The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (422 page)

Kathleen Turner
, b. Springfield, Missouri, 1954
Miss Turner has angry eyes. I thought so when she first appeared, in
Body Heat
(81, Lawrence Kasdan). No matter how obliging, overwarm, and available her Matty made herself in that film, didn’t the eyes warn us of danger and intrigue too heady for Ned Racine? She could not keep the warning light of Femme Fatale out of her eyes. It was still there, at the end, when Matty is tanning in her listless paradise. She should have stayed home and fed on weak men forever.

It was a remarkable debut, a begging part in a clever, funny celebration of male disaster. Along with her eyes was a voice that had an unaccountable harshness—did it come from the years spent in Latin America as her diplomat father got posted around? There was a strength in the woman that seemed likely to break out. It was not entirely comfortable, and the career has been hard to track.

She was aloof, adulterous, and headachy in
The Man With Two Brains
(83, Carl Reiner), and she did her best with the designer by day and hooker by night in
Crimes of Passion
(84, Ken Russell) and the awful
A Breed Apart
(84, Philippe Mora). Then came the big-contract role of the romance novelist in
Romancing the Stone
(84, Robert Zemeckis) and
The Jewel of the Nile
(85, Lewis Teague), where she entered into the robust physical comedy adventure with a will, and consequently had less time to smolder.

In
Prizzi’s Honor
(85, John Huston) she seemed rather more natural killing or lying than making love—but it was a tough task to make that gimmicky character credible, and anyone would have had a hard time stopping our hope that Mae Rose was going to get some more scenes. In
Peggy Sue Got Married
(86, Francis Ford Coppola) there was the real burden of having to be nice and sweet, without too much irony, for a director who has a poor record with women on screen. She was also a late replacement for Debra Winger.

She went to Italy to make
Giulio and Giulia
(87, Peter Del Monte), she tried to redo Rosalind Russell in
Switching Channels
(88, Ted Kotcheff), and she had the unappealing role of the wife in
The Accidental Tourist
(88, Kasdan). Neither of these was as fun, or as wicked, as the donation of her voice to Jessica Rabbit in
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
(88, Robert Zemeckis)—the kind of sexpot ball-breaker she was made for. She seemed to spring to her full potential in
The War of the Roses
(89, Danny DeVito), a mess of a picture but an uncommon view of marital recrimination. All of a sudden it was possible to think of Turner playing Strindberg or Ibsen. She has acquired the reputation of being difficult—but was it difficult or adventurous to hope to play the nun in a film of Robert Stone’s
A Flag for Sunrise?
She has a power, a capacity for outrage, that is not likely to be indulged in America.
V. I. Warshawski
(91, Jeff Kanew) is no answer to what she might do: playing a slob, “a female dick,” only dulls Turner’s rare harshness. She is so much more startling as a lady whose fire flares up. That anger could yet leave her a figure of little but empty fun. Where do strong American actresses go at forty, when there are so many soft twenty-year olds coming along?

She played the mother in
House of Cards
(93, Michael Lessac) and was in
Undercover Blues
(93, Herbert Ross). Neither made an impact, but Turner was in her gutsy element—wicked and demure—giving cartoony muscle to the feeble plot of
Serial Mom
(94, John Waters).

And now the anger seemed explained. For, in her forties, Turner was pushed into television more often, and eased down the cast list. There were some bad films, and some that no one ever saw. But the belligerence and the daring never backed off. What we were seeing was age—not an unnatural thing:
Naked in New York
(94, Dan Algrant);
Leslie’s Folly
(94), a TV movie about a very unhappy woman—Anne Archer—directed by Turner herself;
Moonlight and Valentino
(95, David Anspaugh);
A Simple Wish
(97, Michael Ritchie);
Legalese
(98, Glenn Jordan); the Snow Queen in
Stories from My Childhood
(98); a mad psychologist breeding
Baby Geniuses
(99, Bob Clark);
The Virgin Suicides
(99, Sofia Coppola);
Cinderella
(00, Beeban Kidron);
Prince of Central Park
(00, John Leekley);
Last of the Wild Chimps
(04, David Hamlin).

In addition there was an overtrumpeted nude scene on the stage as Mrs. Robinson in
The Graduate
, and her pièce de résistance—Chandler’s father in
Friends
. Onscreen, she has done
Marley & Me
(08, David Frankel) and
Californication
on TV.

Lana Turner
(Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner) (1920–95), b. Wallace, Idaho
What executive aberration was it that, for the best years of her career, put Lana Turner under contract to MGM? That studio revered ladies, while Turner had the unanimated, sluggish carnality of a thick broad on the make. No actress, always inclined to veil her nature in the posturing of melodrama, she was close to the spirit of smalltown waitresses ready to be picked up by a toothbrush salesman with a cousin in casting. Her private life only proved that a dull face could have a tempestuous romantic passage. Had she been at Warners, like Ann Sheridan—they looked very alike, though Turner lacked Sheridan’s fun—she might have been much more impressive as a moll waiting for a light. At MGM, the studio usually seemed reluctant to lay hands on her. To add to that impression she was often dressed in burning white.

Ironically, she was discovered working in a Los Angeles drugstore and put under contract at Warners:
They Won’t Forget
(37, Mervyn Le Roy);
The Great Garrick
(37, James Whale); and
Four’s a Crowd
(38, Michael Curtiz). She moved to MGM and was idling in minor films—
Love Finds Andy Hardy
(38, George Seitz);
Dramatic School
(38, Robert B. Sinclair)—when the studio began to promote her as the “Sweater Girl.” The blancmange in the sweater, her exhausted sultriness and floppy hair let her seep into public consciousness: killed off as the trouper prepared to sell herself in
Ziegfeld Girl
(41, Robert Z. Leonard); marooned as the English ingenue when Ingrid Bergman swapped her for the floozy in
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(41, Victor Fleming); attempting to imitate Jean Harlow opposite Gable in
Honky Tonk
(41, Jack Conway);
Johnny Eager
(41, Le Roy);
Somewhere I’ll Find You
(42, Wesley Ruggles);
Slightly Dangerous
(43, Ruggles);
Marriage Is a Private Affair
(44, Leonard);
Keep Your Powder Dry
(44, Edward Buzzell);
Weekend at the Waldorf
(45, Leonard); most notably as the murderous adulteress in
The Postman Always Rings Twice
(46, Tay Garnett), a film that showed how clearly Turner might appeal to the feckless, frustrated wives of redneck America. Imagine a girl like Turner seeing a film like that … almost casually, hack culture could be deeply revealing.

After the war, her fortunes declined with
Cass Timberlane
(47, George Sidney);
Green Dolphin Street
(47, Victor Saville);
Homecoming
(48, Le Roy);
The Three Musketeers
(48, Sidney); and
A Life of Her Own
(50, George Cukor). By now, she was something of a problem for MGM and, apart from being admirably used as a film star in
The Bad and the Beautiful
(52, Vincente Minnelli), she was displayed in trite costume films:
The Merry Widow
(52, Curtis Bernhardt);
Latin Lovers
(53, Le Roy);
The Flame and the Flesh
(54, Richard Brooks);
The Prodigal
(55, Richard Thorpe); and
Diane
(55, David Miller). At Warners, she was excess baggage on
The Sea Chase
(55, John Farrow).

She moved on to Fox where she played in
The Rains of Ranchipur
(55, Jean Negulesco) and as the mother with an illegitimate daughter in
Peyton Place
(57, Mark Robson). She was exactly right in that mixture of social anxiety and sexual gossip, and in 1958 her own life mimicked Grace Metalious. Her daughter, Cheryl Crane, killed Johnny Stompanato, a small-time gangster and Turner’s lover.

There was public alarm, but Ross Hunter at Universal smelled the lust for sensation and cast her as a movie actress confronted by troublesome children in
Imitation of Life
(59, Douglas Sirk). She is as blatant and mediocre in that as ever; but that exactly suits Sirk’s adaptation of melodrama to social comment. As with
The Postman Always Rings Twice
, it is hard to believe that a more accomplished actress could have expressed so much about the uneasy pursuit of respectability.

Imitation of Life
was a big success, but it was her swan song. Subsequent films only showed how quickly her looks went puffy:
Portrait in Black
(60, Michael Gordon);
By Love Possessed
(61, John Sturges);
Bachelor in Paradise
(61, Jack Arnold);
Who’s Got the Action?
(62, Daniel Mann);
Love Has Many Faces
(64, Alexander Singer);
Madame X
(65, David Lowell Rich);
The Big Cube
(69, Tito Davison); and
Persecution
(74, Don Chaffey).

She acted in
Bittersweet Love
(76, Miller) and
Witches’ Brew
(80, Richard Shorr). But neither of these offered a fraction the value of Cheryl Crane’s book,
Detour
, published in 1988.

John Turturro
, b. Brooklyn, New York, 1957
Turturro has demonstrated enough quirky brilliance for us to hunt down his performances as once we did those of Peter Lorre or Warren Oates. He lacks the looks or bearing likely to be cast in American leading roles, but that only reminds us of how great character actors are time and again the way to more adventurous movies. With enough real people around, stars, hams, balloons, and mirrors sometimes have to shape up.

Turturro is an East Coast actor, to such an extent that it sometimes seems as if he is as essential as the Teamsters and Danny Aiello to films coming out of New York: allegedly in
Raging Bull
(80, Martin Scorsese);
Exterminator II
(84, Mark Buntzman);
The Flamingo Kid
(84, Garry Marshall);
Desperately Seeking Susan
(85, Susan Seidelman);
To Live and Die in L.A
. (85, William Friedkin); as a pool player in
The Color of Money
(86, Scorsese);
Gung Ho
(86, Ron Howard);
Hannah and Her Sisters
(86, Woody Allen);
Off Beat
(86, Michael Dinner);
The Sicilian
(87, Michael Cimino); as the threat in
Five Corners
(88, Tony Bill);
Do the Right Thing
(89, Spike Lee);
Backtrack
(90, Dennis Hopper);
Men of Respect
(90, William Reilly); magnificent as the betrayer in
Miller’s Crossing
(90, Joel and Ethan Coen);
Mo’ Better Blues
(90, Lee);
State of Grace
(90, Phil Joanou);
Jungle Fever
(91, Lee); a cross between George S. Kaufman and Eraserhead in
Barton Fink
(91, Coens);
Brain Donors
(91, Dennis Dugan);
Fearless
(93, Peter Weir); and
Being Human
(94, Bill Forsyth).

He has already directed a film,
Mac
(92), in which he also acts. Then a few years later he made the adventurous
Illuminata
(98)—about turn-of-the-century theatre.

Still, it is his acting, and his range, that are most admirable. Time and again he makes interesting choices: very good as Herbie Stempel in
Quiz Show
(94, Robert Redford);
Search and Destroy
(95, David Salle);
Unstrung Heroes
(95, Diane Keaton);
Clockers
(96, Lee); as Sam Giancana in
Sugartime
(95, John N. Smith);
Girl 6
(96, Lee);
The Search for One-Eye Jimmy
(96, Sam Henry Kass);
Box of Moon Light
(96, Tom DiCillo);
Grace of My Heart
(96, Allison Anders); as Primo Levi in
The Truce
(96, Francesco Rosi);
Lesser Prophets
(97, William DeVizia);
Animals
(97, Michael DiJiacomo);
The Big Lebowski
(98, Coen);
O.K. Garage
(98, Brandon Cole);
He Got Game
(98, Lee);
Rounders
(98, John Dahl); as Allen Ginsberg in
The Source
(99, Chuck Workman);
Cradle Will Rock
(99, Tim Robbins);
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(00, Coen);
Two Thousand and None
(00, Arto Paragamian);
The Luzhin Defence
(00, Marleen Gorris);
The Man Who Cried
(00, Sally Potter);
13 Conversations About One Thing
(01, Jill Sprecher); as Howard Cosell in
Monday Night Mayhem
(01, Ernest R. Dickerson);
Collateral Damage
(02, Andrew Davis);
Mr. Deeds
(02, Steven Brill);
Anger Management
(03, Peter Segal).

His output remains adventurous:
She Hate Me
(04, Lee);
Secret Window
(04, David Koepp); very nasty in
The Good Shepherd
(05, Robert DeNiro);
A Few Days in September
(05, Santiago Amigorena); directing
Romance & Cigarettes;
as Billy Martin in
The Bronx is Burning
(07, Jerome Chichek);
Transformers
(07, Michael Bay);
Margot at the Wedding
(07, Noah Baumbach);
Slipstream
(07, Anthony Hopkins);
What Just Happened
(08, Barry Levinson);
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
(08, Dugan); narrating
Miracle at St. Anna
(08, Lee);
The Taking of Pelham 123
(09, Tony Scott);
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
(09, Bay).