personal Strife

During the next two years, Turner continued to make films while completing her high school education at studio schools. LeRoy transferred to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) in 1938, and was followed by Turner. She completed her high school studies in 1939, and began spending more time making movies. Turner was given her first starring role later the same year in The Dancing Coed. As Turner's career progressed, she began making a name for herself among Hollywood's party set. In 1940, she married bandleader, Artie Shaw, on a whim in Las Vegas. Shortly thereafter turner became pregnant. MGM officials did not wish to see their sexy starlet assume a more maternal look and convinced Turner to obtain an abortion, an illegal medical procedure at the time. Her marriage to Shaw ended after only four months.

Turner's loyalty to MGM was rewarded, as she received increasingly important roles in the early 1940s. Her social life was also very active. She was reported to have dated such notable figures as actors Clark Gable and Robert Stack, bandleader Tommy Dorsey, and movie producer, aviation pioneer, and oilman Howard Hughes. Despite having had these highly publicized relationships, Turner's second marriage was to the relatively unknown Stephen Crane, a restaurateur from Indiana. Once again Turner became pregnant, only to discover that Crane was still legally married to his first wife. She was inclined to leave Crane, but at the studio's insistence, and after suicide attempts by Crane, she agreed to marry him again after his divorce was finalized in 1943. Their daughter, Cheryl, was born later in the year. Turner sued Crane for divorce in 1944. Despite personal turmoil, Turner continued to receive good parts, including the role of Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1945. She also became a favorite "pin-up" of servicemen during World War II.

Turner's personal life made bigger headlines than her movies during the late 1940s. Her involvement with actor Tyrone Power, who was married at the time, was widely followed by the popular press, as was her association with legendary singer Frank Sinatra. After Power divorced his wife in 1948, only to marry someone else, Turner immediately married Henry J. Topping, a businessman. Their marriage did not prove to be a happy one. Turner suffered a miscarriage, sued Topping for divorce, and made an attempt on her own life in 1951. Her fourth husband, actor Lex Barker, sexually abused Turner's ten-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane. When Turner discovered Barker's crime in 1957, she immediately divorced him. According to Cheryl, Turner held a loaded gun to his head as he slept, before deciding that his life was not worth her incarceration.

Indignity and Rejuvenation

Despite the turmoil of her personal life, Turner's career continued to thrive throughout the 1950s. Her performance as an abused starlet in The Bad and the Beautiful brought her first critical recognition. She also received an Academy Award nomination for her 1957 portrayal of Constance MacKenzie in Peyton Place. Her professional success was once again eclipsed by her life off screen, however. Turner confided to her daughter in 1958 that she feared that her current lover, small-time mobster Johnny Stompanato, would become violent with her. Shortly after this discussion, Stompanato threatened to cut Turner's face with a coat hanger. Upon hearing this threat from an adjoining room Cheryl found a large knife and went to her mother's defense. In the ensuing struggle, Cheryl fatally stabbed Stompanato in the chest. The stabbing was eventually ruled a justifiable homicide but the entire affair, including Turner's testimony at the coroner's inquest, was highly publicized. This negative publicity threatened to make Turner too controversial for any studio to hire. Under these circumstances Turner's next contract for Imitation of Life in 1959 called for her to be paid almost exclusively in royalties rather than the more customary salary. In this way the studio would not have to pay her much if the film proved a commercial failure. The strategy backfired however when Imitation of Life proved a tremendous success and eventually netted Turner $1 million. The success of the film demonstrated that Turner was still a popular actress. She continued to work steadily until the late 1960s.

Denouement

By the end of the 1960s, Turner's age made her unsuitable for the type of role that she had played throughout her career. She still maintained an active and turbulent social life, marrying rancher Fred May in 1960. The marriage lasted for two years. Her sixth marriage, to producer Robert Eaton ended in 1969. Turner attempted to broaden her acting horizons by appearing on television but her series, The Survivors, lasted only 15 weeks in 1969. Shortly prior to the series' cancellation Turner entered her seventh and final marriage, to nightclub hypnotist, Ronald Dante. The marriage ended after just a few months, when Dante walked out on Turner and allegedly defrauded her of $35,000. For the rest of her life, Turner would remain single. In the wake of the failure of her marriage and The Survivors, Turner attempted to perform on stage. She was so painfully shy in front of a live audience, however, that she found it difficult to talk, much less perform. Her last feature film appearance was in Bittersweet Love in 1974. Turner enjoyed a final acting stint on the prime-time television drama Falcon Crest in the early 1980s. She retired from acting in 1983 and moved into a two-bedroom condominium in Los Angeles.

Turner's personal life improved during her later years. In 1985, her daughter Cheryl wrote an autobiography, Detour: A Hollywood Story, detailing the travails of her childhood. Although the book was highly critical of Turner as a mother, talking about its contents brought mother and daughter closer. Turner lived a quiet life, out of the public eye, during the 1980s. A heavy smoker throughout her life, Turner was diagnosed with throat cancer in the early 1990s. The cancer spread to her jaw and lungs by 1992, and she died at her home in Los Angeles on June 29, 1995.

Lana Turner exemplified Hollywood stardom during the 1940s and 1950s. Her improbable discovery and ongoing popularity made her a major public figure throughout her life. The notoriety of her off-screen activities did nothing to lessen her fame.

Further Reading

American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Turner, Lana, Lana, E.P. Dutton, 1982.

Entertainment, April 10, 1992.

Life, October 1986.

People, February 15 1988; 17 July 1995. □