The Lana Turner Encyclopedia

The Lana Turner Encyclopedia

With 70 films, 7 husbands, 74 years and a myriad of friends, co-stars and acquaintances, this section of the site is probably going to take me the longest to do. It will also need updating constantly and your feedback will always be appreciated. If you are somehow connected to Miss Turner and I have forgotten you, please email me at Liza@lanaturneronline.com

The Adventures of Marco Polo (For Goldwyn Studios, 1938): Film in which ingénue Lana starred with Gary Cooper as a Eurasian maiden. In order to look the part of a Eurasian girl, Lana's eyebrows were repeatedly shaved off. They never grew back and she would have to paste fakes eyebrows on or draw them on for the rest of her life.

Allen, Lewis: 12/25/05-05/03/2000 (natural causes). Directed Lana in Another Time, Another Place.

Always Lana: See Pero, Taylor.

Allyson, June: 10/07/17-present: Popular MGM actress best known as Jo March in Little Women, costarred with Lana in The Three Musketeers as Constance Bonacieux. Official Site

Anatomy of a Murder (Columbia Pictures, 1959): Lana was all signed, sealed and delivered to do this film, but was replaced with Lee Remick after having a wardrobe dispute with director Otto Preminger, whom she openly disliked. Lana had agreed to do the film under the condition that she wear her own specially designed Jean Louis Gowns. When Preminger vetoed the idea, Lana was out and Remick was in.

Angeli, Pier: 06/19/32-09/10/71 (barbiturate overdose). Costarred with Lana in The Flame and the Flesh as Lisa.

Another Time, Another Place (Paramount Pictures, 1958): This British-made feature was the only film that was produced by Lana's production company, LanTurn Productions. It was directed by Lewis Allen and starred Lana, Sean Connery and Barry Sullivan.

Arden, Eve: 04/30/08-11/12/90 (cardiac arrest). Best known to film goers as Ida in Joan Crawford's 1946 film, Mildred Pierce, she had a very small part in 1941's Ziegfeld Girl.

Armendariz, Pedro: 05/09/12-06/18/63 (suicide by gunshot). Costarred with Lana in her last MGM feature, Diane, in 1956.

Arnold, Edward: 2/18/90-4/26/56 (cerebral hemorrhage). Popular MGM character actor who appeared with Lana in three films, Johnny Eager (1942), Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) and The Youngest Profession (1943).

Armstrong, Dell: Lana's longtime makeup man, who first met her when he was assigned as her makeup man on Marriage is a Private Affair (1944). He is credited as her makeup man in By Love Possessed (1961), Love Has Many Faces (1965) and Madame X (1966). Del is also credited as a "miscellaneous crew member" for Another Time, Another Place in 1958. He must have worked with her without being credited most of the time because he met her in 1944 but never got a screen credit as her hairdresser until 1961(!). Their relationship ended during a disagreement about how "aged" she should look for the part of Holly in Madame X.

Arnold, Jack: 10/14/16-03/17/92 (arteriosclerosis). Directed Lana in The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958) and Bachelor in Paradise (1961).

Astor, Mary: 05/03/06-10/25/87 (heart attack). Best known to filmgoers as the woman who shot Clark Gable in Red Dust, Astor played the part of Queenie Havock in Cass Timberlaine (1948).

Ayres, Lew: 12/28/08-12/30/96 (complications from a coma). Best known to audiences as Dr. Kildare, Lana's co-star in three films, Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938), Calling Dr.Kildare (1939) and These Glamour Girls (1939).

The Bad and the Beautiful (MGM, 1952): Lana Turner had one of her most fondly remembered performances as alcoholic actress and daddy's girl, Georgia Lorrison in this 1952 film. More Info

Bachelor in Paradise (MGM 1961): Lana Turner finally got around to starring with Bob Hope in this 1961 comedy. More Info

Baiano, Solly: Casting director at Warner Bros. Studios who was the first to see potential in the young Lana Turner. It was Baino who first introduced Lana to Mervyn LeRoy, who was the first one to put Lana under contract.

Ball, Lucille: 08/06/11-04/26/89 (ruptured aorta). Everyone's favorite red-haired comedienne, was just an MGM contract player in the 1940's when Lana made a cameo in the 1946 film DuBarry was a Lady, in which Lucy starred as Madame Dubarry. Official Website

Barker, Lex: 05/08/19-05/11/73 (heart attack). Actor best known for playing Tarzan, Lana's fourth husband from November 8,1953 to July 22, 1957. The marriage ended when Lana found out that he had been abusing her daughter.

Barrymore, Lionel: 05/28/78-11/15/54 (heart attack). Best known as Dr. Gillespie in the Dr.Kildare series of films and the oldest brother in the famed Barrymore family (which included actor John Barrymore and stage actress Ethel Barrymore, not to mention granddaughter Drew). Lana had a small part as a hoodlum's sister in Calling Dr. Kildare (1939).

Lana on Lionel Barrymore:

In Calling Dr. Kildare, I had the opportunity to work with Lionel Barrymore. An incredible man! How I admired and feared him. But at the same time I couldn't help liking him. Everyone on the set paid him deference, and he would shrug it off as though he were just a fellow actor. He would be wheeled onto the set because of his bad knee, and he would pretend to be crotchety and cantankerous, but in playing a scene with me he'd look up from under his brows with an adorable twinkle in his eyes. He enjoyed teasing me because I blushed easily. But he kept me on my toes, and I loved doing scenes with him.

Bates, Ralph: 02/12/40-03/27/91 (cancer). Portrayed David Masters in 1974's Persecution.

Basinger, Jeanine: Author and film historian who has written countless biographies and books about the Golden Age of Hollywood, including books about Lana (in 1976), Shirley Temple and Gene Kelly. Her lavishly illustrated book about Lana is said to be one of the best Lana Turner books out there.

Bauzter, Greg: Hot shot Hollywood attorney, man about town and the first man that Lana Turner ever fell in love with. When Lana first met Bautzer, (around late 1939) he was thirty years old (to her eighteen), already a successful attorney and popular ladies man. In her autobiography, Lana admitted that Bautzer was the first man she ever gave herself to, and though she loved him deeply, she wasn't crazy about the sexual act itself. Naive Lana had no idea that Greg was seeing other women behind her back until actress Joan Crawford called her on the phone one day asking her to come to her house where she sat Lana down and told her what was going on (see Crawford's entry below). Lana and Bautzer would remain an item until February 1940, when Lana, angered with Greg over standing she and her mother up for dinner, impulsively accepted a date from bandleader Artie Shaw and married him that night. Oddly enough, Greg was Lana's legal counsel when her marriage to Shaw fell apart.

Baxter, Anne: 05/07/23-12/12/85 (brain aneurysm). Actress who played the part of the calculating Eve in 1950's All About Eve. She played the part of Mrs. Penny Johnson in the 1948 Lana Turner, Clark Gable vehicle, Homecoming. From Lana Turner Online friend, Michael: It seems that Lana Turner left the night time soap Falcon Crest because she thought that she would get to replace Bette Davis in the television series Hotel, when Bette fell ill. Ultimately that didn't happen and Davis' part went to Anne Baxter (shades of All About Eve!)

Bergman, Ingrid: 08/29/15-08/29/82 (breast cancer). Swedish actress and multiple Oscar winner, played the part Ivy along with Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner in 1941's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Official Website

Bell, Book and Candle: 1958 film starring Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart that has long since been rumored to be the inspiration for the television series Bewitched. Lana headlined a play based on this film in the summer of 1977.

Bernhardt, Curtis: 04/15/99-02/22/81. Directed Lana's performance in The Merry Widow (1952).

Betrayed: Lana once again costarred with Clark Gable in what would be his last film under contract to MGM. She played the part of Carla Van Oven. More Info

Bey, Turhan: 03/30/22-present. Popular Hollywood leading man in the 1940's who usually played the villain and who's career, unfortunately, petered out by the end of the decade, though in recent years Bey has made guest appearances on Babylon Five and Murder She Wrote. Bey and Lana were an item in the early 1940's.

The Big Cube: (A Warner Bros/Seven Arts release of a Francisco Diez Production, 1969) Inexplicable film in which Lana played a stepmother lost in the freaked out world of LSD. Lana and Billy, her Great Dane, in happier days. She's the best part of the picture and even that's not saying much. More Info

"Billy": The snow white Great Dane that Lana owned in the early 1940's

Blondell, Joan: 08/30/06-12/25/79 (leukemia). Pretty blonde actress and Warner Bros. contract player in the 1930's, Joan Blondell was loaned out to MGM in 1940 and played the part of Molly Mahoney in Lana's 1940 programmer, Two Girls on Broadway.

Bowab, John: Directed Lana's first stage play, Forty Carats, in 1972. Bowab took no nonsense from superstar-diva Lana and things almost got ugly one day when Lana insisted that she have a limousine at her disposal and the director 86'd it. He simply wanted her to perform her job and concentrate on her craft rather than focus on being "Lana Turner, MGM Superstar".

Brooks, Richard: 05/18/12-03/11/92 (congestive heart failure). Directed Lana's 1954, European venture, The Flame and the Flesh.

Bucquet, Harold S.:04/10/91-02/13/46. Directed Lana in two of her early films, Calling Dr. Kildare (1939) and We Who are Young (1940). Lana and Richard Burton in 1955's "The Rains of Ranchipur". Lou Valentino Collection.

Burton, Richard: 11/10/25-08/05/84 (cerebral hemorrhage). Shakespearian actor best remembered today for his marriage of excess to Elizabeth Taylor. He was second billed after Lana, in the role of Dr. Safti in The Rains of Ranchipur (1955). Official Website

Lana on Richard Burton:

One of the hardest chores for me as an actress is to have to simulate real feeling in love scenes when there is no chemistry between me and the leading man. Burton and I were supposed to be madly in love. He played a dedicated Indian doctor. I was the selfish wife of a titled man who had married me for my money. I would fall in love with the doctor and he with me. Well the plot was a little more complicated than that, but anyway, we were really supposed to swoon over each other.

Burton who had come from "The Robe" had a bloated self-image. The rest of us joked about his ego and someone even advised wardrobe to make him bigger turbans. He strongly resisted Jean Negulesco's efforts to help him deliver a good performance.

"You're supposed to be an Indian," Negulesco would tell him.

"I'm not an Indian," Burton would reply loftily.

Yet he spent a good deal of time in his dressing room entertaining our dusky little extras, for whom he seemed to have developed a great fondness. For someone who didn't want to play an Indian, he did seem to enjoy playing with them.

Burns, Lillian: 09/17/03-08/31/98 (natural causes). MGM's head drama coach in the 1930's and 1940's was also a former silent screen actress who appeared in twenty features from 1916 to 1920. It was Burns who taught Lana how to walk down the stairs in Lana's famous death scene in Ziegfeld Girl. According to Burns (when asked about that scene and Lana), "No one ever did it (walked down the stairs) greater".

Buttons Red: 02/05/19-present. Stand up comedian, songwriter and Oscar winning actor. Red Buttons was born Aaron Chawat in New York's Lower East Side, where he had his first gig singing on a street corner. Working as a comic in the burlesque circuit led him to roles on the Broadway stage (in plays such as Winged Victory), which in turn led to roles on television and in feature films. Buttons won an Oscar for his portrayal of an American soldier who struggled against racial prejudices, due to his love for a Japanese woman in Sayonara. Lana presented Red with his only Academy Award on Oscar night, 1957. She was nominated herself that year for her portrayal of Constance MacKenzie in Peyton Place.

Buzzell, Edward: 11/13/30-01/11/85. Directed Lana in two films, The Youngest Profession (1943) and Keep Your Powder Dry (1945).

By Love Possessed (United Artists, 1961): One of Lana's post Imitation of Life melodramas of the early 60's. She played the part of Marjorie Penrose in this colorful melodrama.

Calhern, Louis: 2/19/95-05/12/56 (heart attack). Lana's costar in 5 films (!), A Life of Her Own (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (as the voice of George Lorrison in Georgia's shrine) (1952), Latin Lovers (1953), Betrayed (1954) and The Prodigal (1955).

Calling Dr. Kildare: (MGM, 1939) Ingénue Lana portrayed Rosalie Lewitt, the kid sister of a hoodlum in the 1939 entry in MGM's long running Dr. Kildare series. More Info

Cancer of Lana: See Death of Lana

Carlson, Richard: 04/29/12-11/24/77 (cerebral hemorrhage). Lana costar in two films, 1939's Dancing Co-ed and 1939's These Glamour Girls.

Cass Timberlaine (MGM, 1947): Highly entertaining film that's not well remembered today. This would be the second time in which Lana shared billing with Spencer Tracy. It is far different from her other 1947 venture, Green Dolphin Street. More Info

Century City: A small section of Los Angeles that was once the back lot to 20th Century Fox Studios. Lana lived there in a high rise condominium (on the 20th floor) from the early 1970's until her death in June of 1995.

Chaffy, Don: 08/05/17-11/13/90 (heart disease). Directed Lana in 1974's Persecution.

Chakiris, George: 09/16/34-present: Best known by moviegoers as Bernardo in West Side Story (1961), portrayed Johnny in 1969's The Big Cube.

Chandler, Jeff: 12/15/18-06/17/61 (blood clot). Second billed after Lana in 1958's The Lady Takes a Flyer.

Christian, Linda: 11/13/24-present. The woman almost directly responsible for breaking up Lana's relationship with Tyrone Power, Christian had a very small part as a maid in 1947's Green Dolphin Street.

Circus of the Stars: The title pretty much says it all. From about 1977 to 1987, television and movie actors would perform death defying acts in this made for TV circus. Lana performed a magic act in Circus of the Stars # 10 in 1985 (Note from me: Interesting that Lana would partake in this, as she was well into her hermit years by '85.)

Connery, Sean: 08/25/30-present. Fourth billed in 1958's Another Time, Another Place. Should also be known for getting involved when things got rough between Lana and then boyfriend Johnny Stompanato while the film was shooting in England. Connery and Stompanato got into an altercation and Stompanato ended up being deported by Scotland Yard. Official Website

Cooper, Gary: 05/07/01-05/13/61 (lung cancer). Actor best remembered today for his portrayal of baseball star Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees. He costarred with ingénue Lana in 1938's The Adventures of Marco Polo. Official Website

Cooper, Jackie: 09/15/22-present. Former child actor best remembered for his portrayal of young Jim Hawkins in 1934's Treasure Island and for his portrayal of Dink Parcell in 1931's The Champ. Cooper was one of the few child stars who managed to maintain a film career well into his teen and adult years. In 1941 Cooper landed the role of Jerry Regan, Sheila Regan's (Lana's character's) brother in Ziegfeld Girl. When being interviewed, he has always spoke of Lana with great respect and admiration. Cooper officially retired from the screen in 1989 at aged sixty-seven.

Conway, Jack: 07/17/87-10/11/52. Uncredited director of the 1937 version of A Star is Born, in which Lana had a small part that ended up on the cutting room floor (although the back of her head is used in a crowd scene) and credited director of the 1941's Honky Tonk.

Craig, James: 02/04/12-06/28/85 (lung cancer). Second billed in Lana's only 1944 feature, Marriage is a Private Affair.

Crane, Carol Curtz: The first wife of Lana's second husband, Steve Crane. When Lana announced her pregnancy to the world in early 1943, Steve came to her dressing room one day and informed her that his first marriage to Carol Curtz Crane wasn't exactly finalized yet, making his marriage to Lana illegal. Lana was forced to pay Carol five thousand dollars hush money so she wouldn't announce the predicament to the press. She was so incensed with Crane after she learned that he had lied to her, that she promptly had the marriage to him annulled (despite her being pregnant with his child), though they would temporarily reconcile a few months later.

Lana on the ordeal with Steve Crane and his first wife, Carol:

...One day Stephan told me to sit down, that he had some bad news for me. It was about his divorce in Indianapolis. "I got this paper," he told me. "I thought it meant I was free, but it appears I wasn't." There had been an interlocutory decree, with a one year waiting period before he could remarry. That year wasn't even up now.

I stiffened with shock. I tried to control my rising nausea. To this day I've never been sure whether Stephan knew about the waiting period. "Please understand," he said. "It's just an awful mistake. But it's probably going to cost us some money."

I said, "You mean want to give her money-my money? Do you think I'd pay to have her lie?"

"It wouldn't come to that," he said, trying to soothe me. "It can be handled."

I shook my head, and said, "Let me see a copy of that decree."

It turned out that he didn't have it. "I hardly looked at it. I don't even know what's happened to it."

"But she has it."

"Yes."

My anger and my pregnancy combined to make me ill. I felt sick and faint and defeated. I wasn't legally married. Here I was expecting the child of a man who wasn't my husband. My head started spinning and I just made it to the bathroom, where I leaned over the sink for a long time.

By the time I went back to the living room, I had made up my mind. "Listen," I said to Stephan, "I want to meet her. I want to hear the whole truth."

The next evening we drove to her apartment. She was a small pretty brunette. I managed to stay calm as she outlined essentially what Stephan had told me. But the last straw was the slight smile that crossed her face when she said that Stephan wouldn't be free to marry for a couple of months.

I blew up. I accused her of knowing all along that Stephan had no right to marry and of waiting until I announced my pregnancy to make waves. But no matter what I said to her, my marriage was still illegal. Where did that leave me? What about my baby? Why, why, I kept asking myself, did these things happen to me.

Crane, Cheryl: 07/25/43-present. On July 25,1943 Lana gave birth to her only child, a seven pound,13oz. baby girl, Cheryl Christina Crane. She was Lana's only child, a result of an inherited, genetic condition known as RH incompatibility. Cheryl later penned an autobiography, Detour about the up's and downs of being a "star baby". More Info

Lana on Cheryl's birth:

...Then one lovely, balmy evening in July, my mother and I went out for a walk. All of a sudden I realized that I was all wet. My water had broken, right there on the street. Calmly, my mother walked me back to the house. Luckily the car was there, not parked outside the Army post, and Stephan drove me to the hospital. I was in labor for eighteen hard hours. Bored with waiting around, Stephan went off to watch a boxing match, and that's where he was when I gave birth.

I had only a spinal anesthetic, so I was wide awake when she was born. I was exhausted but exultant. "It's a her! It's a her!" I kept repeating proudly. We named her then, Cheryl. She had a mass of black curly hair and beautiful skin, a delicate ivory color.

I didn't realize that something was wrong, not knowing that babies are usually born dark red. Dr. Thompson who delivered her, ordered blood transfusions and rushed her to the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. She was actually dying of erythroblastosis.

Miraculously, Dr. Madeline Fallon, an expert on Rh-negative births, was on duty that night. She had actually worked with the old world rhesus monkeys that gave the Rh factor it's name. During my pregnancy Cheryl's Rh-positive blood cells had entered my circulatory system, and my body had produced antibodies to destroy them. In effect, I was killing Cheryl even while I was struggling to give her life.

Crane, Stephan: 02/07/16-02/06/85 (anemia). Lana's second AND third husband due to the fact that he never divorced his first wife thus making his marriage to Lana illegal. Crane made a few film appearances, but was better known as a restaurateur of the famed Luau in Los Angeles. He was the father of Lana's only child, daughter Cheryl Christina, born on July 25, 1943.

Crawford, Joan: 03/23/04-05/10/77 (pancreatic cancer). MGM contract player from 1925 to 1943, who first made a name for herself playing shop girls who made it into society, but later became the heroine of dark melodramas. After leaving MGM in 1943, due to her refusal to appear in sub-par scripts and her advancing age, she made an Oscar winning comeback in 1945's Mildred Pierce. Crawford and Lana had a falling out in the early 40's due to the fact that they were both seeing lawyer Greg Bautzer (who was also seeing Ginger Rogers and countless others at the time) and Crawford told Lana that basically Greg was just using her and was really in love with Joan. Impulsive Lana listened to all that she could and then told Joan exactly where to go. After Crawford's death from cancer in 1977, her daughter Christina published a memoir, Mommie Dearest, accusing Crawford of being an abusive mother. The book was later made into a film starring Faye Dunaway. Joan Crawford Encyclopedia

Lana's thoughts on her ordeal with Joan Crawford:

One day I got a phone call from Joan Crawford. Greg (Bautzer, the attorney that Lana had been seeing) had taken me to several parties at her house, but I didn't know her well. Those parties were all the same. After dinner the guests would be herded into a projection room to watch movies. Joan knitted constantly. During the film you could always hear her knitting needles clicking away.

I was surprised and intrigued by her call, but even more by her request. "Lana, dear," she cooed, "I wonder if you'd drive out to my home. I'd like to talk to you about something very important."

When I arrived she greeted me cordially and fussed over making me comfortable. "Now darling," she began, "you know I'm a bit older than you, and so I may know some things you haven't learned yet..."

"Like what?" I asked, thinking that she was quite a bit older.

"Well, dear, when you're young you see things in a certain way, but that's not always how they are. As you get older you realize that life can be very complex..." She continued rambling, as I grew more and more fidgety.

Finally I interrupted. "Joan, what are you trying to tell me?"

Looking back, I sometimes marvel at the acting performance Joan delivered there in her living room. Sincerity overcame her. Her hand went to her forehead, then to her heart. Agitatedly, she reached for a cigarette and then fumbled for the matches. Finally she got it lit and drew in deeply, gearing herself for the thrust.

What a thrust! "Well, darling, I feel it's only right to tell you that Greg doesn't love you anymore...that he hasn't for a long time."

I could only stare at her, too stunned to speak.

"I couldn't let you go on, hoping, believing...Because, you see, Greg wouldn't tell you. Darling, you've simply got to know that what Greg and I have is real, and it's been going on for a long time. It's me he truly loves..." She gave me a direct look, and her eyes hardened. "But he hasn't figured out how to get rid of you."

By then I was outraged. "Get rid of me!" Trash is something you get rid of. Or disease you get rid of. I'm not something you get rid of-"

"Dear, I know how you feel..."

"Don't you dare say that to me! You are lying about Greg. I know it isn't true-"

"But why should I lie to you, darling? He loves me, only me."

My head was whirling. Was she telling the truth? Maybe I'd suspected Greg was seeing other women-but Joan? Was I crazy or was she? I sat rooted in my chair, clutching the arms.

She was still talking. "So, Lana dear, why don't you be a good little girl and tell him you're finished-that you know that truth now, and it's over...Make it easier on yourself. He doesn't want to hurt you."

"Thank you, Joan," I said, as calmly as I could. All I wanted was to get the hell out of there. I was starting to tremble with anger, against her, against Greg. And the incredible hurt...I was damned if I let her see it.

Cruz, Carmen: Lana's longtime maid of 44 years and the only one who was present when Lana lost her battle with throat cancer in June of 1995.

Cukor, George: 07/07/99-01/23/83 (heart failure). One of MGM's top directors for decades, directed such classic films as My Fair Lady, the 1954, Judy Garland version, of A Star is Born, Dinner at Eight and the Katharine Hepburn version of Little Women. He directed Lana for the first and only time in 1950's A Life of Her Own.

Dancing Co-Ed (MGM, 1939): Film which should be noted for the only joint appearance of Lana and her first husband, bandleader Artie Shaw. The marriage lasted for a brief few months, but the film still holds up today. More Info

Dante, Ronald: A nightclub hypnotist who Lana met at a party in 1969, Dante became Lana's seventh husband from May 9, 1969-January 26, 1972. He convinced Lana that with hypnosis he could help her give up smoking and when all was said and done he couldn't even do that much. He was a swindler who borrowed a huge sum of money from her only to skip town with it a short time later (he skipped out on her while on a trip to San Francisco, leaving her wondering where he was. He never came back). Dante was the last of Lana's seven husbands.

Davies, Marion: 01/03/97-09/22/61 (cancer of the jaw). Screwball comedienne and mistress of multi-millionaire newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst. Because of Hearst's power and influence, Marion's arrival at MGM was likened to that of a queen greeting her subjects. She would remain at MGM appearing in such films as The Patsy and Show People until 1934 when a falling out between Hearst and Louis B. Mayer caused her to pack up her bungalow and move across town to Warner Bros (where she would remain until her retirement from films in 1934). Though she lived her life in the lap of luxury, with all of the fur, jewels and homes that she could ever want, she was by all reports, extremely down to earth, fun loving and generous. Though she and Hearst never married she remained the love of his life until his death in 1951. It was at a party given by Marion in 1952, that Lana made headlines when Fernando Lamas, enraged over Lana having accepted a dance from actor Lex Barker, threw an absolute fit, humiliating Lana and everyone around them, until Lana asked him to take her home. The last decade of Marion Davies' life was tragic, as she was now lost in world of alcoholism and unresolved grief over Hearst's death. She would succumb to cancer in 1961.

Davison, Tito: 11/14/12-03/21/85. Directed Lana in 1969's The Big Cube.

Day, Laraine: 10/13/17-present. Best known as Nurse Mary Lamont in the Dr. Kildare series of films, she costarred with Lana in two features, 1939's Calling Dr. Kildare and 1945's Keep Your Powder Dry.

Lana on Laraine Day:

Laraine Day was billed above me in that picture ("Calling Dr. Kildaire"), and perhaps because my role was flashier, I felt some chilly vibrations from her direction. I responded in kind. Years later we did another film together, "Keep Your Powder Dry", after our careers had advanced at different rates. Now I was the star . I tried to tease her out of her iciness, and now and then I succeeded-but not too often. Many people found her a strange cold fish of a woman.

Death of Lana: Lana Turner succumbed to throat cancer on the evening of June 29, 1995, in her condominium apartment in Century City, Los Angeles, with only her maid of forty-years, Carmen Cruz, by her side. She had been diagnosed with throat cancer in May of 1992 and had been receiving radiation and chemotherapy treatments on and off since that time. Cheryl Crane has always claimed that she was with her mother when she died, however in a television interview for A&E's Biography television series, Carmen Cruz claimed that she was the only one with Lana when she passed away. Lana and Sandra Dee in 1959's "Imitation of Life". Lou Valentino Collection.

Dee, Sandra: 04/23/44-02/20/05 (kidney failure and pneumonia). Former teen sensation best known to moviegoers as Gidget and for her teenage marriage to singer Bobby Darin. She appeared with Lana in two films, 1959's Imitation of Life and 1960's Portrait in Black. What she's doing now (01/05): As of this writing, Dee is in poor health due to years of alcohol abuse and the eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, and is being cared for by her son with Darin, Dodd. Also a film biography on Darin, Beyond the Sea will hit theatres December 29. That should be a real treat for Sandra Dee fans. Update (02/20/05): Sandra Dee passed away from pneumonia and kidney failure on February 20, 2005 in Thousand Oaks, California, according to son Dodd. More Info on Sandra

Detour: See Crane, Cheryl.

Diane (MGM, 1956): Lana Turner's MGM swan song after eighteen years and thirty films. She persevered however and started work on Peyton Place shortly after.

Discovery of Lana: Legend has it that Lana Turner was discovered by reporter Billy Wilkerson of the Hollywood Reporter while she was sipping a soda at Schwab's Drug Store, after cutting a typing class. The story is only partially true. Lana was drinking a soda and she was cutting a typing class when Billy Wilkerson saw her, but they were actually at The Top Hat Cafe, which was diagonally across the street from Hollywood High School.

Donahue, Phil: 12/21/35-present. Host of the long running Phil Donahue Show from 1970-1996. Donahue's guests included celebrities, screen legends (including Lana plugging her autobiography in 1982) and anyone who had caused a controversy in the world. The Phil Donahue Show caused an uproar in the early 1970's when they did a show in which they filmed a live abortion. In the late 1970's, when actress Marlo Thomas made a guest appearance on the show, she and Phil hit it off, began to see each other and were married in May of 1980.

Douglas, Kirk: 12/09/16-present. Father of actor Michael Douglas, this Hollywood actor is probably best remembered for playing Spartacus, and the producer from Hell, Jonathan Shields in 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful.

Douglas, Mike: 06/11/25-present. Lana's "favorite afternoon talk show host" and the host of the long running Mike Douglas Show from 1961-1982. Lana appeared on his program on July 12, 1972. Trivia: Douglas had a top ten song on the music charts with The Men in My Little Girl's Life in February, 1966.

Dramatic School (MGM, 1938): Lana at 17, was fourth billed in this film as Mado. The film also starred Paulette Goddard and Louise Rainer. More Info

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (MGM, 1941): Based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, this often remade film marked the first time in which Lana would appear with actor Spencer Tracy. She was third billed after Tracy and Ingrid Bergman. More Info.

Dullea, Keir: 05/30/36-present. Played the apple of Holly Anderson's eye in 1966's Madame X.

Eaton, Robert: Lana's sixth husband from June 22, 1965 to March 1, 1969. Eaton was, according to Lana, the man who for the first time taught her "what beautiful sex was and could be". Lana's marriage to Eaton ended when she returned from a trip (entertaining the troops with Bob Hope) to Vietnam only to find out from her mother and her maid that he had been entertaining other women in their bed while she had been away.

Eder, Shirley: 1920-05/28/05 (Alzheimer's disease) Detroit based interviewer and columnist who's laid back reporting style put stars at ease. She was able to maintain friendships with Joan Crawford, Celeste Holm, Frank Sinatra, Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope and Lana respectively, due in part to the fact that integrity and confidentiality were of the utmost importance to her. Lana greatly respected the fact that Shirley did her homework and never printed untruths about her. Sadly Shirly Eder lost a long battle with Alzheimer's disease on May 28, 2005.

Egypt: In an event that was covered by the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous television show, Lana visited this African country in 1984. While on this trip she became intrigued by reincarnation, believing that in a former life she was Cleopatra.

Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage: Teenage Lana and her mother would often read this book together on how to be lady-like, how to dress and how to carry yourself with decorum. It was sort of like an "Emily Post" sort of a book that was published in the 1930's.

Ewell, Tom: 04/29/09-09/12/94. Played the part of "Tom Caraway" in Lana's 1950 effort, A Life of Her Own.

Falcon Crest: One of the many Dallasesque, primetime soaps of the 1980's. Lana played Jacqueline Perrault, who was Chase's mother in the 1982-1983 season. Her character was written out after the 1983 season and posthumously revealed to be a Nazi.

Farmer, Suzanne: 1943-?. Played the character of Janie Masters, a young wife who is haunted by a deranged kitty and her mother-in-law(!) in 1974's Persecution.

Farrow, John: 02/10/04-01/28/63 (heart attack). Directed the only film that Lana and cowboy extraordinaire, John Wayne would appear in together, 1955's The Sea Chase.

The Flame and the Flesh (MGM, 1954): Lana's first feature overseas can be noted for two reasons: The film was shot on location in Naples, Italy and it was also one of Lana's two appearances as a dark brunette (the other was Betrayed, also made in 1954). More Info

Fleming Victor: 02/23/89-01/06/49 (heart attack). Directed Turner, Tracy and Bergman in 1941's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The Films of Lana Turner: Written by Lou Valentino in 1976, a collectors item, fascinating read and beautiful book, this includes detailed synopsis, backstage stories and full page photographs for every Lana Turner film through 1976. The backstage, candid photos that are included are also a real treat for Turner fans. More Info

Forever Amber (20th Century Fox, 1947): Lana coveted the leading role of Amber, that Linda Darnell ended up playing in this film.

Forsythe, John: 01/29/18-present. Actor most famous for playing the role of Blake Carrington in the Dynasty television series. Forsythe played the part of Clay Anderson in Lana's 1966 film Madame X.

Forty Carats: Lana made her stage debut in this play in Westbury, Long Island, New York on June 29, 1971. In role that could have been written for her, she played a forty year old divorcee who is wooed and courted by a twenty year old gigolo. Although she was unsure about playing the role at first (due to the fact that she had never been on a stage on her life), she soon warmed to it and ended up laughing all the way to the bank when producers Lee Gruber and Shelly Gross had to pay her an unheard of $17,500 dollars per week instead of $7,500 due to a typographical error.

Foxworth, Robert: 11/01/41-present. Actor who made his debut on a 1969 installment of CBS Playhouse and later became the longtime love of TV's Elizabeth Montgomery (from about 1975 to her death in 1993). Foxworth is best known today for her role of Chase Gioberti on the Falcon Crest television series. Lana played his mother, Jacqueline Perault during the 1982-1983 season.

Francis, Kay: 01/13/99-08/26/68 (cancer). Stage and screen star who is largely forgotten today, Kay Francis was one of the top stars of the 1930's starring in films such as Cocoanuts with the Marx Brothers and Trouble in Paradise with Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall. The teenage Lana and her mother were big fans of Francis, due to the fact that Lana's mother, Mildred, and Francis bore a strong resemblance to one another.

Lana on Kay Francis:

...On Saturdays there were matinees at the local movie house. I'd save a nickel of my lunch money every day to raise the quarter to go. I loved the actresses and the beautiful clothes they wore, especially Kay Francis. I loved her because my mother looked exactly like her. She even wore her hair like Kay Francis. And Norma Shearer...so beautiful, so glamorous. That was real entertainment.

Frost, David: 04/07/39-present. Writer, producer, interviewer and reporter who made his television debut on That Was the Week that Was in 1962. Frost has had a fascinating and brilliant career interviewing Presidents, Prime Ministers and entertainment figures, including Lana Turner on May 18, 1972. This is a very rare interview and is always being sought out by Turner fans. If anyone has any info on how to obtain this contact me at Liza@lanaturneronline.com.

Gable, Clark: 02/01/01-11/16/60 (heart attack). Longtime MGM star and Lana's favorite leading man. Lana and Clark appeared together in four films, 1941's Honky Tonk, 1942's Lana and Clark Gable in 1941's "Honky Tonk". Somewhere I'll Find You, 1948's Homecoming and 1954's Betrayed. It should also be noted that it was during the shooting of Somewhere I'll Find You, that Clark Gable's wife (and the love of his life), Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash somewhere over Las Vegas. Filming immediately shut down and it was uncertain if Clark would be coming back or not. He managed to pick up his pieces, however and they ended up finishing the film. Shortly afterward, a grief stricken Clark enlisted himself in the air force. For the rest of her life, Lana spoke well of him.

Garbo, Greta: 09/18/05-04/15/90 (natural causes). MGM's official "Lady of Mystery" was first discovered while making a promotional film for a Swedish department store in the early 1920's. It was there that she was handpicked by director Erik A. Petschler for a small part in a film that he was directing called Luffarpetter. Not long after that she won a scholarship to a Swedish drama school where she was noticed by film director Mauritz Stiller who took her on as his protégé. Before long, Greta had a contract with the most famous motion picture studio in the world, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who set out to make her into a star. They changed her name to "Garbo", had her teeth fixed and helped her get into shape (the legend that studio head Louis B. Mayer said to the young actress, "Americans don't like their woman fat and get your teeth fixed", may be just that- a legend.). They had a new (if not temperamental and somewhat demanding) star on their hands and a new goddess. Garbo would be MGM's exotic vamp for all of the 1930's and into the early 1940's. She would be paired most famously with actor John Gilbert (particularly during her silent period) who she also was having a torrid love affair with in real life, standing him up at the altar several times. The shy and private Garbo was never comfortable with being "Garbo". She was never comfortable with fame or with the press prying into her private life. She never gave an interview except for very early in her career and indeed her most famous line (from 1932's Grand Hotel) was "I want to be left alone". Whereas Lana or Jean Harlow or Joan Crawford gravitated towards the light like a moth to a flame, the shy and illusive Garbo ran from it. Disillusioned with the whole studio system she would make her last film, the dreadful Two Faced Woman in 1942 (to which one critic of the day remarked "It's as shocking as seeing your mother drunk"). Despite numerous attempts to from MGM to get her back, she was adamant and spent the next fifty years of her life a recluse in her New York City apartment, though she DID love to go antiquing and could be spotted walking around Manhattan. She would always flee whenever she was spotted. When Garbo left MGM in 1942 her dressing room was given to the up and coming Lana Turner who had just raised eyebrows with her performance in Johnny Eager.

Gardner, Ava: 12/24/22-01/25/90 (pneumonia). If Lana was MGM's resident blonde bombshell during the 1940's, Ava Gardner was MGM's resident dark-haired vamp. The youngest of seven children, Ava grew up in Smithfield, North Carolina (called "Grabtown" by it's locals) and was "discovered" when an MGM talent scout saw her picture in a window of her brother-in-law's photo studio. Her love life, though not as busy as Lana's, was just as interesting. She was married three times, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw (who was also Lana's first husband) and Frank Sinatra respectively. Though her courtship and subsequent marriage to Sinatra was alternately volatile and passionate, neither one ever got over the other and Sinatra was almost destroyed by their breakup. Lana and Ava were great friends and always had a ball kidding around about Shaw and Sinatra (Lana and Frank had had a supposed relationship in the mid forties).

Garfield, John: 03/04/13-05/21/52 (heart attack). Actor probably best remembered today as playing Frank Chambers opposite Lana's Cora Smith in 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice. Garfield's "tough guy" was the perfect match to Lana's "tough girl". Garfield's promising career was cut short when the "house un-American Activities" came down hard on him for speaking out against them. Garfield died prematurely in 1952 from a heart attack. Some said it was because he didn't take care of himself others believed it was the stress from anti-communists.

Garland, Judy: 06/10/22-06/22/69 (drug overdose). MGM's biggest singing star during Lana's heyday was also the most vulnerable. A teen sensation in The Wizard of Oz in 1939, she was heavily addicted to drugs by the time she was 17. She and Lana appeared to in two films together, 1938's Love Finds Andy Hardy and 1941's Ziegfeld Girl. She was also deeply hurt when a 19 year old Lana eloped with bandleader Artie Shaw when it was Judy who was madly in love with him. NOTE: It has been noted that Lana made an appearance at Judy Garland's funeral in 1969, but I can't find one film clip or picture of Lana attending with the other stars (Mickey Rooney etc.). She must have either went in a back door or ran in and ran out. Anyone with info, contact me at Liza@lanaturneronline.com. More Info on Judy

Garnett, Tay: 06/13/94-10/03/77 (leukemia). A director from the silent era to the 1970's. Directed Lana's performance as Cora Smith, in The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1946. According to Lana in her autobiography, Garnett was a violent alcoholic who would go on binges and at one point cast and crew weren't sure if they were going to be able to finish the film.

Gavin, John: 04/08/28-present. Handsome actor who portrayed "Mr. Steve" in Lana's 1959 blockbuster, Imitation of Life.

Geisler, Jerry: Famed Hollywood attorney who represented Lana and her daughter Cheryl Crane during the "Good Friday" debacle of 1958.

Gifford, Francis: 12/07/20-01/15/94 (emphysema). Portrayed Sissy Mortimer in 1944's Marriage is a Private Affair.

Goddard, Paulette: 06/03/10-04/23/90 (heart failure). MGM star and one time wife of Charlie Chaplin , Goddard and Lana were both considered for the part of Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939). She was also the second female lead in 1938's Dramatic School in which Lana had a small part.

Lana on Paulette Goddard:

Paulette Goddard didn't produce that kind of tension, but it was clear that she was also a star. Besides her strong part, she had a bigger dressing room than the rest of us, and her costumes were made for her, while ours came out of wardrobe. The jewelry she wore was real-and her own. I'd never seen anyone quite so beautiful and elegant, except at a distance. Although she had a delicious sense of humor, she still occupied a pedestal, and I was quite in awe of her. Someday, I told myself, I would be like her.

Goldwyn, Samuel: 08/17/82-01/31/74 (heart failure). Produced The Adventures of Marco Polo, which was bit player Lana's last film at Warner Bros Studios, before she and Mervyn Leroy headed over to MGM. He commented on the young Lana unfavorably, stating "Take away the sweater and what have you got?"

Good Friday: See Stompanato, Johnny.

Gone with the Wind (MGM, 1939): Quite possibly the best loved and most well known classic film of all time. Along with almost every other actress in Hollywood at the time, Lana tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara.

Lana on Gone With the Wind:

While I was still in my first year at MGM, I tested for the role of Scarlett O' Hara in Gone With the Wind. I had read the book and knew perfectly well that I could never play the role. That George Cukor himself was doing the test made it all the more embarrassing, for I knew of his importance as a director. I felt completely out of my league. I prayed for the test to be finished, just so I could get out of there. Years later, much to my horror, many of the tests for the role were shown on TV, mine included! Needless to say, I wasn't the slightest competition for the lady who eventually got it.

Gordon, Michael: 10/06/09-04/29/93 (natural causes). Director of 1960's Portrait in Black.

Grable, Betty: 12/18/16-07/02/73 (lung cancer). A product of a determined and authoritative stage mother, Ruth Elizabeth Grable was born on December 18, 1916 in St Louis Missouri. By age three she was already taking dancing lessons and by age thirteen she and her mother had already set out for Hollywood in the hopes that young Betty would become a star. When her mother lied about her daughter's age, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it helped her daughter land her first film contract. Grable's star continued to rise throughout the 1930's and early 40's and by 1943 was rivaling Lana for the favorite World War II pinup. After Grable's star began to flicker out in the mid 1950's, she began focusing on her Broadway career (which was also helping to pay the bills, when she went broke due to gambling debts and mismanagement of her finances), where she would remain until her death from lung cancer at aged fifty-six, in 1973.

The Great Garrick (Warner Bros, 1937): This early Lana Turner film was actually a comedy starring Olivia De Havilland and MGM contract player Brian Aherne. A dark-haird Lana had small part as a young maiden.

Green Dolphin Street (MGM, 1947): Starring Lana, Van Heflin and Donna Reed, this film should be noted for it's Oscar winning special effects (including an earthquake scene in which Lana gives birth to a baby) and for the first time in years that Lana had appeared on screen without her trademark blonde hair. More Info

Grahame, Gloria: 11/28/23-10/05/81 (cancer). Underrated actress who won an Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful. 1952 was a stellar year for her in which she won an Oscar, appeared in Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford, and had a starring role in The Greatest Show on Earth.

Grand Hotel (MGM, 1932): MGM's first all star extravaganza starred John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. The film was remade into Week-End at the Waldorf in 1945, starring Lana, Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidgeon and Van Johnson.

Grey, Virginia: 03/22/17-07/31/04. Longtime girlfriend of Clark Gable, good friend of Lana and MGM contract player, she appeared with Lana in six (!) films from 1938 to 1966. They appeared together in Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938), Dramatic School (1938), Portrait in Black (1960), Bachelor in Paradise (1961), Love Has Many Faces (1965) and Madame X (1966).

Harlow, Jean: 03/03/11-06/07/37 (uremic poisoning): MGM's first resident blonde bombshell packed a lot of living into a short 26 year life. She made her film debut at the age of 19 in the film Hells Angels for director Howard Hughes and very quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the biggest and brightest stars of her era. She would marry three times, but the love of her life was MGM actor William Powell. Harlow's sudden death at aged twenty-six devastated MGM (or "Metro" as they called it then), as she was well liked by almost everyone. Studio heads quickly realized that they needed to find a new blonde bombshell. Enter Lana Turner. Official Website

Hayworth, Rita: 10/17/18-05/14/87 (Alzheimer's disease). There couldn't have been a more unlikely movie star than Margarita Carmen Cansino from Brooklyn, New York. With her thick, dark hair, low hairline and Brooklyn accent, it probably looked as if she was going to be a dancer for the rest of her life. At aged twelve she joined her father Eduardo's stage act, only to be discovered there three years later by an executive from Twentieth Century Fox Studios in Hollywood. Although at first she had only modest success as a contract player (her Fox contract was dropped after only five films), her first husband Edward Judson refused to take no for an answer until she was given a contract at Columbia. After settling in at her new studio (even though her first real successes were on loan outs to Warner Bros.), getting the Hollywood makeover and changing her name, the newly christened "Rita Hayworth" was on her way and soon she was rivaling pinup Lana Turner at MGM and pinup Betty Grable at Fox. She remained at Columbia until the late 1950's when a new blonde bombshell named Kim Novak began to be groomed for the roles that Hayworth had played a decade before. Hayworth's career in the 1960's was pretty undistinguished with years passing between each role and tragically it wasn't just another story of women over forty fighting to get good roles in films. Since the early 60's Rita's family and friends had begun to notice Rita behaving erratically. The press dismissed her behavior as "drunkenness" but it was something worse than that. She was suffering from an early onset of what was then a little known disease known as "Alzheimer's". She would battle the disease for the rest of her life, becoming a shadow of her former self and having to be cared for by her daughter by Prince Ally Khan, Yasmin. Rita Hayworth died from complications from Alzheimer's disease on May 14, 1987.

Hislop, Julia: Friend of the Turner family when Julia Jean (Lana) was a child. When times were hard and Mildred had to find work and place young Julia Jean in a foster home, she chose the Hislops. This proved to be a grievous error, as the mother of the family, Julia Hislop (who was more than likely mentally ill) would often fly into a rage when something (such as a household chore) wasn't done to her satisfaction. She was often abusive and usually Julia Jean was her target. Julia Jean endured two years of painful silence after being threatened with more beatings if she told her mother. One Sunday when Mildred Turner came to take her daughter shopping for new under things she noticed bruises and welts on her daughter's body. At first the little girl dismissed them but eventually the story came out. Mildred and Julia Hislop subsequently had it out in the Hislop's kitchen while Julia Jean hid behind a Philco radio cabinet. Mildred Turner then took Julia Jean to live elsewhere but the little girl never forgot what had happened.

Homecoming (MGM, 1948): Lana with Gable again in this World War II Drama. More Info

Homes of Lana Turner: The following are the addresses of Lana's homes in and around Los Angeles from about 1942 until her death in June of 1995. As I can obtain more information about specific addresses, I'll give em' to you:

A) McCulloch Drive: Lana, Baby Cheryl, second hubby Steve Crane and Lana mother's, Mildred Turner, were all living together in this house when Lana gave birth to Cheryl in July of 1943. The house overlooked the ninth hole of the Bel-Air Country Club.

B) Crown Drive: Where Lana was living when she married Bob Topping in April of 1948. Lana balked at having the wedding ceremony here, complaining that the house was "too small". Lana and Topping's wedding (which turned into a three-ring circus, due to the intrusion of the press) was held at the home of reporter Billy Wilkerson, who had discovered Lana while she was drinking a soda, a dozen years before.

C) Mapleton Drive: Lana lived here from about 1948 to about 1957, when it became more house than she could afford. Called "Maple-Top" the Georgian style mansion was a sight to behold. The interior of the house featured a wedding cake style staircase, an enormous crystal chandelier, and two twin ballrooms where the Toppings would host parties. The Toppings resided in the swanky Holmby Hills section of Bel-Air and shared a neighborhood with Judy Garland (who was Mrs. Sidney Luft at the time) and the Bogarts.

D) The house where it all happened. North Bedford Drive, 1958. PHOTO SOURCE: Corbis. North Bedford Drive: The house where the tragedy of Good Friday happened in April, 1958. Lana had rented this house just before Easter and had Baby Cheryl and her maid living there with her. (Note From Me: It just always seemed to me that she rented an awfully large house for just two people and a maid)

E) Wilshire Boulevard- After Good Friday, Lana rented an apartment here and had it decorated in bright reds to "match my mood".

F) Mullholland Drive- Lana lived here from the early 60's until the early 70's (when she was robbed). It was right on Malibu Beach and wasn't far from where Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson Family in August of 1969.

G) Edgewater Towers- After selling her property in Malibu Beach, Lana lived here for a time, until the building went co-op and her business manager said tsk-tsk.

H) The Century City Condo- Lana's "Ivory Tower" was her last residence, where she would live from about 1972 until her death in June of 1995 (she actually passed away in her bedroom in the condo). She lived on the twentieth floor in suite 2006. Faye Wray (of King Kong fame) also lived in the building, though on the opposite side.

Horton, Edward Everett: 03/18/86-09/29/70 (cancer). Popular MGM character actor who appeared with Lana in The Great Garrick (1937) and Ziegfeld Girl (1941).

Hussey, Ruth: 10/30/14-present. Actress who was billed before Lana and after Lew Ayres in 1938's Dramatic School.

Honky Tonk (MGM, 1941): Lana Turner and Clark Gable vehicle which holds great interest because a) It was the first picture Lana ever made with Clark Gable and b) it was the first and only western Lana ever appeared in. More Info

Heflin, Van: 12/13/10-07/23/71 (heart attack). Interesting and versatile actor who appeared with Lana in three films, 1942's Johnny Eager, 1947's Green Dolphin Street and 1948's The Three Musketeers. Off of Lana for a moment, he also holds his own against Joan Crawford in 1947's Possessed.

Hodiak, John: 04/16/14-10/19/55 (heart attack). After Clark Gable join the US Air Force in 1942, MGM started grooming actor John Hodiak for the parts that Gable had played. He appeared with Lana in two films, 1944's Marriage is a Private Affair and 1948's Homecoming.

Head Edith: 10/28/97-10/24/81 (bone marrow disease). Famed costume designer from the late 20's to the early 80's, she designed for Lana in two of her later features, 1962's Who's Got the Action and 1965's Love Has Many Faces.

Heath, Gladys: Longtime Turner family friend who offered Lana and her mother Mildred a place to stay when they first arrived in Los Angeles. "Gladdy" Heath was the person who first convinced Mildred to call reporter Billy Wilkerson when Judy came home with his card on that fateful day in 1937. She and Mildred Turner were great friends and whether they stayed in touch throughout the years is unknown, though Gladys did put in an appearance at Lana's wedding to millionaire Bob Topping in April of 1948.

Hartman, Don: 11/18/00-03/24/58 (heart attack). Directed Lana and singer Ezio Pinza in the 1951 musical Mr. Imperium.

Hollywood High School: Lana attended Hollywood High school for a very short time before being "discovered", while skipping a typing class and drinking a soda at The Top Hat Cafe, diagonally across the street (the story of her being discovered at Schwab's is just a legend. It was too far away for her to walk and be back in time for her next class). Sharon Tate, John Ritter and Rita Wilson (Mrs. Tom Hanks) also attended Hollywood High at one time or another.

Hope, Bob: 05/29/03-07/27/03 (pneumonia). Show business legend who is best known today for his Christmas Specials and for his entertaining of the troops overseas. He costarred with Lana in the 1961 comedy, Bachelor in Paradise. Official Website

Hopper, Hedda: 05/02/85-01/01/66 (double pneumonia). One time actress who began her career in the silent era. When she began a gossipy radio show in the middle 1930's she became a sensation and subsequently began a twenty-eight career as newspaper-gossip columnist, rivaling Louella Parsons. During the golden age of Hollywood, few had the power that Parsons and Hopper had and if a star fell out of favor with either one of them, they could be ruined. Though Lana liked Louella Parsons, she openly disliked Hopper (due in part to the fact that she made no bones about tearing into Lana about her relationship with Tyrone Power)...and had no problem telling her so.

Lana on Hedda Hopper:

Hedda Hopper never liked me. She tore into me about Tyrone, later she was terrible about Fernando Lamas. She blasted my marriage with Bob Topping; she never let up on me, ever. So finally, Howard Strickling persuaded me to agree to visit her. He phoned for an appointment and then called me back. "Hedda doesn't believe it". She wants to hear it from you."

"Does that mean I have to call her?"

"Yes, Lana," sighed Howard. "Will you, please?"

Now I was steamed, but I took her number. The secretary put me on hold, and finally Hedda came on the line.

"Hello, Miss Hopper," I started politely. "This is Lana Turner."

"Oh, yes, Laaannnna," she said, deliberately flattening the a-but she knew how to pronounce it. "I hear you want to do an interview with me."

I held on to my temper. "No, I've been told that YOU want to do an interview with ME."

So we made a date, and her parting words were, "Don't you dare be late."

When I arrived at her house she gave me a cup of tea and then, I remember, she asked, "Well what's going on in your life?"

"Everything but what you print about me."

She had the grace to look surprised.

"I know all about your leg people, Hedda, but you're getting the wrong information."

"Well what do you want me to print?"

"Only the truth, and when you have proof of what you're printing."

"I can't just sit around waiting for that," she protested. "Besides, Louella's always writing about you."

"That's different," I said. "Louella and I are friends."

"Why can't WE be friends?"

I looked her right in the eye and said, "Because I don't like you."

Hedda nearly fainted. "How dare you speak to me like that!" she raged. Nobody had ever said that to her face before.

So I repeated it. "I don't like you, Miss Hedda Hopper, and I really don't think that I should stay here anymore."

"You're right!" Get out of my house!" she stormed.

So I picked up my purse and marched coolly out of there. But I wasn't as cool when I called Howard Strickling and told him about the interview. The consummate publicity man, he was aghast. "Oh, my god, he moaned into the phone. "What do we do now?"

Howard, Trevor: 09/29/13-01/-07/88 (influenza and bronchitis). Played the character of Paul Bellamy in 1974's Persecution.

Hughes, Howard: 12/24/05-04/05/76 (kidney failure). Millionaire, film producer, director and aviator, was one one of many of Lana Turner's romantic conquests in the 1940's.

Lana on Howard Hughes:

...I found him likable enough but not especially stimulating. In our most personal conversations, he confessed his preference for oral sex. I wasn't interested, but that didn't seem to bother him. I saw him from time to time, and occasionally he'd come to the house just to sit and talk with my mother. She liked him and sympathized with his partial deafness. Of course it wasn't long before gossips were writing that I had "set my cap" for Howard and that I'd had my towels embroidered with the initials L.H. in anticipation. Howard was embarrassed and I was furious.

Imitation of Life (Universal-International, 1959): Universal's biggest hit of 1959, it can be argued that the part of Lora Meredith is one of Lana's strongest performances. It was her first collaboration with producer Ross Hunter and together they would make cinematic (and box office) gold. More Info

Lana's thoughts on her reaction to the funeral scene in Imitation of Life:

My big scene in the film was the funeral of Annie, the longtime black companion of the actress star . In the original version Annie had been the star's business partner, but Ross (Hunter) had made her a housekeeper-friend. I most dreaded the part when Annie's repentant daughter would throw herself on the casket, reminding the star of her troubled relationship with her own daughter.

The casket was covered with a huge blanket of gardenias. Hundreds lined the streets of Harlem to see the cortege pass by, and Mahalia Jackson sang a heartbreaking spiritual. When I heard the first strains of the song in rehearsal, I simply broke down. Images of my own life, my own dark fears flooded my mind, and I dissolved in tears. I fled.

My hairdresser, Patti Westmore, saw me getting out of the pew and running out the side door. Tears were beginning to spill from my eyes. Our dressing trailers were in the parking lot outside the church where we were filming, and by the time I got to mine I was close to hysteria, running in my high heels and weeping. When I reached the safety of the trailer, I slumped onto the chair in the front of my little dressing table, burying my face in my arms. By now I was shaking with sobs, unable to control myself. That casket, with it's blanket of heavily perfumed gardenias, had wakened unexpectedly all the crushing thoughts of death I had been trying to suppress.

Irene: 12/08/00-11/15/62 (suicide). Costume supervisor on such Lana Turner films as Slightly Dangerous (1943), DuBarry was a Lady (1943), Marriage is a Private Affair (1944), Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

Lana on Irene:

...Once again my designer was Irene. Filming (on Keep Your Powder Dry) was due to start and my costumes weren't ready, and some of the blame fell on me. But it was Irene who kept missing appointments. When she did appear she would usually hold a handkerchief to her face, saying she had a bad cold and warning me not to come too close. When I received a memo of reprimand, I went directly to Mr. Mayer. "I have kept my wardrobe appointments," I told him. "I don't think that I should be blamed!"

He sat back in his chair. "I know you're not missing them, Lana. You see Irene is having a very hard time."

He explained that both Irene and her husband were alcoholics. Although the studio knew it they bore with her because of her marvelous abilities.

The more I heard about Irene, the more sympathy I had for her. One day her sad life ended when she jumped from the window of a suite in the Knickerbocker Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. She didn't hit the pavement but landed on the awning, dead, and they didn't find her for two days.

"It" Factor: Term made famous by the "It" girl of the twenties, Clara Bow. If an actor or an actress has the so called "It" factor, they are extremely charismatic and no matter what they are doing on screen or who they are with, your eyes automatically focus on them. Lana Turner most definitely had the "It" factor.

Johnny Eager (MGM, 1942): Film in which Lana costarred with MGM leading man Robert Taylor. Their steamy love scenes didn't escape the gaze of Taylor's then wife Barbara Stanwyck, who hated Lana for nearly seducing her husband and never spoke to her again. More Info

Johnson, Evie Wynn: The former wife of actor-comedian Keenan Wynn married actor Van Johnson on the exact day that her divorce from Wynn became final, rumored to be because MGM head Louis B. Mayer was looking for a way to squash rumors about Johnson's sexuality. Lana and Evie were very good friends throughout the forties with Evie and Keenan living almost directly across the street from Tyrone Power and his then wife, Annabella. Evie was Lana's confidante in all matters concerning Mr. Power.

Johnson, Van: 08/26/16-present. One of Lana's leading men in 1945's Week-End at the Waldorf, Johnson was one of MGM's most popular leading men in the 40's and 50's. He was rendered ineligible for active duty in World War II due to the fact that a metal plate had to be put into his head after injuries he sustained in a car crash. In later years he has taken great pleasure in joking that MGM kept him so busy working during those years (due to the fact that he was one of few leading men on the lot who hadn't been drafted) that he could never remember what branch of the military the character that he was playing was supposed to be in. He would very often finish making one picture in the morning only to have to begin another one at night. As of this writing Johnson is living a very quiet and private life in an assisted living facility in Nyack, New York.

Keep Your Powder Dry (MGM, 1945): One of Lana's lesser known films, this World War II based film also starred Susan Peters and Larraine Day. More Info

Kellaway, Cecil: 08/22/03-02/28/73 (arteriosclerosis). Played the character of Nick Smith, the clueless husband of Lana's Cora Smith in 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Kohner, Susan: 11/11/36-present. Played the daughter from Hell, Sara Jane Johnson, in 1959's Imitation of Life. She also costarred with Lana two years later in 1961's By Love Possessed.

The Lady Takes a Flyer (Universal-International, 1958): Lana Turner in what was a rather interesting casting choice. She plays a wife, opposite Jeff Chandler as her husband, who is also a pilot in the American military. More Info

Lamarr, Hedy: 11/09/13-01/19/2000 (natural causes). Played the part of Sondra Kolter in 1941's Zeigfeld Girl. MGM's official "bird of paradise" in the 1940's, she was billed third in this picture, while Lana as Sheila Regan was billed fourth. Click here to listen to an interview with one of Hedy's later in life acquaintances: http://www.cinemaminima.com/2005/03/22.php#a5893

Lana on Hedy Lamarr:

...But talk about an entrance! Hedy Lamarr holds the record for that. One entrance she made at Ciro's is a vision I'll never forget.

Hedy was at the height of her beauty, with thick, wavy, jet-black hair. With that stunning widow's peak, her face was magnificent. We all looked up and there she was at the top of the stairs. She wore a cape of some kind up to her chin, and it swept down to the floor. I can't even remember the color of the cape, because all I saw was that incredible face, that magnificent hair-and a huge diamond. The most fabulous solitaire diamond on her forehead, just at the tip of her widow's peak. She was enough to make strong men faint.

How the hell did she keep that diamond on her forehead? Was it pasted on? You couldn't tell. Later, Sidney Guilaroff told me that he had taken jet-black wire, very fine, and woven it into Hedy's hair. He anchored it with a little spot of glue. But that diamond was absolutely real. It was breathtaking.

Lamas, Fernando: 01/09/15-10/08/82 (cancer). Lana's leading man in 1952's The Merry Widow, he was supposed to have starred with Lana in Latin Lovers. He was replaced with another actor however, when at a party given by Marion Davies, Lana accepted a dance from actor Lex Barker. A jealous Lamas made such a scene that he and Lana ended their evening early and after an altercation at her home, their relationship was over.

Lana on Lex Barker and Fernando Lamas:

After "The Merry Widow" Metro scheduled the two of us for another picture, "Latin Lovers". Toward the end of the summer of 1952 Marion Davies gave a huge party. Fernando and I were sitting with Ava Gardner and Esther Williams, watching the dancing, when a tall handsome actor came over to our table. It was Lex Barker. I didn't really know him, but I'd heard that his marriage to Arlene Dahl was on the rocks. He asked me to dance and I replied, "I'd love to."

From the cloud that darkened Fernando's face, I could see that I'd said the wrong thing. When Lex brought me back to the table and thanked me for the dance, I was stunned to hear Fernando saying something in a loud voice, something like, "Why don't you take her out to the bushes and f- her?"

Lex froze. Tears came into my eyes. Ava and Esther stared at Fernando in horror. Humiliated and embarrassed by the attention we were getting from the other tables, I said to him, "Let's get out of here," and we hurried off to find my wrap.

In the car we were both silent. I felt numb, still hardly believing that he had used such words. For some time he had had a key to the house on Mapleton Drive. Now he used it to open the door. The minute we were inside, he began shouting, and the battle boiled over into a physical fight I'd rather not describer. After I got him out of the house I was in such a condition that I dreaded being seen by anyone I knew. I drove immediately to Palm Springs, where I stayed for most of a week. But soon I was due to report for costume fittings for "Latin Lovers", which was one long series of love scenes-with Fernando! Back at MGM the first thing I did was to see Benny Thau.

He took one look at my bruises and scratches and asked what had happened to me. I told him the truth, and he said, "Oh my God." The doctor must see this and write a full report." Benny agreed that it would be impossible for me to do the picture with Fernando.

"And I hope you'll keep him away from me," I told Benny.

"Yes," he said, "we'll take care of that."

Lana, the Lady, the Legend, the Truth: Lana's sugarcoated and saccharine 1982 autobiography. More info

Lange, Hope: 11/28/31-12/19/03 (ischemic colitis). Played the part of Selena Cross, the girl with the dark secret, in 1957's Peyton Place.

Lansbury, Angela: 10/16/25-present. Best known for her portrayal of Murder She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher, this actress has been around for decades. She made her first film appearance in 1941's Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and has made dozens of Disney films, including Bed knobs and Broomsticks and Beauty and the Beast. She starred with Lana in 1948's The Three Musketeers. More info about Angela

Lanturn Productions: Lana Turner's very own production company(!). This company produced 1958's Another Time, Another Place.

Latin Lovers (MGM, 1953): Lana's follow up to The Bad and the Beautiful. Fernando Lamas was originally supposed to be cast as "Latin Lover" Roberto Santos, but when Lana's relationship with Lamas hit the rocks, he was replaced with Ricardo Montalban. More Info

Lana and Peter Lawford share a smoke and a chat, circa 1945.

Lawford, Peter: 09/07/23-12/24/84 (liver and kidney disease). British actor who endured a horrid childhood only to grow up to be an MGM contract player, honorary Kennedy (he was married to Patricia Kennedy from 1954-1966) and "Rat-Packer". Lawford was also known as a notorious womanizer and romanced June Allyson, Ava Gardner and Lana just to name a few. He would remain a "Rat-Packer" with Sinatra, Dean Martin and company until a fall out with Sinatra over Sinatra's falling out with JFK and his brother Bobby ended their relationship. Lawford's battle with drugs and alcohol ended his career and eventually his life and he died of liver and kidney disease on Christmas Eve, 1984.

Leonard, Robert Z.: 10/07/89-08/27/68. "Pop" Leonard directed Lana in three films during her tenure at "Metro", Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Marriage is a Private Affair (1944) and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945).

LeRoy Mervyn: 10/15/00-09/13/87 (Alzheimer's disease). One of MGM's biggest directors and the man almost completely responsible for Lana's stardom. He directed her in her first film, 1937's They Won't Forget and when he moved to MGM from Warner Bros. in 1937 he took Lana with him as his protégé. Over the years he would direct her in three more films, 1942's Johnny Eager, 1948's Homecoming and 1953's Latin Lovers.

A Life of Her Own (MGM, 1950): Lana's first film after a two year absence in which she took an extended honeymoon with then hubby Bob Topping. It was supposed to be a big hit for her and with the so called "Woman's Director" George Cukor at the helm it should have worked. Box office receipts weren't as great as expected however. More Info

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Television program that focused on the excesses and the eccentricities of the rich and famous. Lana appeared on the program twice. She appeared in 1984 while on a trip to Egypt to talk to host Robin Leach about reincarnation and how she believed that she was Cleopatra in another life, and she also appeared in 1994 (very ill) while on a trip to San Sebastian Spain to accept a lifetime achievement award.

Lombard Carole: 10/06/08-01/16/42 (injuries sustained in a plane crash). Pretty blonde comedienne and actress. She was the one time wife of MGM star William Powell and wife of Clark Gable. It was three days into shooting Somewhere I'll Find You with Lana that Clark received the devastating news that Lombard, her mother and everyone else who was flying with them on a war bond tour was killed in an air crash over Las Vegas. More info about Carole

Louis, Jean: 10/05/07-04/20/97. Famed costume designer who designed for Lana in 1959's Imitation of Life, 1960's Portrait in Black and 1966's Madame X.

Love Finds Andy Hardy (MGM, 1938): The Andy Hardy pictures were box office gold, in the respect that they were made cheaply so that they would always make a profit. They centered around Judge Hardy and his family, including a teenage daughter and his teenage son Andy. In what some argue is the best of the lot, Lana had a small, four scene part, as Cynthia Potter who is only "going with" Andy while her boyfriend is out of town. More Info

Love Has Many Faces (Columbia Pictures, 1965): Feature in which Lana played "Kit Jordan", a rich playgirl. More Info

Mabry, Moss: 1918-01/25/06 (heart and respiratory problems). Famed costume designer from the early 1950's to the late 1980's. Mabry designed costumes most notably for 1955's The Sea Chase (with Lana) 1962's The Manchurian Candidate, 1972's Butterflies are Free and 1973's The Way We Were. Although he would design for Lana just once, he always spoke fondly of her.

MacMurray, Fred: 08/30/08-11/05/91 (pneumonia). Onetime MGM actor who later played Steve Douglas on the television sitcom, My Three Sons. He portrayed Tom Ransome in 1955's The Rains of Ranchipur.

The Mocambo: Probably best known for it's caged birds, in the era of the nightclub, in the late 1930's to the 1950's, The Mocambo was the place to be. It was started by William Wilkerson, the publisher of The Hollywood Reporter and the man who had discovered Julia Jean Turner on that fateful afternoon in 1936. The club mostly catered to the celebrity crowd and the staff tended to look the other way when an underage celebrity would walk in. In the late 1930's and early 1940's that usually included a young Lana Turner and her latest date.

Madame X (Universal-International, 1966): Lana starred as Holly Anderson in this tour de force and three hanky tear jerker. More Info

Main, Marjorie: 02/24/90-04/10/75 (lung cancer). Hard looking MGM character actress for decades, she appeared with Lana in 1941's Honky Tonk and 1951's Mr. Imperium.

Mann, Daniel: 08/08/12-11/21/91 (heart failure). Directed Lana and Dean Martin in 1962's Who's Got the Action?

Marriage is a Private Affair (MGM, 1944): Lana's only 1944 feature was her first screen appearance in eighteen months, having given birth to her daughter Cheryl. More Info Lana and her second husband Steve Crane on their wedding day. July 17, 1942.

Marriages Of Lana: Lana Turner was most definitely the marrying kind, as Aquarians often are. The following are the Turner husbands in chronological order: Artie Shaw- Married February 13, 1940, Divorced September 12, 1940. Stephen Crane- Married July 17, 1942, Annulled February 4, 1943, Remarried March 14, 1943, Divorced August 21, 1944. Bob Topping- Married April 26, 1948, Divorced December 12, 1952. Lex Barker- Married September 8, 1953, Divorced July 22, 1957. Fred May- Married November 27, 1960, Divorced October 15, 1962. Robert Eaton- Married June 22, 1965, Divorced April 1, 1969. Ronald Dante- Married May 9, 1969, Divorced January 26, 1972.

Marshal, George E: Justice of the Peace who by a great coincidence married Lana and her first husband, Bandleader Artie Shaw and Lana and her second husband, Steve Crane. "Welcome back Lana" Marshall said to Lana upon her marriage to Crane. "Tie it tighter this time, judge", she replied.

Martin, Dean: 06/07/17-12/25/95 (emphysema): This singer/actor was also the 1/2 of the famed Martin and Lewis comedy team before venturing out on his own. He was Lana's costar in 1962's Who's Got the Action? More info on Dean

Martin, Tony: 12/25/12-present. Singer, occasional actor and