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. [62] In her next film, Dancing Co-Ed (1939), Turner was given first billing portraying Patty Marlow, a professional dancer who enters a college as part of a rigged national talent contest. [198] To avoid further confrontation, Turner and her makeup artist, Del Armstrong, called Scotland Yard in order to have Stompanato deported. [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. "[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. I don't think it's healthy to stay off the screen that long. "[121] It was her first starring role that did not center on her looks. But every time I went into my argument about how bad a picture was, they'd say, "well, it's making a fortune". [155] The Merry Widow proved more commercially successful than Turner's previous musical, Mr. Imperium, despite receiving unfavorable critical reviews. [259] Premiering in September 1969, the series was given a major national marketing campaign, with billboards featuring life-sized images of Turner. [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. The small tumor turned out to be throat cancer. [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". In an interview, Turner said: "I even go running around in the jungles of New Zealand in a dress that's filthy and ragged. . Nevertheless, she insisted she would not give up her glamorous image. [213], Though Turner and her daughter were exonerated of any wrongdoing, public opinion on the event was varied, with numerous publications intimating that Turner's testimony at the inquest was a performance; Life magazine published a photo of Turner testifying in court along with stills of her in courtroom scenes from three of her films. [9][33] Turner subsequently attended the Convent of the Immaculate Conception[10] in San Francisco, hoping to become a nun. [286] Her appearance was a ratings success, and her character returned for an additional five episodes.[287]. Indeed, there is cause for suspicion that they didn't even bother to think. In a caree. [174] Though an elaborate marketing campaign was crafted to promote the film, it was a box-office flop,[175] and MGM announced in February 1956 that it was opting not to renew Turner's contract. [209], Because of Turner's fame and the fact that the killing involved her teenage daughter, the case quickly became a media sensation. [52] In her early films, Turner did not color her auburn hairsee Dancing Co-Ed (1939), in which she was billed "the red-headed sensation who brought "it" back to the screen". [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. 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 [112] In 1945, she co-starred with Laraine Day and Susan Peters in Keep Your Powder Dry, a war drama about three disparate women who join the Women's Army Corps. [202] Turner and Armstrong later returned with two Scotland Yard detectives to the rented house where she and Stompanato were staying. In her years as a top box office draw, she and longtime studio MGM forged her statuesque form into any number of pop . 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. natural causes; Cause of death: esophageal cancer; Place of burial: California; Work period (start) 1937; Work period (end) 1991; Country of citizenship: United States of America; . Turner, who had been treated for throat cancer, apparently died of natural causes, a police spokeswoman, Ramona Baety, confirmed to The Associated Press. "That, and a sense of loss and of growing up too fast. A Handley-Page Halifax bomber "London's Revenge" DK186 ZL L carried the name of Lana Turner into battle over Germany. There was something smoldering underneath that innocent face. [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]. [82] The Turner-Gable films' successes were often heightened by gossip-column rumors about a relationship between the two. 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. [41] While in the shop, she was spotted by William R. Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. [260] Despite ABC's extensive publicity campaign and the presence of other big-name stars, the program fared badly, and it was canceled halfway into the season after a 15-week run in 1970. Browse 79 lana turner 1955 stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. [179][180] According to Cheryl, Turner confronted Barker before forcing him out of their home at gunpoint. [137][138] Turner's wedding celebrations interfered with her filming schedule for The Three Musketeers, and she arrived to the set three days late. [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. [210] More than 100 reporters and journalists attended the April 12, 1958 inquest, described by attendees as "near-riotous". [8] John was 24 years old at the time, and Mildred's father objected to the courtship. [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. Read Complete Obituary Photos [21] She expressed interest in performance at a young age, performing short dance routines at her father's Elks chapter in Wallace. [42][48] Turner always detested the nickname,[49] and upon seeing a sneak preview of the film, she recalled being profoundly embarrassed and "squirming lower and lower" into her seat. Lana has always acted hastily and been guided more by her own ideas than by any advance any studio gave her. [253] In April 1969,[254] Turner filed for divorce from Eaton after four years of marriage upon discovering he had been unfaithful to 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. After a trial in 2009, he was sentenced to 19 years to life. The growth of maturity is reflected neatly in her distinguished portrayal. Not so Lana. After all those years as a sex symbol, nothing had changed--Lana was still as beautiful as ever. [329] Basinger considers her the "epitome of the Hollywood machine-made stardom". The flesh is the same. "[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. [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. According to his son, Arthur Marx, it was the only time he ever saw his father cry. [144] A Life of Her Own was among the least successful of Cukor's films, receiving unfavorable reviews and low box-office sales. [167] Variety deemed the film "a big-scale spectacleEnd result of all this flamboyant polish, however, is only fair entertainment. [190] He pursued Turner aggressively, sending her various gifts. Lana Turner relationship list. 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. [56] During the shoot, Turner completed her studies with an educational social worker, allowing her to graduate high school that year. [192] After a friend informed her of who Stompanato actually was, she confronted him and tried to break off the affair. [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. Her hair was dark, messy, uncombed. [267] Her next film was Bittersweet Love (1976), a romantic comedy in which she portrayed the mother of a woman who unwittingly marries her half-brother. [216] The suit was settled out of court for a reported $20,000 in May 1962. [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. Gardner repeatedly contemplated suicide near the end of her life. [291] In her early 60s, Turner stopped drinking to preserve her health,[283] but she was unable to quit smoking. [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. Contents. [60] Upon completing Dramatic School, Turner screen-tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). [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. [55] Instead, she was assigned opposite teen idol Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in the Andy Hardy film Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). "Bob" Topping Jr., a millionaire socialite and brother of New York Yankees owner Dan Topping, and a grandson of tin-plate magnate Daniel G. [76] After completing the film, Turner and co-star Garland remained lifelong friends, and lived in houses next to one another in the 1950s. [182] The film, directed by Mark Robson, was adapted from Grace Metalious' best-selling novel of the same name. He was found struggling to breathe on the sidewalk in front of his Encino home, the LAPD told the New York. 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. Is Lana Turner still alive? [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. [273][274] Critic Elaine Matas noted of a 1977 performance that Turner was "brilliant" and "the bright spot in an otherwise mediocre play". [154] The following year, she began filming her second musical, The Merry Widow. "Joan Rivers interviews Lana Turner". An Aspiration Cut Short. She is far more deadly because she lets her audience relax. It's an image I've worked too hard to obtain and preserve. I don't wear any make-up and my hair's a mess." I got a big chance to do some real acting in The Postman Always Rings Twice, and I'm not going to slip back if I can help it. [204] Stompanato, angered that he did not attend with her, awaited her return home that evening, whereupon he physically assaulted her. Turner's role in the film has also caused her to be frequently associated with film noir and the femme fatale archetype in critical circles. "[250] The role earned Turner a David di Donatello Golden Plaque Award for Best Foreign Actress that year. But the marriage was not a success, and in October 2015, Turner filed for divorce seeking joint custody of their two children. (The killing was later ruled justifiable homicide.) [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.