92 Facts About Lana Turner

In 1936, when Lana Turner was 15, she was discovered while purchasing a soda at the Top Hat Malt Shop in Hollywood.

Lana Turner soon attracted attention by playing the role of a murder victim in her film debut, LeRoy's They Won't Forget, and she later moved into supporting roles, often appearing as an ingenue.

Lana Turner's popularity continued through the 1950s in dramas such as The Bad and the Beautiful and Peyton Place, the latter for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Lana Turner spent most of the 1970s in semi-retirement, making her final film appearance in 1980.

In 1992, Lana Turner was diagnosed with throat cancer and died of the disease three years later at age 74.

Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Turner on February 8,1921, at Providence Hospital in Wallace, Idaho, a small mining community in the Idaho Panhandle region.

Lana Turner 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.

Lana Turner's parents had first met while 14-year-old Mildred, the daughter of a mine inspector, was visiting Picher, Oklahoma, with her father, who was inspecting local mines there.

Lana Turner expressed interest in performance at a young age, performing short dance routines at her father's Elks chapter in Wallace.

The Lana Turner family struggled financially, and relocated to San Francisco when she was six years old, after which her parents separated.

Lana Turner was later found bludgeoned to death on the corner of Minnesota and Mariposa Streets, on the edge of San Francisco's Potrero Hill and the Dogpatch District, with his left shoe and sock missing.

Lana Turner sometimes lived with family friends or acquaintances so that her impoverished mother could save money.

Lana Turner's mother worked 80 hours per week as a beautician to support herself and her daughter, and Turner recalled sometimes "living on crackers and milk for half a week".

Lana Turner became "thrilled" by the ritual practices of the church, and when she was seven, her mother allowed her to formally convert to Roman Catholicism.

Lana Turner subsequently attended the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in San Francisco, hoping to become a nun.

Lana Turner's hands were trembling so she could barely read the script.

Lana Turner's discovery is considered a show-business legend and part of Hollywood mythology among film and popular cultural historians.

One version of the story erroneously has her discovery occurring at Schwab's Pharmacy, which Lana Turner claimed was the result of a reporting error that began circulating in articles published by columnist Sidney Skolsky.

Lana Turner soon became a protegee of LeRoy, who suggested that she take the stage name Lana Turner, a name she would come to legally adopt several years later.

Lana Turner made her feature film debut in LeRoy's They Won't Forget, a crime drama in which she played a teenage murder victim.

Lana Turner always detested the nickname, and upon seeing a sneak preview of the film, she recalled being profoundly embarrassed and "squirming lower and lower" into her seat.

In late 1937, LeRoy was hired as an executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and asked Jack L Warner to allow Turner to relocate with him to MGM.

Lana Turner's 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.

Lana Turner was then cast in a supporting part as a "sympathetic bad girl" in Calling Dr Kildare, MGM's second entry in the Dr Kildare series.

The film was a commercial success, and led to Lana Turner appearing on the cover of Look magazine.

In February 1940, Lana Turner garnered significant publicity when she eloped to Las Vegas with 28-year-old bandleader Artie Shaw, her co-star in Dancing Co-Ed.

In 1940, Lana 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.

Ziegfeld Girl marked a personal and professional shift for Lana Turner; she claimed it as the first role that got her "interested in acting", and the studio, impressed by her performance, marketed the film as featuring her in "the best role of the biggest picture to be released by the industry's biggest company".

Lana Turner was then cast in the Western Honky Tonk, the first of four films in which she would star opposite Clark Gable.

Under these adverse circumstances, stars Taylor and Lana Turner are working under wraps.

At the advent of US involvement in World War II, Lana Turner's increasing prominence in Hollywood led to her becoming a popular pin-up girl, and her image appeared painted on the noses of US fighter planes, bearing the nickname "Tempest Lana Turner".

In July 1942, Lana Turner met her second husband, actor-turned-restaurateur Joseph Stephen "Steve" Crane, at a dinner party in Los Angeles.

Lana Turner gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl, on July 25,1943.

Lana Turner's blood condition resulted in Cheryl being born with near-fatal erythroblastosis fetalis.

Lana Turner is the vamp of today as Theda Bara was of yesterday.

Lana Turner is far more deadly because she lets her audience relax.

Lana Turner was then cast as the female lead in Week-End at the Waldorf, a loose remake of Grand Hotel in which she portrayed a stenographer.

Lana Turner 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.

Reviews of the film, including Lana Turner's performance, were glowing, with Bosley Crowther of The New York Times writing it was "the role of her career".

The film was produced by Carey Wilson, who insisted on casting Lana Turner based on her performance in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Lana Turner discovered she was pregnant with Power's child in the fall of 1947, but chose to have an abortion.

Lana Turner was the studio's first choice for the role, but it was reluctant to offer her the part, considering her overbooked schedule.

In late 1947, Lana Turner was cast as Lady de Winter in The Three Musketeers, her first Technicolor film.

In 1949, Lana Turner was to star in A Life of Her Own, a George Cukor-directed drama about a woman who aspires to be a model in New York City.

On May 24,1950, Lana Turner left her handprints and footprints in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

The first, Mr Imperium, released in March 1951, was a box-office flop, and had Lana Turner starring as an American woman who is wooed by a European prince.

Lana Turner was saved by her business manager, Benton Cole, who broke down the bathroom door and called emergency medical services.

Lana Turner later claimed Topping's drinking problem and excessive gambling as her impetus for the divorce.

In 1956, Lana Turner discovered she was pregnant with Barker's child, but gave birth to a stillborn baby girl seven months into the pregnancy.

Weeks after her divorce, Lana Turner began filming 20th Century-Fox's Peyton Place, in which she had been cast in the lead role of Constance MacKenzie, a New England mother struggling to maintain a relationship with her teenage daughter.

Lana Turner received critical acclaim, with Variety noting that "Turner looks elegant" and "registers strongly", and, for the first and only time, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

In January 1958, Paramount Pictures released The Lady Takes a Flyer, a romantic comedy in which Lana Turner portrayed a female pilot.

Lana Turner testified that she initially believed Cheryl had punched him, but realized Stompanato had been stabbed when he collapsed and she saw blood on his shirt.

Lana Turner was ultimately released to the care of her grandmother, and was ordered to regularly visit a psychiatrist alongside her parents.

Lana Turner portrayed a struggling stage actress who makes personal sacrifices to further her career.

Worried she was still suffering from the trauma of Stompanato's death, Lana Turner sent Cheryl to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut.

Shortly before the release of Imitation of Life in the spring of 1959, Lana 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.

Ray Duncan of the Independent Star-News wrote that Lana Turner "suffers prettily through it all, like a fashion model with a tight-fitting shoe".

In November 1960, Lana Turner married her fifth husband, Frederick "Fred" May, a rancher and member of the May department-store family whom she had met at a beach party in Malibu shortly after filming Imitation of Life.

Lana Turner moved in with him on his ranch in Chino, California, where the two took care of horses and other animals.

In 1966, Lana Turner had her last major starring role in the courtroom drama film Madame X, based on the 1904 play by Alexandre Bisson, in which Lana Turner portrayed a lower-class woman who marries into a wealthy family.

One critic deemed Lana Turner's acting in the film "strained and amateurish", and declared it "one of her poorest performances".

Meanwhile, after six months of marriage, Lana Turner discovered Pellar had stolen $35,000 she had given him for an investment.

Lana Turner filed for divorce in January 1970, after which she claimed to be celibate for the remainder of her life.

Lana 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.

Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote that the film served "as a reminder that Miss Lana Turner was never one of our subtler actresses".

Critic Elaine Matas noted of a 1977 performance that Lana Turner was "brilliant" and "the bright spot in an otherwise mediocre play".

Between 1979 and 1980, Lana Turner returned to theater, appearing in Murder Among Friends, a murder-mystery play that showed in various US cities.

Lana Turner was suffering from an alcohol addiction that had begun in the late 1950s, was missing performances and weighed only 95 pounds.

In 1980, Lana Turner made her final feature-film appearance alongside Teri Garr in the comedy horror film Witches' Brew.

In December 1981, it was announced that Lana Turner would appear as the mysterious Jacqueline Perrault in an episode of Falcon Crest, marking her first television role in 12 years.

Lana Turner's appearance was a ratings success, and her character returned for an additional five episodes.

Lana Turner subsequently guest-starred on an episode of The Love Boat in 1985, which marked her final on-screen appearance.

Lana Turner was a regular drinker and cigarette smoker for most of her life.

Lana Turner was diagnosed with throat cancer in the spring of 1992.

Lana Turner underwent exploratory surgery to remove the cancer, but it had metastasized to her jaw and lungs.

In September 1994, Lana Turner made her final public appearance at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award, and was confined to a wheelchair for much of the event.

Lana Turner died nine months later at the age of 74 on June 29,1995, of complications from the cancer, at her home in Century City, Los Angeles, with her daughter by her side.

Lana Turner's estate was estimated in court documents to be worth $1.7 million.

Lana Turner left the majority of her estate to her maid, Carmen Lopez Cruz, who had been her companion for 45 years and caregiver during her final illness.

Lana Turner is the most glamorous actress since Jean Harlow.

The likeness was most evident in Peyton Place and Imitation of Life, both films in which Lana Turner portrayed single mothers struggling to maintain relationships with their teenage daughters.

Lana Turner is a super-star for many reasons but chiefly because she is the same off-screen as she is on.

Lana Turner was not a dummy, and she would give me wonderful rationalizations why she should wear pendant earrings.

Lana Turner often purchased her favorite styles of shoes in every available color, at one time accumulating 698 pairs.

Lana Turner favored the designers Salvatore Ferragamo, Jean Louis, Helen Rose and Nolan Miller.

Lana Turner maintained her glamorous image into her late career; a 1966 film review characterized her as "the glitter and glamour of Hollywood".

Lana Turner was an admirer of Bette Davis, whom she cited as her favorite actress.

Lana Turner has been cited by scholars as a gay icon because of her glamorous persona and triumphs over personal struggles.

Defenders of Lana Turner's acting ability, such as Jessica Hope Jordan and James Robert Parish, cite her performance in The Postman Always Rings Twice as an argument for the value of her work.

Lana Turner has been depicted and referenced in numerous works across literature, film, music and art.

Lana Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6241 Hollywood Boulevard.