Julia Jean Turner: The Early Years: 1921-1938

Academy Award Best Actress nominee Lana Turner (Peyton Place – 1957) began life as Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner in the small mining town of Wallace, Idaho on February 8, 1921. She was the only child of Mildred and John “Virgil” Turner. Mildred was just seventeen years old on becoming a mother just a year into her marriage. Baby Julia was nicknamed "Ju-Jean" or "Judy" by her parents. Surprisingly today, Mildred never called her husband John or Virgil, opting instead to always refer to him as Mister Turner.

John Virgil Madison Turner was later described by his daughter as tall, lean, and handsome with a sparkling personality and zest for life. Though charming and playful with his wife and daughter, he was not educated well enough to provide a stable income to support his small family and was forced to go from job to job and working in the mines of Wallace which was also known to have a notorious red light district.

Mildred Frances Cowan was born in the chicken-farming town of Lamar, Arkansas in 1904. Her early life would be a hard one. Her mother died giving birth and an older great aunt brought her up. She was a sickly child forced to wear a bag of foul-smelling herbs and mustard plasters around her neck as a cure for her respiratory problems. Her early life was one of poverty and sickness. Her father, Henry Cowan, remarried three times and sired twelve children who were raised on the salary of a railroad man. Mildred did not remain close to her stepsiblings in later life. Mildred never had any instructions about sex and on her wedding night Virgil’s rough handling of her put her off sex for the rest of her life. She became a quiet, shy woman with remarkable insight who would become Judy’s close companion, advisor and sometime nemesis as Judy became “Lana” and rose to unbelievable celebrity the world over.

As a youngster, Judy had virtually no toys to play with or things to treasure. Still, she had fond memories of both her parents. Mildred passed many hours with her daughter with the only lamp in their meager dwelling acting as the light source for a game of “pretty hands” as they took turns casting shadows on the wall with their hands in motion. One wonders if Mildred knew that she was laying a foundation for Julia’s expressive use of her hands in later life. As Judy became Lana Turner, her hands and nails were in a constant state of faultless manicure to her dying day. Lana even gave up the sport of Golf in order to protect her nails.

Little Judy’s fondest lifelong childhood memory of her parents was sitting and watching Mildred and Virgil dance the fox-trot on the kitchen floor to the music of a windup Victrola they had. Then it became Judy’s turn to dance and Virgil twirled her, laughing, around the floor. As little girls are prone to do, she adored her father. It is a safe assumption to say that her father was the first love of her life. Unfortunately, Judy also witnessed many quarrels her parents had over their impoverished state and Virgil’s penchant for gambling, drinking, dancing and partying. The latter would eventually put an insurmountable breach between the two as Virgil often made or lost the rent money playing dice or poker. He also turned to bootlegging, selling home-brewed corn liquor until the police caught on and they once again had to skip town. 

 In search of stable work, the family left Wallace, Idaho for San Francisco, California when Judy was six. Once there, tensions escalated and they agreed to separate. With Virgil gone, Mildred, with a child to take care of, struggled mightily to make ends meet. She was forced to place little Judy in foster homes while she worked as a beauty operator. Virgil eventually found work as a stevedore with the Pacific Coast Steamship Company.

In December 1930, when Judy Turner was nine years old, Virgil was the winner in a basement card game of The San Francisco Chronicle and saying he was going to buy his little girl a bicycle for Christmas as he stuffed his winnings into his left sock and shoe. It was where he always placed his spoils before heading out into the night. The following morning Virgil was found dead in the alley behind the Chronicle building, his head bashed in and his left sock and shoe removed from his foot in great haste. Although obvious that he knew his murderer, all members of the game plead innocence and supported one another in their stand. As a result, the murder was never solved and remains so to this day. 

Lana often confided to intimates that, at the time of her father’s murder, while she was miles away and sleeping on her small cot in the home of her mother’s friend, that a bright light, which did not hurt her eyes awakened her. Centered in the light was the face of an Angel who told Judy her father was dead, that her mother would be there the following day to collect her, that everything would be alright, and that she would live to have a “wonderful” life. As the face within the light faded and dimmed, Lana said that she, as Judy, simply lay back in her bed and went back to sleep. When Judy saw Mildred coming up the walkway the following day she ran to Mildred (who had been informed of the murder) and blurted out that her father was dead. Both Mildred and her friend were stunned and could not fathom how the child knew. The prophecy eventually came to be. Though Virgil would never dance with Judy again, she (as Lana Turner) would spend the rest of her life searching for him again in one man or another through countless love affairs, seven marriages, and the catastrophic murder of her gangster lover in 1958.

 After Virgil's death, Mildred was left financially destitute. She and Judy had no money, no food or no place to live. Times were hard and having no other alternative, Mildred started leaving Judy in a series of foster homes, while she went to find work. Lana’s memories of life in a series of foster homes were grim. She was little more than a scullery maid and one family forced her to eat her food while sitting under their table as they dined above. At meals end it would be Judy’s responsibility to clear the table and wash and dry the dirty dishes and kitchen utensils. Judy did their cooking, their family laundry on Saturdays and ironing on Sundays. While Virgil’s visits to see his daughter were infrequent, Mildred made the ninety-mile bus trip to Modesto to see her daughter as often as she could. On one of her Sunday afternoon visits, Mildred discovered bruises on Judy’s body from being physically abused by her foster parents. She left Modesto with Judy in tow, determined to somehow make a life for them. At one point they had no food for three days. Much later in life, as the glamorous Lana Turner, she would refer to her impoverished, glum childhood and compare it to that of Marilyn Monroe. Lana would say, “Marilyn used her childhood for publicity -- I kept my mouth shut about mine.”

As for Marilyn, her idol was Lana Turner and she began shaping her public persona by copying and imitating Lana before finding the image the public so adored. Both Icons were no strangers to childhood trauma.

 Mildred, suffering from respiratory problems since her early days, found the San Francisco dampness worsened her condition. A doctor suggested moving to the dryer climate of Southern California. Coincidentally, Mildred’s best friend, Gladys, already lived there in a small bungalow near the famed Hollywood Bowl and agreed to take them in to live with her. In 1936, with Judy now fifteen, mother, daughter, and a friend tied their suitcases to the top of an old, run-down automobile and began their trek South to Los Angeles.

Once in Los Angeles Judy was in enrolled in Hollywood High School as a sophomore. Bored with school one day she decided to cut class and go for a Coke (it wasn't an ice cream soda, as has been reported. Coke was a nickel and an ice cream soda, a quarter). It wasn't at Schwab's Drugstore as has oft been reported but at The Top Hat Cafe, right across Sunset Boulevard from Hollywood High. The only other patron in The Top Hat was a man eyeing her from across the U-shaped counter who inquired of the counterman who the girl straight across from him was. Knowing that the man was none other than Billy Wilkerson, owner of The Hollywood Reporter trade publication for the entertainment industry, the counter man answered, “Her name is Judy and she’s new at Hollywood High.” “I want to meet her”, Wilkerson replied. The counterman approached the shy but stunningly beautiful girl. Judy’s first reaction was to rebuff the counterman’s suggestion of meeting the strange man, but the counterman assured her that the man was known to him and did not have evil intent. Judy relented only after telling her advisor, “Alright – but you stand right there in front of me!” The counterman introduced the two and stood his ground in front of Judy. The first words Judy heard from Billy Wilkerson were, “How would you like to be in the movies?” Replying truthfully, Judy answered, “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my mother.” With that Wilkerson handed her his business card and said, “Have you mother call me.” Though no one knew it, Hollywood history had just been made.

Judy did not show Mildred the business card right away. Fearing a scolding for speaking to a strange man, Judy kept the card secret for two days before showing it to her over protective mother. Mildred did not know the name Billy Wilkerson or the influence he had in Hollywood, but went to their friend and mentor, Gladys with it. Gladys responded enthusiastically and urged Mildred to make the call. On Gladys’s advice, Mildred complied. After meeting with Mildred and Judy Billy Wilkerson recommended a casting director at Warner Brothers Studio named Solly Biano who saw Judy’s rough potential and knew that a well known director named Mervyn LeRoy had been searching a long time for a fresh, young, innocent girl to play a small but pivotal role in a movie being made from a book titled Murder In The Deep South. It would fatefully be named They Won’t Forget and the innocent young girl, played by the newly named Lana Turner, would cause a sensation for her walk and her look. Mervyn LeRoy later said that the moment Judy walked into his office, he knew that she was perfect for the role, despite her cheap cotton dress, unruly hair, and obvious shyness.

 Based on a hunch about the Judy Turner’s potential, LeRoy signed her to a contract and the first order of business was finding her a new name. LeRoy felt that "Judy Turner" sounded too much like a chorine for his liking. They went down the alphabet until they got down to "L". Louise? (A LOUISE I am NOT". Lana later stated at New York's Town Hall in 1975). "How about Lana?" Judy said. "How would you spell it?" LeRoy asked. "L-A-N-A?" she said. "Lana Turner. Lana Turner" LeRoy kept saying to test it. It was perfect. Judy Turner was gone forever and this new creature they called Lana was taking her place. Her life would never be the same.

 Lana's small role in They Won't Forget, as a young girl who gets murdered and raped during the first ten minutes of the film, turned out to be a mixed blessing. She received a lot of attention but it was due to the fact that the wardrobe department outfitted her in a tight fitting sweater and equally tight fitting skirt. She was immediately dubbed "The Sweater Girl" by the press, an unwanted title she disliked intensely. It would take her years to live it down and make audiences and studio executives take her seriously as an actress.

 A short time later when LeRoy moved from Warner Bros to MGM studios, he took the newly named Lana Turner with him as his protégé. Whether she wanted to believe it or not she was about to be processed into the MGM studio system, at the time the greatest and most powerful studio in the business.

 

Lana Turner: The MGM Years: 1938-1956

 During Lana's first three years at MGM, the studio heads were trying to figure out exactly what to do with her. At the time that she first arrived on the lot, studio heads were still reeling from the untimely death of one of their biggest stars, blonde bombshell Jean Harlow, who had died suddenly of uremic poisoning at aged 26. For the moment, however, Lana was being placed in everything and anything in order to determine what she could do. Her first film under her MGM contract was Love Finds Andy Hardy, in which she played Cynthia Potter, a girl who is only going with Andy because her boyfriend is out of town. She had only four scenes in the film, but standing next to Mickey Rooney (at the time a number one box office attraction), who was still photographing like a boy on screen, it was obvious that Lana was projecting a sex appeal well beyond her 17 years.  More bit parts in B-Movies like Calling Dr. Kildare and Dramatic School followed and eventually she started getting larger parts in minor movies such as Dancing Co-Ed (in which she would meet her first husband, band leader Artie Shaw, a union that lasted only a few short months) that showcased her obvious talent and marketability. Then it happened.

Inspired by the 1936 film, The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Girl was the story of three Ziegfeld Follies' chorines and their trials and tribulations backstage. Lana was to have a minor part as tragic alcoholic Sheila Regan. As filming went on she was surprised to see that her part was starting to get fattened up a bit and that new pages were being added to her script each day. She ended up being one of the stars of the film, which also starred Hedy Lamarr, Judy Garland and James Stewart. It was her first "A" picture at MGM and from that point on she was an over the title star or she would share co-star billing with a Gable, a Taylor or a Tracy. Lana Turner had won the acceptance of the public as well as MGM studio heads.

 From Ziegfeld Girl in 1941 to A Life of Her Own in 1950, career wise, Lana was riding high. She was given the top male costars of the day in the form of Clark Gable (Honky Tonk, Somewhere I'll Find You, Homecoming and Betrayed), Spencer Tracy (Cass Timberlaine) and Robert Taylor (Johnny Eager). The public couldn't get enough of her, which wasn't lost to MGM executives who paid handsomely for her services. She also had star perks, such as having a girl hired just to change the records on her record player and a full length mirror in her dressing room just to "check herself out" before going to the set. Her dressing room consisted of a half-acre of space surrounded by a white picket fence.

Lana's personal life wasn't always so rewarding and she would be married and divorced four times during her reign at MGM. One night at the Mocambo nightclub, a handsome stranger asked her for a dance. He turned out to be broker Steve Crane, a lover of beautiful woman and a con man of sorts. No matter to Lana, a week after they first met they eloped. Shortly thereafter the marriage had already fallen apart and was annulled when Lana discovered that she was pregnant. Rather than face unwed motherhood and Louis B. Mayer's wrath, she agreed to reconciliation.

Complicating matters, Crane's first wife was waiting in the wings, insisting that she and Steve were never really divorced. Angrily, Lana accused her of waiting until she had announced her pregnancy to drop the bombshell. Rather than be charged with bigamy, Lana paid her $5,000 hush money. On July 25, 1943 Lana gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Cheryl Christina Crane. Lana would not go on to have more children, due to an inherited genetic condition known as RH incompatibility. In effect, her RH negative blood was destroying Cheryl's RH positive and the infant had to have transfusion after transfusion, and it was in limbo as to whether she would live or not. She managed to beat the odds however and after two months in the hospital she was released. In August 1944, Lana's strained marriage to Steve Crane ended with a quiet divorce.

By 1945, the movie public's tastes were changing and stars that had been around since the silent era, such as Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer were either choosing new career paths or retiring altogether. LB Mayer caught on to this quickly and supplied the public with new names and faces, such as Greer Garson and Elizabeth Taylor. With Crawford, Garbo and Shearer gone, Lana, who had already been at MGM for almost a decade, was the undisputed queen of the lot. It was in 1945 in fact that Lana received the assignment that she would most be remembered for by moviegoers for decades to come, the part of shady Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Based on the novel by James M. Cain (who also wrote Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce), Postman was the story of a drifter, Frank Chambers (John Garfield), who takes a job at a roadside diner only to fall in love with the owner's much younger wife. The feeling quickly becomes mutual and they try to figure out a way to be able to be together. The obvious solution of course is to kill her husband. Things don't go exactly as planned, however, and deception and blackmailing ensues.

MGM was so afraid of Lana's blatant sexuality in Postman, that they dressed her in virginal white (save a few scenes). The result was that she came off much sexier than she may have been. The on-screen chemistry between Lana and Garfield was electric and palpable, and critics and public alike flocked to see them together.

Lana's career was at its peak, but her personal life was a disaster. She consoled herself after a breakup with actor Tyrone Power (who she always said was the love of her life) by starting a relationship with millionaire and "tin-plate" heir Bob Topping. From the start, Lana confessed to Topping that she was not in love with him, but he persisted by countering, “That will come in time.” Resourceful and persistent, Topping wouldn't take no for an answer and continued to woo her for a year. When he dropped a diamond ring into her martini glass she gave in and they were married on April 26, 1948.

Lana and Topping lived in luxury and spent money like water. They bought a stunning Georgian style mansion on Mapleton Drive in Bel Air and named it "Maple Top". They gave parties for hundreds and took luxurious vacations. By end of their marriage, however, Topping's fortunes had been so depleted, that it was Lana who was paying all of the bills and household expenses. Topping, distraught over the loss of his fortune began to drink heavily and became increasingly violent and short tempered. One day she was complaining to her mother about the bills and her mother looked her straight in the face and said, "Let’s face it, Lana -- You can't afford to keep a millionaire". Realizing her mother was right, Lana laughed and called her divorce lawyer immediately. Their divorce became final on December 12, 1952.

 1952 would also be the year in which Lana would have a comeback of sorts. She had had two box office flops in row, 1950's A Life of Her Own and 1951's Mr. Imperium, before having another hit with the Technicolor version of The Merry Widow, which costarred new boyfriend Fernando Lamas. The picture that followed, 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful was another big hit, in which Lana starred as Georgia Lorrison an alcoholic actress and daddy's girl who is one of many to get spurned by ruthless producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) on his way to the top. Lana's portrayal of Georgia, a demanding challenge for any actress, showed audiences that she had come a long way since Love Finds Andy Hardy.

She also found love again that year with actor Lex Barker, who was most famous for playing Tarzan. While she claimed in her autobiography and other places, that the reason the marriage ended was because of the difference in their careers, the truth was that he had been sexually molesting her daughter, Cheryl for years. When Lana eventually found out she held a shotgun to his head while he was sleeping and seriously contemplated blowing his head off. Good sense prevailed, however, and the following morning gave Barker 20 minutes to get out of her house. Lana never pressed rape charges because of the resultant scandal, which would have ensued. Their divorce was final on July 22, 1957.

The Bad and the Beautiful was Lana's last "big" picture at MGM. The industry and MGM itself was changing. Television had come along and taken away a lot of the audience and the era of the big studio was coming to an end. Actors with long-term contracts were let go. MGM itself had changed too; long-time studio head Louis B. Mayer was forced to resign and Dore Schary took over as studio head. Schary, who was no fan of Lana, thought she was an aging star who acted like a spoiled ingénue. She starred in entertaining but uninspired films, Latin Lovers, two European ventures, Betrayed and The Flame and the Flesh, and a biblical spectacle in which she was forced to play an empty-headed sex goddess, The Prodigal. After a few more loan outs, Lana returned to MGM, to start work on her last picture, Diane in 1956.

By mutual consent, Lana Turner ended her 18-year association with MGM in 1956. At aged 35 she would soon have to face the fact that her days as Hollywood's favorite sex goddess were over. Her career would have to take a new direction; she would have to find a new niche. Her harshest critics were placing bets as to how long she would last without the studio behind her. Little did they know that behind that pretty face was a tough and tenacious survivor. The public, and Hollywood hadn't heard the last from Lana Turner.

 

Liberated Lana: 1956-1966

For the first time since she was 15 years old, Lana was without studio backing. For 18 years she had been nurtured and protected behind the iron gates of MGM. When she left the studio in 1956, career-wise, she was free for the first time since being a teenager. She would get to pick and choose what projects she wanted to do, however she may or may not have realized the loss of the ever-present publicity machine that was always there to pick up the pieces when she made a mistake. She would feel that loss deeply in the years to come. For now however, she had to get her career back on track.

 Lana's first picture as a "free-lancer" was Peyton Place for 20th Century Fox. In it she played the repressed Constance Mackenzie, a dressmaker and mother of a rebellious teenage daughter. With her hair colored a darker shade of blonde and her wardrobe no longer high fashion, she looked older than her 36 years. The gamble paid off when she received an Oscar nomination for her performance. It was a highpoint in her life and career. Little did she know the Hell she was about to endure.

 On Good Friday 1958, Lana, her daughter Cheryl Crane and Lana's then boyfriend Johnny Stompanato were at Lana's rented house on North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills when an ongoing argument broke out between Lana and Johnny. Lana was involved in a very abusive relationship with Stompanato (she discovered that he had ties to notorious LA mobster Mickey Cohen) and was trying in vain to break up with him. Stompanato (who had set his sights on using Lana to become a Hollywood producer) was furious when Lana chose to take her mother and Cheryl to the Academy Awards instead of him. Since then their relationship had become more violent and ugly. Cheryl Crane was in her bedroom watching television and doing her homework but unable to concentrate due to the loud voices on the other side of the hall. She went to Lana's bedroom door and started banging on it, asking Lana to let her in. The yelling stopped for a moment and Lana told Cheryl (called "Baby" or "the baby") to please go back to her room. Unbeknownst to Lana, Cheryl stood on the other side of the door listening to Johnny make threats to her mother and physically abuse her. Cheryl, in a panic and not knowing what to do, ran down to the kitchen and grabbed a large kitchen knife lying on a counter. It has been purchased that very afternoon. She ran up the stairs and stood in front of the bedroom door. When it opened, Cheryl’s arm, holding the knife with the cutting side up, jerked her arm up in a reflex action and Stompanato impaled himself on the blade, which severed his aorta. He stepped back, his eyes wide with shock, and said, “Cheryl, what have you done” before falling on his back on the bedroom floor where he died within moments. What followed was the trial of the decade. Lana testified that she thought Cheryl had “punched him in the stomach.” Cheryl was tried for murder but was acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide. Lana appeared on the witness stand looking tired and wan and answering all of the questions as if she were going to faint. This was probably the lowest point of her entire life. Hollywood insiders were laying bets that her career was over.

 Of course, Lana was a survivor and knew she had to pick up the fragile pieces of her stormy life and move on. And move on she did. It was time to put the tragedy of Good Friday behind her and go back to work.

 In terms of her career Lana was having another peak. In her first collaboration with producer Ross Hunter, she starred as Broadway stage star Lora Meredith in 1959's Imitation of Life. This three-hanky tearjerker showcased Lana at her best. With gowns and suits by Jean Louis, Lana never looked better and with her now 23 years of experience in front of the camera, she never acted better. She was riding high again. With the stubborn Dutch determination of her father’s ancestry nothing could keep Lana down for long.

 Lana also found love again that year with department store scion and real estate mogul Fred May. Although their marriage only lasted two years (from November 27,1960-October 15, 1962), they remained friends after the fact and Lana would speak well of him for the rest of her life. Fred May (who bore a remarkable resemblance to Lana’s former true love, Tyrone Power) continued to advise Lana on her real estate investments, which were numerous, throughout the Southern California region.

 The sixties found Lana continuing to work while most of her contemporaries were going into retirement. She and Ross Hunter scored big again with 1960's Portrait in Black. The films that followed (By Love Possessed, Bachelor in Paradise, Who's Got the Action? and Love Has Many Faces) showcased a seasoned, dramatic actress and a skilled performer. She wasn't Louis B. Mayer's little blonde vamp anymore. 1966's Madame X was Lana Turner's last major studio film. In it she portrayed the character of Holly Anderson, who, because of a marital indiscretion, is forced to flee her son and wealthy political candidate husband and take up a new identity. The character ages 30 years in 90 minutes and Lana is almost unrecognizable behind heavy, age-inducing makeup. Her performance is a tour-de-force and it is unfortunate that she wasn't nominated for an Oscar. It also showed filmgoers that when given half the chance, Lana could forsake her glamour and be just as effective acting-wise as her contemporaries. At the relatively young age of 45, after 30 years in the movie business, and 50 films, she had gone from becoming Lana Turner, MGM girl and movie star to Lana Turner, the screen legend.

 

Living with the Legend: 1966-1982

Always the romantic at heart, Lana met sixth husband Robert Eaton and married him on June 22, 1965. As Lana would tell television host Phil Donahue years later, Eaton was the first man who taught her "what beautiful sex was and could be". Also he was younger than she, which she claimed was something she had never experienced before. Her marriage to Eaton lasted four years, ending when her personal maid, Carmen Cruz and Lana’s mother presented Lana with stained bed sheets used by Eaton for sexual romps while she was out of the country. Their divorce became final on April 1, 1969.

A month later Lana met and married nightclub hypnotist Ronald Dante, a union that would last 3 years, until January of 1972.

 Career wise, things had faded considerably by 1969 and a starring role as a stepmother in 1969's The Big Cube would be her last theatrical film for five years. Never one to be let down for long, she did a star turn on network television as the matriarch on 1969's The Survivors. With gowns designed by Nolan Miller, Lana couldn't have looked more glamorous. Unfortunately, the ill-fated TV series was a critical and ratings disaster and it barely made it to the 15th episode, when ABC and Universal pulled the plug. Lana was understandably upset and disappointed and the failure of the series prevented her from taking on future guest spots.

 The 1970's dawned with a now less career-oriented Lana, living in luxury in her Malibu beach house, talking to her mother and friends on the telephone, watching television and staying up until all hours of the night. She also had a comeback of sorts in the 70's, taking on live regional theatre in plays such as The Pleasure of His Company and Forty Carats. Things weren't always so glamorous backstage, with Lana acting like a spoiled diva, causing curtains to go up late, sometimes an hour or more and leaving her fellow actors alone on the stage for extended periods of time. It got to a point where she got hired less and less for live engagements and by 1980, save a few guest spots on television she was retired and a fully private citizen for the first time since she had been 15 years old. She had bought a luxury condo in Century City, Los Angeles and spent almost all of her time there.

 In response to Always Lana, a memoir written by her former personal manager and intimate confidante of ten years Taylor Pero (1969 – 1979), Lana decided to write her autobiography in 1982. Lana, the Lady, the Legend, the Truth was heavily criticized by some circles as being heavily sugarcoated and full of half-truths. The Los Angeles Times reviewed it and stated, “It’s a self-serving piece of fiction masquerading as an autobiography.” Pero’s book garnered good reviews and the LA Times wrote, “He paints a tender, touching portrait of this Grande Dame.” Whether the criticism hurt Lana or caused her to plug it all the more, is unknown. She plugged the book all over the place, on the radio, on The Phil Donahue Show, on Good Morning America. She was selling Lana Turner and that she had a gift for.

 Also in 1982, Lana starred doing guest spots on the nighttime soap opera, Falcon Crest. She played the character of Jacqueline Peruallt, a mother to one of the characters, Chase, and a big time troublemaker. Rumors of a feud between Lana and actress Jane Wyman began to surface, although Lana adamantly denied it. Lana was written out of the series after only one season and her character was posthumously revealed to be a Nazi.

 After Falcon Crest and her autobiography, Lana pretty much withdrew to her Century City condo and drew the curtains. Afraid to be compared to the woman she had been forty years before, she became a recluse, preferring to sit in her condo and watch Star Trek. Insisting that she had given up alcohol, men and sex, she claimed she was a "New Woman".

 

The Ivory Tower: 1982-1995

In the last decade of Lana Turner's life, with a newfound spirituality, she was finding herself less and less of a competitor in the hard world. As she told Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach "I can do anything I want. I can be alone if I want. I can have friends if I want, and sometimes I don't want anything. Now isn't that a blessing?" She no longer had to answer to Papa Mayer or anyone else.

She continued to have her hair colored and her nails manicured but those services came to her high-rise condominium, which she called her "Ivory Tower". In May of 1992, after suffering from a sore throat for months, at Cheryl's insistence, Lana checked herself in Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with throat cancer. At first she balked at the thought of having chemotherapy and radiation, not wanting to lose her hair. She eventually relented and the cancer went into remission for a time, only to return in 1994 where it was quickly spreading to her lungs. Lana made her final public appearance at San Sebastian's annual film festival, where she was the guest of honor, in October of 1994.

 When Lana succumbed to throat cancer on the night of June 29, 1995, she was alone in her Ivory Tower with only her faithful maid of 44 years, Carmen Cruz by her side. Daughter Cheryl was notified of her mother’s demise by Carmen and made it to the condominium building before reporters did to claim she had been at her mother’s bedside at the moment of death. As stipulated in Lana Turner’s Will, there was to be no funeral service and she was to be cremated. Her ashes were given to Cheryl Crane, who scattered them. Lana bequeathed the bulk of her estate to Carmen Cruz and to her daughter she left a small sum of money ($50,000.00) and furs, much to Cheryl's chagrin. As of the date of this writing, Cheryl Crane is in the midst of a protracted lawsuit to get her mother’s personal belongings back from the now-deceased Carmen Cruz’s family (against Lana’s wishes).