1921–1936: Early life and education Julia Jean Turner was born on February 8, 1921, at
Providence Hospital in
Wallace, Idaho. She was the only child of Mildred Frances Cowan, who hailed from
Lamar, Arkansas, and John Virgil Turner, a miner from
Montgomery, Alabama. Her mother had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, while her father was of Dutch descent. She was born four days before her mother's 17th birthday. Her parents had first met while her mother was 14 and her father was 24; Mildred was the daughter of a mine inspector and was visiting
Picher, Oklahoma, a trip that was taken so her father could inspect the mines there. Mildred's father objected to the courtship, but she and John eloped and moved west before settling in Idaho. The family lived in
Burke, Idaho, at the time of Turner's birth, and relocated to nearby Wallace in 1925, where her father opened a dry cleaning service and worked in the local silver mines. As a child, Turner was known to family and friends as Judy. She expressed interest in performance at a young age, performing short dance routines at her father's
Elks chapter in Wallace. When she was three, she performed an impromptu dance routine at a charity fashion show in which her mother was modeling. She later said, "I know that my father's sweetness and gaiety, his warmth and his tragedy, have never been far from me. That, and a sense of loss and of growing up too fast." Turner sometimes lived with family friends or acquaintances so that her impoverished mother could save money. They also frequently moved, for a time living in
Sacramento and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Following her father's death, Turner lived for a period in
Modesto with a family who physically abused her and "treated her like a servant". Her 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". While baptized a
Protestant at birth, Turner attended
Mass with the Hislops, a Catholic family with whom her mother had temporarily boarded her in
Stockton, California. She became "thrilled" by the ritual practices of the church, and when she was seven, her mother allowed her to formally convert to
Roman Catholicism. in San Francisco, hoping to become a nun. By Turner's own account, she was a 16-year-old junior at
Hollywood High School when she skipped a typing class and bought a
Coca-Cola at the Top Hat Malt Shop 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. The film was a commercial success, and led to Turner appearing on the cover of
Look magazine.
1940–1945: War years and film stardom In February 1940, Turner garnered significant publicity when she eloped to Las Vegas with 28-year-old bandleader
Artie Shaw, her co-star in
Dancing Co-Ed. 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. Their marriage lasted only four months but was highly publicized and led MGM executives to grow concerned over Turner's "impulsive behavior". Turner later remarked that Shaw "stirred" her but soon "flew into rages", adding, "He was a very intelligent man, but he didn't treat women well. In the spring of 1940, after the two divorced, Turner discovered she was pregnant and traveled to
Hawaii to receive a secret
abortion at the insistence of studio executives. In contemporaneous press, it was noted she had been hospitalized for "exhaustion". She would later recall that Shaw treated her "like an untutored blonde savage, and took no pains to conceal his opinion". In the midst of her marriage to Shaw, she starred in
We Who Are Young, a drama in which she played a woman who, against their employer's policy, marries her co-worker., Turner, and
James Stewart on the set of
Ziegfeld Girl (1941), which precipitated her rise at MGM In 1940, 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. A remake of
The Broadway Melody, the film was marketed as featuring Turner's "hottest, most daring role". The following year, she had a lead role in her second musical,
Ziegfeld Girl, opposite
James Stewart, Judy Garland and
Hedy Lamarr. In the film, she portrayed Sheila Regan, an alcoholic aspiring actress based on
Lillian Lorraine.
Ziegfeld Girl marked a personal and professional shift for 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". The film's high box-office returns elevated Turner's profitability, and MGM gave her a weekly salary raise to $1,500 as well as a personal makeup artist and trailer ($ in dollars ). After completing the film, Turner and co-star Garland remained lifelong friends, and lived in houses next to one another in the 1950s. Following the success of
Ziegfeld Girl, Turner took a supporting role as an
ingénue in
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) – a sanitized remake of the original
pre-Code film from a decade earlier – remade as a
Freudian-influenced horror film, opposite
Spencer Tracy and
Ingrid Bergman. MGM had initially cast Turner in the lead, but Tracy specifically requested Bergman for the part. The studio recast Turner in the smaller role, though she was still given top billing. While the film was financially successful at the box office,
Time magazine panned it, calling it "a pretentious resurrection of
Robert Louis Stevenson's ghoulish classic ... As for Lana Turner, fully clad for a change, and the rest of the cast ... they are as wooden as their roles." Turner was then cast in the Western
Honky Tonk (1941), the first of four films in which she would star opposite
Clark Gable. The Turner-Gable films' successes were often heightened by gossip-column rumors about a relationship between the two. In January 1942, she began shooting her second picture with Gable, titled ''
Somewhere I'll Find You''; however, the production was halted for several weeks after the death of Gable's wife,
Carole Lombard, in a plane crash. Meanwhile, the press continued to fuel rumors that Turner and Gable were romantic offscreen, which Turner vehemently denied. "I adored Mr. Gable, but we were [just] friends", she later recalled. "When six o'clock came, he went his way and I went mine." At the advent of US involvement in
World War II, Turner's increasing prominence in Hollywood led to her becoming a popular
pin-up girl, and her image appeared painted on the noses of U.S. fighter planes, bearing the nickname "Tempest Turner". In June 1942, she embarked on a 10-week
war bond tour throughout the western United States with Gable. and another to an elderly man for $50,000. 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. During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force 427 Lion Squadron had been "adopted" by MGM. Many of the aircraft had dedications or nose art honoring MGM's stars. A Handley-Page Halifax bomber "London's Revenge" DK186 ZL L carried the name of Lana Turner into battle over Germany. In July 1942, Turner met her second husband, actor-turned-restaurateur
Joseph Stephen "Steve" Crane, at a dinner party in Los Angeles. The two eloped to Las Vegas a week after they began dating. The marriage was annulled by Turner four months later upon discovering that Crane's previous divorce had not yet been finalized. After discovering she was pregnant in November 1942, Turner remarried Crane in
Tijuana in March 1943. During her early pregnancy, she filmed the comedy
Marriage Is a Private Affair, in which she starred as a carefree woman struggling to balance her new life as a mother. Though she wanted multiple children, Turner had
Rh-negative blood, which caused fetal
anemia and made it difficult to carry a child to term. Turner was urged by doctors to undergo a
therapeutic abortion to avoid potentially life-threatening complications, but she managed to carry the child to term. She gave birth to a daughter,
Cheryl, on July 25, 1943. Turner's blood condition resulted in Cheryl being born with near-fatal
erythroblastosis fetalis. '' radio show, 1945|alt=Woman speaking into a microphone Meanwhile, publicity over Turner's remarriage to Crane led MGM to play up her image as a sex symbol in the comedy
Slightly Dangerous (1943), with
Robert Young,
Walter Brennan and Dame
May Whitty, in which she portrayed a woman who moves to New York City and poses as the long-lost daughter of a millionaire. Released in the midst of Turner's pregnancy, the film was financially successful but received mixed reviews, with
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times writing: "No less than four Metro writers must have racked their brains for all of five minutes to think up the rags-to-riches fable ... Indeed, there is cause for suspicion that they didn't even bother to think." Critic
Anita Loos praised Turner's performance in the film, writing: "Lana Turner typifies modern allure. She is the vamp of today as
Theda Bara was of yesterday. However, she doesn't look like a vamp. She is far more deadly because she lets her audience relax." In August 1944, Turner divorced Crane, citing his gambling and unemployment as primary reasons. Turner was among 250 film notables listed by the Hollywood Democratic Committee as supporting the re-election of
Democratic Party incumbent President
Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1944 presidential election. 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. 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). The film was a box-office hit.
1946–1948: Expansion to dramatic roles '' (1946), considered by many critics to be her career-defining performance After the war, Turner was cast in a lead role opposite
John Garfield in
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), a
film noir based on
James M. Cain's debut
novel of the same name. 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. The classic film noir marked a turning point in Turner's career as her first
femme fatale role. Reviews of the film, including Turner's performance, were glowing, with Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times writing it was "the role of her career".
Life magazine named the film its "Movie of the Week" in April 1946, and noted that both Turner and Garfield were "aptly cast" and "take over the screen, [creating] more fireworks than the Fourth of July". Turner commented on her decision to take the role:
The Postman Always Rings Twice became a major box office success, which prompted the studio to take more risks on Turner, casting her outside of the glamorous sex-symbol roles for which she had come to be known. The film was produced by
Carey Wilson, who insisted on casting Turner based on her performance in
The Postman Always Rings Twice. In the film, she portrayed the daughter of a wealthy patriarch who pursues a relationship with a man in love with her sister. During this time, she also had romantic affairs with
Frank Sinatra and
Howard Hughes, the latter of which lasted for 12 weeks in late 1946. Turner's next film was the romantic drama
Cass Timberlane, in which she played a young woman in love with an older judge – a role for which
Jennifer Jones,
Vivien Leigh, and
Virginia Grey had also been considered. 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. Production of
Cass Timberlane was exhausting for Turner, because it was shot in between retakes of
Green Dolphin Street.
Cass Timberlane earned Turner favorable reviews, with
Variety noting: "Turner is the surprise of the picture via her top performance thespically. In a role that allows her the gamut from tomboy to the pangs of childbirth and from being another man's woman to remorseful wife, she seldom fails to acquit herself creditably." 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). She was the studio's first choice for the role, but it was reluctant to offer her the part, considering her overbooked schedule. Although unenthusiastic about the screenplay, Turner agreed to appear in the film after executives promised her suspension would be lifted upon doing so.
A Life of Her Own was among the least successful of Cukor's films, receiving unfavorable reviews and low box-office sales. On May 24, 1950, Turner left her handprints and footprints in cement in front of
Grauman's Chinese Theatre. In response to the poor reception for
A Life of Her Own, MGM attempted to rebrand Turner by casting her in musicals. The first,
Mr. Imperium, released in March 1951, was a
box-office flop, and had Turner starring as an American woman who is wooed by a European prince. "The script was stupid," she recalled. "I fought against doing the picture, but I lost." It earned her unfavorable reviews, with one critic from the
St. Petersburg Times writing: "Without Lana Turner,
Mr. Imperium ... would be a better picture." During this period, Turner's personal finances were in disarray, and she was facing bankruptcy. Suffering from depression over her career and financial problems, she attempted suicide in September 1951 by slitting her wrists in a locked bathroom. She was saved by her business manager, Benton Cole, who broke down the bathroom door and called emergency medical services. The following year, she began filming her second musical,
The Merry Widow. 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 Merry Widow proved more commercially successful than Turner's previous musical,
Mr. Imperium, despite receiving unfavorable critical reviews. Turner's next project was opposite
Kirk Douglas in
Vincente Minnelli's
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), a drama focusing on the rise and fall of a Hollywood film mogul, in which Turner portrayed an alcoholic movie star.
The Bad and the Beautiful was both a critical and commercial success, and earned her favorable reviews. A little over a week before the film's release in December 1952, Turner divorced her third husband, Bob Topping. She later claimed Topping's drinking problem and excessive gambling as her impetus for the divorce. Her next film project was
Latin Lovers (1953), a romantic musical in which Lamas had originally been cast. He was replaced by
Ricardo Montalbán.
1953–1957: MGM departure and film resurgence In the spring of 1953, Turner relocated to Europe for 18 months to make two films under a tax credit for American productions shot abroad. The films were
Flame and the Flesh, in which she portrayed a manipulative woman who takes advantage of a musician, and
Betrayed, an espionage thriller set in the
Nazi-occupied Netherlands; the latter marked Turner's fourth and final film appearance opposite Clark Gable. In
The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote of
Betrayed: "By the time this picture gets around to figuring out whether the betrayer is Miss Turner or Mr. 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." Upon returning to the United States in September 1953, Turner married actor
Lex Barker, whom she had been dating since their first meeting at a party held by
Marion Davies in the summer of 1952. '' (1955) 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. 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".
Variety deemed the film "a big-scale spectacle ...End result of all this flamboyant polish, however, is only fair entertainment." Turner was next cast in
John Farrow's
The Sea Chase (1955), an adventure film starring
John Wayne, in which she portrayed a femme fatale spy aboard a ship. The film, released one month after
The Prodigal, was a commercial success. MGM then gave Turner the titular role of
Diane de Poitiers in the period drama
Diane (1956), which had originally been optioned by the studio in the 1930s for
Greta Garbo. After completing
Diane, Turner was loaned to 20th Century-Fox to headline
The Rains of Ranchipur (1955), a remake of
The Rains Came (1939), playing the wife of an aristocrat in the
British Raj opposite
Richard Burton. The production was rushed to accommodate a Christmas release and was completed in only three months, and it received unfavorable reviews from critics. Meanwhile,
Diane was given a test screening in late December 1955, and was met with poor response from audiences. Though an elaborate marketing campaign was crafted to promote the film, it was a box-office flop, and MGM announced in February 1956 that it was opting not to renew Turner's contract. Turner gleefully told a reporter at the time that she was "walking around in a daze. I've been sprung. After 18 years at MGM, I'm a free agent ...I used to go on a bended knee to the front office and say, please give me a decent story. I'll work for nothing, just give me a good story. So what happened? The last time I begged for a good story they gave me
The Prodigal." At the time of her contract termination, Turner's films had earned the studio more than $50 million. in
Peyton Place (1957), which earned Turner an
Academy Award nomination In 1956, Turner discovered she was pregnant with Barker's child, but gave birth to a stillborn baby girl seven months into the pregnancy. In July 1957, she filed for divorce from Barker after her daughter Cheryl alleged that he had regularly molested and raped her over the course of their marriage. According to Cheryl, Turner confronted Barker before forcing him out of their home at gunpoint. Weeks after her divorce, 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. The film, directed by
Mark Robson, was adapted from
Grace Metalious' best-selling novel of the same name. Released in December 1957,
Peyton Place was a major
blockbuster success, which worked in Turner's favor as she had agreed to take a percentage of the film's overall earnings instead of a salary. She also 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. Though grateful for the nomination, Turner would later state that she felt it was not "one of my better roles".
1958–1959: Johnny Stompanato homicide scandal on April 1, 1958, four days before he was stabbed to death by Turner's daughter In January 1958,
Paramount Pictures released
The Lady Takes a Flyer, a romantic comedy in which Turner portrayed a female pilot. While shooting the film the previous spring, she had begun receiving phone calls and flowers on the set from
mobster Johnny Stompanato, using the name "John Steele". Stompanato had close ties to the Los Angeles underworld and gangster
Mickey Cohen, which he feared would dissuade her from dating him. He pursued Turner aggressively, sending her various gifts. Turner was "thoroughly intrigued" and began casually dating him. After a friend informed her of who Stompanato actually was, she confronted him and tried to break off the affair. Stompanato was not easily deterred, and over the course of the following year, they carried on a relationship filled with violent arguments, physical abuse and repeated reconciliations. Turner would also claim that on one occasion he drugged her and took nude photographs of her while unconscious, potentially to use as blackmail. In September 1957, Stompanato visited Turner in London, where she was filming
Another Time, Another Place, co-starring
Sean Connery. Their meeting was initially happy, but they soon began fighting. Stompanato became suspicious when Turner would not allow him to visit the set and, during one fight, he violently choked her. To avoid further confrontation, Turner and her makeup artist, Del Armstrong, called
Scotland Yard in order to have Stompanato deported. Stompanato got wind of the plan and showed up on the set with a gun, threatening her and Connery. Connery answered by grabbing the gun out of Stompanato's hand and twisting his wrist, causing him to run off the set. Turner and Armstrong later returned with two Scotland Yard detectives to the rented house where she and Stompanato were staying. 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. 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. Stompanato, angered that he did not attend with her, awaited her return home that evening, whereupon he physically assaulted her. Around 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 4, Stompanato arrived at Turner's rented home at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. The two began arguing heatedly in the bedroom, during which Stompanato cut Turner's face and threatened to kill her, her daughter
Cheryl, and her mother. The suit was settled out of court for a reported $20,000 in May 1962. A 1962 novel by
Harold Robbins entitled
Where Love Has Gone and its subsequent
film adaptation were inspired by the event. Following the trial, Cheryl often ran away from home and
attempted suicide several times. This led her parents to check her into a
mental hospital, where her mental health improved shortly. Critics and audiences could not help noticing that the plots of
Peyton Place and
Imitation of Life both seemed to mirror certain parts of Turner's private life, resulting in comparisons she found painful. Both films depicted the troubled, complicated relationship between a single mother and her teenage daughter. During this time, Turner's daughter Cheryl privately
came out as a
lesbian to her parents, who were both supportive of her. Despite this, Cheryl ran away from home multiple times and the press wrote about her rebelliousness. She was replaced by
Lee Remick. Instead, Turner took a lead role as a disturbed socialite in the film noir
Portrait in Black (1960) opposite
Anthony Quinn and
Sandra Dee, which was a box-office success despite bad reviews. Ray Duncan of the
Independent Star-News wrote that Turner "suffers prettily through it all, like a fashion model with a tight-fitting shoe". In November 1960, 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. Turner moved in with him on his ranch in
Chino, California, where the two took care of horses and other animals. 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. Upon completing filming, Turner collected the remaining $92,000 from her
pension fund with MGM. The same year, she starred in
By Love Possessed (1961), based on a
bestselling novel by
James Gould Cozzens. The film became the first
in-flight movie to be shown on a regular basis on a scheduled airline flight when
TWA showed it to its first-class passengers. In mid-1962, Turner filmed ''
Who's Got the Action?, a comedy in which she portrayed the wife of a gambling addict opposite Dean Martin. In September of that year, Turner and May separated, divorcing shortly after in October. They remained friends throughout her later life. 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." The role earned Turner a
David di Donatello Golden Plaque Award for Best Foreign Actress that year. In late 1968, she began filming the low-budget thriller
The Big Cube, in which she portrayed a glamorous heiress being dosed with
LSD by her stepdaughter in hopes of driving her insane and receiving the family estate. One critic deemed Turner's acting in the film "strained and amateurish", and declared it "one of her poorest performances". In April 1969, Turner filed for divorce from Eaton after four years of marriage upon discovering he had been unfaithful to her. Weeks later, on May 9, 1969, she married
Ronald Pellar, a nightclub
hypnotist whom she had met at a Los Angeles disco. According to Turner, Pellar (also known as Ronald Dante or Dr. Dante) falsely claimed to have been raised in Singapore and to have a
Ph.D. in psychology. '' (1969) With few film offers coming in, Turner signed on to appear in the television series ''
Harold Robbins' The Survivors''. Premiering in September 1969, the series was given a major national marketing campaign, with billboards featuring life-sized images of Turner. 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. Meanwhile, after six months of marriage, Turner discovered Pellar had stolen $35,000 she had given him for an investment. In addition, she later accused him of stealing $100,000 worth of jewelry from her. Pellar denied the accusations and no charges were filed against him. She filed for divorce in January 1970, after which she claimed to be
celibate for the remainder of her life. In April 1975, Turner spoke at a retrospective gala in New York City examining her career, which was attended by
Andy Warhol,
Sylvia Miles,
Rex Reed and numerous fans. Her next film was
Bittersweet Love (1976), a romantic drama in which she portrayed the mother of a woman who unwittingly marries her half-brother.
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". In the early 1970s, Turner transitioned to theater, beginning with a production of
Forty Carats, which toured various East Coast cities in 1971. 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. It wasn't much of a play even when
Julie Harris was doing it, and it all but disappears under the old-time Hollywood glamor of Miss Turner's star presence." In 1975, Turner gave a single performance as Jessica Poole in
The Pleasure of His Company opposite
Louis Jourdan at the Arlington Park Theater in Chicago. From 1976 to 1978, she starred in a touring production of
Bell, Book and Candle, playing Gillian Holroyd. Critic Elaine Matas noted of a 1977 performance that Turner was "brilliant" and "the bright spot in an otherwise mediocre play". In the fall of 1978, she appeared in a Chicago production of
Divorce Me, Darling, an original play in which she portrayed a San Francisco divorce attorney. During rehearsals, a stagehand told reporters that Turner was "the hardest working broad I've known".
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". During this time, Turner was in the midst of a self-described "downhill slide". She was suffering from an
alcohol addiction that had begun in the late 1950s, was missing performances and weighed only . In 1980, Turner made her final feature film appearance, in the
comedy horror film ''
Witches' Brew, alongside Teri Garr. The same year, she had what she referred to as a "religious awakening", and again began practicing her Catholic faith. On October 25, 1981, the National Film Society presented Turner with an Artistry in Cinema award. In December 1981, it was announced that Turner would appear as the mysterious Jacqueline Perrault in an episode of Falcon Crest'', marking her first television role in 12 years. Her appearance was a ratings success, and her character returned for an additional five episodes. In January 1982, Turner reprised her role in
Murder Among Friends, which toured throughout the U.S. that year; paired with
Bob Fosse's ''
Dancin''', the play earned a combined gross of $400,000 during one week at Pittsburgh's
Heinz Hall in June 1982. In September, Turner released an autobiography entitled
Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth. She subsequently guest-starred on an episode of
The Love Boat in 1985, which marked her final on-screen appearance. By this time, she had adopted a religion and told
The New York Times that she was "very close to
God. I read the
Daily Word and have learned to meditate. I'm still getting used to this New Woman - after all, she's only two years old!" She also thanked God for giving her happiness. ==Death==