Lana Turner was an actress initially more famous for her physique than her acting, yet who had sufficient star power to fuel a film career lasting more than 40 years. A symbiosis existed between Lana Turner and her fans; her personal tribulations, which were trumpeted in the press, made her a surprisingly sympathetic figure, and audiences forgave her mediocre performances as long as they could adore her on screen. Though Lana Turner appeared in a range of movies, she was best in melodramas, playing lower-class women who fought their way to wealth and power.
Born Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner, her childhood was not as elegant as her name. Her father was murdered in a robbery attempt when she was nine years old, sending her family into a financial tailspin. She spent some time in foster homes before finally reuniting with her mother, who had moved to Los Angeles to make a living as a beautician.
Legend has it that Lana Turner was discovered sipping a soda in Schwab's Drugstore, but legend is wrong. She was actually at Currie's Ice Cream Parlor, which happened to be across the street from Hollywood High School, which Lana Turner attended. She was 15 years old when Billy Wilkerson of The Hollywood Reporter spotted her and helped her break into the movies at WARNER BROS.
Lana Turner made her debut in They Won't Forget (1938), in which she can be seen sipping a soda at a drugstore counter, which later undoubtedly helped foster the legend of her discovery. In any event, she was not rushed to stardom—at least not yet. Mervyn Le Roy had directed They Won't Forget, and he thought she had "something"; Warner Bros. was not convinced. When Le Roy went to MGM in 1938, he asked if he could take Lana Turner with him. The studio let her go.
At MGM, Lana Turner was groomed, as were many stars, in featured roles in their many successful series. She appeared in, among others, Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) and Calling Dr. Kildare (1939). Her initial success, however, did not come from the movies but from MGM's campaign to prominently feature her full figure in tight pullovers in a number of pin-up pictures, billing her as "The Sweater Girl." As a result of her new image, Lana Turner was soon rushed into sexy melodramas such as Honky Tonk (1941), Somewhere I'll Find You (1942), and Johnny Eager (1942), becoming an instant sensation.
Lana Turner's appeal didn't diminish one iota after the war when she starred in the then steamy version of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), a film that is generally credited as her best. Other popular films followed, including Green Dolphin Street (1947) and Cass Timberlane (1947), but in the late 1940s and early 1950s Lana Turner began to lose her appeal. During the first half of the 1950s, none of her films did well except for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), in which she was cleverly cast as a bad actress.
By the late 1950s, having been in one flop after another, it seemed as if Lana Turner was washed up—until an ironic combination of events briefly reestablished her as a major celebrity. Her daughter killed her longtime boyfriend, a gangster named Johnny Stompanato, knifing him to death in Lana Turner's home. The tabloids went wild, especially when love letters between Lana Turner and the gangster were read in court as evidence. Eventually, Lana Turner's daughter was acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide (she had claimed she was protecting her mother).
Even as the scandal unfolded, Lana Turner's latest film, Peyton Place (1957), was released. The sexy soap opera, buoyed by the publicity Lana Turner received, became a blockbuster hit, and in a classic Hollywood twist, Lana Turner was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the film, the only acting accolade she ever received. Her last big success was the highly regarded DOUGLAS SIRK sudser Imitation of Life (1959).
She continued to work in films throughout the 1960s but with little impact. Her best known movie in this period of decline was Madame X (1965). By 1969 she was ready to try TV, starring in the short-lived series The Survivors. There were a smattering of film appearances in unimportant movies during the 1970s and then a stint on the prime-time TV soap Falcon Crest in 1982, followed by semiretirement.
She has married eight times (she married the same man twice), and Lana Turner's personal life would make a better movie than most of those in which she starred. Among her many husbands were bandleader Artie Shaw and one-time movie Tarzan Lex Barker. She was also reportedly involved at one time with multibillionaire HOWARD HUGHES.
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1. Don Ameche was one of the leading men of 20th Century Fox
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