[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. In her final years . Actress: Imitation of Life. Some of these marriages were rather spontaneous. Per the official city of Wallace website, the Turner home in Wallace was located at 217 Bank Street, immediately west of downtown Wallace. Turner was a regular drinker[270] and cigarette smoker for most of her life. Lana Turner donned the same combination in Imitation of Life, one of the first movies to make a serious attempt at the "commercial tie-in." Jeweler Laykin et Cie supplied the jewelry Turner wore in the 1959 film, hoping to cash in on her glamorous reputation and the film's box-office success. [221] Her co-star Juanita Moore recalled that Turner cried for three days after filming a scene in which Moore's character dies. [268] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote that the film served "as a reminder that Miss Turner was never one of our subtler actresses". Children of stars do the best imitations. Lana Turner (1921 - 1995) was known for her dramatic skill. Turner (1921-1995) has a fair claim as the first modern celebrity film star, and her private life was every bit as turbulent and colourful as the plot lines in her most outrageous on-screen melodramas. Get the help finding the right home, pricing and selling a home, contracts, negotiations and more. It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to work with them. Here are the most important films in which she starred. See more ideas about lana turner, harlem, lana. 1. [164], In 1955, MGM's new studio head Dore Schary had Turner star as a pagan temptress in the Biblical epic The Prodigal (1955), her first CinemaScope feature. A judge eventually ruled the incident was justifiable homicide but Turner and her daughter were estranged for years as a result. [104] She gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl, on July 25, 1943. Though her skill as an actress was limited, Turner excelled in roles that highlighted her sexuality and working-class roots. Turner was survived by Cheryl Crane, her only child; and Crane's life partner Joyce "Josh" LeRoy, whom she said she accepted "as a second daughter". A Beverly Hills mansion built on the site of a former home of actress Lana Turner and big bandleader Artie Shaw has found a buyer. The same year, she had what she referred to as a "religious awakening", and again began practicing her Catholic faith. Turner was married eight times to seven different men. Lana was a Realtor prior for 6 years. Hollywood actress Lana Turner in a dress with bodice top and transparent sleeves. Though Turner only appeared on screen for a few minutes,[46] Wilkerson wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that her performance was "worthy of more than a passing note". But beneath the movie star image was a thoughtful, funny, generous, and hard-working woman who loved her mother and daughter above all else. During the shoot, Turner began an affair with her co-star Fernando Lamas, which ended after Lamas physically assaulted her; the incident also caused Lamas to lose his MGM contract upon the production's completion. The home is located within the Wallace Historic District, which is on the. [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. [113] She was then cast as the female lead in Week-End at the Waldorf, a loose remake of Grand Hotel (1932) in which she portrayed a stenographer (a role originated by Joan Crawford). When Julia Jean was about 8 years old, her father was murdered making life for the girl and her mother tougher than it had been, and it had never . [165][166] She was reluctant to appear in the film because of the character's scanty, "atrocious" costumes and "stupid" lines, and during the shoot struggled to get along with co-star Edmund Purdom, whom she later described as "a young man with a remarkably high opinion of himself". [61] Turner's onscreen sex appeal in the film was reflected by a review in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which she was characterized as "the answer to 'oomph'". [172][173] The production was rushed to accommodate a Christmas release and was completed in only three months, but it received unfavorable reviews from critics. [201] Connery answered by grabbing the gun out of Stompanato's hand and twisting his wrist, causing him to run off the set. [277] Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune praised her performance, writing that, "though she is still a very nervous and inexpert actress, she is giving by far her most winning performance". So what happened? At 16, she was signed to a personal contract by Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy, who took her with him when he transferred to MGM in 1938. [167] Variety deemed the film "a big-scale spectacleEnd result of all this flamboyant polish, however, is only fair entertainment. [202] Turner and Armstrong later returned with two Scotland Yard detectives to the rented house where she and Stompanato were staying. "[27], Turner sometimes lived with family friends or acquaintances so that her impoverished mother could save money. [8] John was 24 years old at the time, and Mildred's father objected to the courtship. [117] The classic film noir marked a turning point in Turner's career as her first femme fatale role. In the suit, Stompanato's son alleged that Turner had been responsible for his death, and that her daughter had taken the blame. She'd grown up poor and uneducated, yet her mother always knew that Ava had what it took to be . She Was Poor. [240] Upon completing filming, Turner collected the remaining $92,000 from her pension fund with MGM. Intense media scrutiny surrounded the actress in 1958 when her teenage daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed Turner's lover Johnny Stompanato to death in their home during a domestic struggle. Lana Turner had many public romances off-screen. [154] The following year, she began filming her second musical, The Merry Widow. He 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. Her person became her persona. She is far more deadly because she lets her audience relax. [98] The two eloped to Las Vegas a week after they began dating. However, Turner notes in her autobiography that her birth certificate lists Julia Jean Turner as her official birth name. [63] The film was a commercial success, and led to Turner appearing on the cover of Look magazine. [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. "[249] Kaspar Monahan of the Pittsburgh Press lauded her performance, writing: "Her performance, I think, is far and away her very best, even rating Oscar consideration in next year's Academy Award race, unless the culture snobs gang up against her. Lana Turner spoke these words as aspiring actress Lora Meredith in Imitation of Life (1959), but they could have been uttered by almost any of her characters over her 4 decades in Hollywood. "[131], In August 1947, immediately upon completion of Cass Timberlane, Turner agreed to appear as the female lead in the World War II-set romantic drama Homecoming (1948), in which she was again paired with Clark Gable, portraying a female army lieutenant who falls in love with an American surgeon (Gable). [196], In September 1957, Stompanato visited Turner in London, where she was filming Another Time, Another Place, co-starring Sean Connery. English. [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. [57] The film was a box-office success,[58] and her appearance in it as a flirtatious high school student convinced studio head Louis B. Mayer that Turner could be the next Jean Harlow, a sex symbol who had died six months before Turner's arrival at MGM. In 1936, when Turner was 15, she was discovered while purchasing a soda at the Top Hat Malt Shop in Hollywood. I tried to persuade the studio to give me something different. She tied the knot twice with Stephen Crane, and later to Ronald Dante, Robert Eaton, Fred May, Lex Barker, Henry Topping, and Artie Shaw. The detectives advised Stompanato to leave and escorted him out of the house and to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to the U.S.[203], On the evening of March 26, 1958, Turner attended the Academy Awards to observe her nomination for Peyton Place and present the award for Best Supporting Actor. See more ideas about lana turner, classic hollywood, golden age of hollywood. Actress. [208], According to testimony provided by Turner, Stompanato died at the scene when Cheryl, who had been listening to the couple's fight behind the closed door, stabbed Stompanato in the stomach when Turner attempted to usher him out of the bedroom. [186] Though grateful for the nomination, Turner would later state that she felt it was not "one of my better roles". MGM portrait in 1939 by Everett. Organized Crime and Hollywood Scandal Figure. "When six o'clock came, he went his way and I went mine. [209], Because of Turner's fame and the fact that the killing involved her teenage daughter, the case quickly became a media sensation. I don't think it's healthy to stay off the screen that long. [153] Suffering from depression over her career and financial problems, she attempted suicide in September 1951 by slitting her wrists in a locked bathroom. Career slump notwithstanding, she was still an A-list sex symbol who drew attentive gazes from Hollywood's leading men. [307] Film historian Jeanine Basinger notes that she "represented the girl who'd rather sit on the diving board to show off her figure than get wet in the water the girl who'd rather kiss than kibbitz". [344][345] In 2002, artist Eloy Torrez included Turner in an outdoor mural, Portrait of Hollywood, painted on the auditorium of Hollywood High School, her alma mater. [34] She soon became a protge of LeRoy, who suggested that she take the stage name Lana Turner, a name she would come to legally adopt several years later. Mature, it has taken the audience through such a lengthy and tedious amount of detail that it has not only frayed all possible tension but it has aggravated patience as well. [270] A review in The Philadelphia Inquirer noted: "Miss Turner always could wear clothes well, and her Forty Carats is a fashion show in the guise of a frothy, little comedy. Turner had a child with Crane in 1943, which was a big reason why they got married again after splitting up. "[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. Don't miss new videos Sign in to see updates from your favourite channels [26] "I know that my father's sweetness and gaiety, his warmth and his tragedy, have never been far from me," she later said. ( 1921 - 1995 ) was known for her dramatic skill a judge eventually ruled incident! 92,000 from her pension fund with MGM harlem, lana a result a commercial,... ], Turner sometimes lived with family friends or acquaintances so that her birth certificate lists Julia Jean Turner her! Justifiable homicide but Turner and her daughter were estranged for years as a `` religious awakening '', led. X27 ; s leading men Turner excelled in roles that highlighted her sexuality working-class... 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