Theatre work and Broadway debut In 1973, Turner spent the summer with her mother in
Midland, Texas. There, at the
Yucca Theater, Turner made history when she was cast as the first female villain in the
Summer Mummers 1973
melodrama,
Plodding Among the Planets. Several months after moving to New York City in 1977, Turner took over the female lead in Michael Zetter's play
Mister T, which co-starred
Jonathan Frakes and played at
Soho Repertory Theatre. That production marked her
off-Broadway debut. Several months later, Turner made her
Broadway debut as Judith Hastings in
Gemini by
Albert Innaurato, staged at The Little Theatre (later the
Helen Hayes Theater) and starring
Danny Aiello. It opened May 21, 1977, during the time when she was appearing in the soap
The Doctors.
Transition to TV and film In 1978, Turner made her television debut in the
NBC daytime soap
The Doctors as the second Nola Dancy Aldrich. She made her film debut in 1981 as the ruthless Matty Walker in the thriller
Body Heat; the role brought her to international prominence.
Empire cited the film in 1995 when it named her one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History.
The New York Times wrote in 2005 that, propelled by her "jaw-dropping movie debut [in]
Body Heat ... she built a career on adventurousness and frank sexuality born of robust physicality". Because of her deep, husky voice, Turner was often compared to a young
Lauren Bacall. When the two met, Turner reportedly introduced herself by saying, "Hi, I'm the young you."
Stardom After
Body Heat, Turner steered away from
femme fatale roles to "prevent
typecasting" and "because
femme fatale roles had a shelf-life". Consequently, her first project after this was the 1983 comedy
The Man With Two Brains. Turner co-starred in
Romancing the Stone with
Michael Douglas and
Danny DeVito. Film critic
Pauline Kael wrote of her performance as writer Joan Wilder, "Turner knows how to use her dimples amusingly and how to dance like a woman who didn't know she could; her star performance is exhilarating."
Romancing the Stone was a surprise hit: she won a
Golden Globe for her role in the film, and it became one of the top-ten-grossing movies of 1984. Turner teamed with Douglas and DeVito again the following year for its sequel,
The Jewel of the Nile. Pre-production for the movie was fraught with conflict, because Turner refused to commit to the "terrible" script she had been delivered. When she said no,
20th Century Fox threatened her with a US$25 million
breach of contract lawsuit. Eventually Douglas, also the film's producer, agreed to undertake rewrites on the script to make it more acceptable to Turner, which led to much back-and-forth between the two as the script was retooled right up to when shooting started in
Fez, Morocco. Several months before
Jewel, Turner starred in ''
Prizzi's Honor with Jack Nicholson, winning a second Golden Globe award, and later starred in Peggy Sue Got Married, which co-starred Nicolas Cage. For Peggy Sue'', she received the award for
Best Actress from the U.S.
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, as well as an
Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1988's toon-noir
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, she was the speaking voice of cartoon
femme fatale Jessica Rabbit, intoning the famous line, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." Her uncredited, sultry performance was acclaimed as "the kind of sexpot ball-breaker she was made for". (
Amy Irving provided Jessica Rabbit's singing voice in the scene in which the character first appears in the movie.) That same year, Turner also appeared in
Switching Channels, which was a loose remake of the 1940 hit film
His Girl Friday; this, in turn, was a loose remake of the
Ben Hecht-
Charles MacArthur comedy
The Front Page. Turner was the subject of the 1986 song
"The Kiss of Kathleen Turner" by Austrian techno-pop singer
Falco. In 1989, Turner teamed with Douglas and DeVito for a third time, in
The War of the Roses, but this time as Douglas's disillusioned wife, with DeVito in the role of a divorce attorney who told their shared story.
The New York Times praised the trio, saying that "Mr. Douglas and Ms. Turner have never been more comfortable a team ... each of them is at his or her comic best when being as awful as both are required to be here ... [Kathleen Turner is] evilly enchanting." In that film, Turner played a former gymnast and, as in other roles, did many of her own stunts. (She broke her nose two years later, filming 1991's
V.I. Warshawski.)
Slowed by rheumatoid arthritis Turner remained an A-list film star leading lady in the early 1990s, starring in
V.I. Warshawski and
Undercover Blues, until
rheumatoid arthritis seriously restricted her activities. She also blamed her age, stating, "when I was 40, the roles started slowing down, I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers." In 1992, during the filming of
Serial Mom, she began experiencing "inexplicable pains and fevers." The rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis was made about a year later. She was replaced by
Suzanne Pleshette in the final film.
Remission Turner's rheumatoid arthritis progressed for about eight years. Then, thanks to newly available treatments, it went into
remission. She was seen increasingly on television, including three episodes of
Friends, where she appeared as
Chandler Bing's father, a drag performer. In 2006, Turner guest-starred on FX's
Nip/Tuck, playing a
phone sex operator in need of laryngeal surgery. She appeared in a small role in 2008's
Marley & Me and also played a defense attorney on
Law & Order. In 2009, she played the role of Charlie Runkle's sexually hyperactive boss in season three of the television series
Californication. Turner starred in the indie film
The Perfect Family in 2011 and had supporting roles in
Nurse 3D (2013) and the comedy sequel
Dumb and Dumber To in 2014. She appeared in two episodes of the
Hulu series
The Path (2016–17), starred in an episode of the anthology series ''
Dolly Parton's Heartstrings (2019) and guest-starred on two episodes of the CBS comedy series Mom
in 2020. On the Netflix dramedy series The Kominsky Method, Turner was a guest in season 2 (2019) and became a main cast member in season 3 (2021). The series reunited her with fellow actor Michael Douglas for the first time since The War of the Roses''.
Voice acting Turner provided the voice of
Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 live action/animated film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, its three animated short film spinoffs, and in the
Disneyland attraction spinoff, ''
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. In 2006, Turner voiced the character Constance in the animated film Monster House''. Later, she provided radio commercial
voice-overs for
Lay's potato chips.
BBC Radio 4 produced four radio dramas based on the
V. I. Warshawski novels by
Sara Paretsky. Two of them,
Killing Orders and
Deadlock, released in 2007, featured Turner reprising her 1991 film role, which had been based on Paretsky's novel
Deadlock; however, the final series,
Bitter Medicine, released in 2009, had
Sharon Gless take over the part. In 2015, she narrated the anthology drama film
Emily & Tim. Turner also had voice guest roles on the animated series
King of the Hill,
Family Guy,
3Below: Tales of Arcadia,
Rick and Morty,
Summer Camp Island, and
Wizards: Tales of Arcadia.
Stage career After 1990s roles in Broadway productions of
Indiscretions and
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (for which she earned a
Tony Award nomination for Best Actress), Turner moved to London in 2000 to star in a stage version of
The Graduate. The
BBC reported that initially mediocre ticket sales for
The Graduate "went through the roof when it was announced that Turner, then aged 45, would appear naked on stage". While her performance as the seductive Mrs. Robinson was popular with audiences, with sustained high box office for the duration of Turner's run, she received mixed reviews from critics. The play transferred to Broadway in 2002 to similar critical reaction. In 2005, Turner beat a score of other contenders (including
Jessica Lange,
Frances McDormand, and
Bette Midler) The production transferred to Broadway at the
Booth Theatre where it opened in previews on March 25, 2011, officially on April 19, 2011, and an announced quick closing on April 24, 2011. However, in a rare move, the production was revived, still headed by Turner, to undertake a national tour which began in Boston in December 2012. From August to October 28, 2012, Turner appeared in
Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, a play about the legendary liberal Texas columnist
Molly Ivins, at
Arena Stage in Washington, DC. In December 2014 and January 2015, Turner performed the same show at
Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She appeared again at Arena Stage in the title role of Bertolt Brecht's
Mother Courage and Her Children, which opened in February 2014, and playing
Joan Didion in the one-woman show
The Year of Magical Thinking, based on Didion's memoir of the same name, in October and November 2016. In February 2019, Turner made her debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the speaking role of The Duchess of Krakentorp in Donizetti's opera
La fille du régiment.
Other work In addition to her work on stage and screen, Turner has taught acting classes at
New York University. == Reception and public image ==