14 Facts About Tura Satana

Tura Satana was a Japanese American actress, showgirl, and exotic dancer.

Tura Satana's father was a Japanese silent movie actor of Filipino descent, and her mother was a circus performer of Native American and Ulster-Scots background.

Tura Satana moved to Los Angeles and by age 15, using fake identification to hide the fact she was a minor, began burlesque dancing.

Tura Satana was hired to perform at the Trocadero nightclub on the Sunset Strip, and became a photographic model for, among others, silent screen comic Harold Lloyd, whose photos of her appear in Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3-D.

Tura Satana eventually became a successful exotic dancer, traveling from city to city.

Tura Satana's acting debut role was a cameo as Suzette Wong, a Parisian prostitute in the film Irma la Douce, which starred Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.

Tura Satana did all of her own stunts and fight scenes.

Tura Satana was responsible for adding key elements to the visual style and energy of the production, including her costume, makeup, usage of martial arts, dialogue and the use of spinning tires in the death scene of the main male character.

Tura Satana came up with many of the film's best lines.

Tura Satana later found employment in a hospital, a position she kept for four years.

Tura Satana was then briefly employed as a dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Tura Satana spent the next two years in and out of hospitals, having two major operations and approximately fifteen others.

Tura Satana claimed to have dated Elvis Presley but turned down his marriage proposal, although she kept the ring.

Tura Satana died on February 4,2011, in Reno, Nevada, and was survived by her daughters, Kalani and Jade, and her sisters, Pamela and Kim.