Lana Turner (1921-95)

Filmography & List of Marriages (PDF)

Marriage illustrations

Turner Biographies: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth?

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LanaPero.JPG LanaTurner.JPG

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Early Years: Julia Jean Turner

Source: Niven Busch, "Lana Turner: She Was Sipping a Strawberry Malt When Fame Walked in to Make her the Movie Sweater Girl," Life, December 23, 1940, pp. 62-67.


Source: Best Movies by Farr

1937 Screen Test

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They Won't Forget (1937)

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They Won't ForgetThey Won't ForgetThey Won't Forget
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Source: Niven Busch, "Lana Turner: She Was Sipping a Strawberry Malt When Fame Walked in to Make her the Movie Sweater Girl," Life, December 23, 1940, pp. 62-67.

Hollywood magazine (Jan-Dec 1937)

Hollywood magazine, Jan-Dec 1937
Source: The Internet Archive.

The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)

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World War II Pin-Up

1940


Source: Remarkably Retro.

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

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"Rarely does somebody without a day's experience in a group theater, a finishing school, or a committee for the relief of foreign refugees knock over an importanc place in a business providing weekly entertainment for 55,000,000 people and attracting an annual gross of one billion dollars. Yet such a person Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner has turned out to be. Since the afternoon of the strawberry soda [at the Top Hat Malt Shop], she has failed co distinguish herself in any solidly constructive fashion; yet the U.S. public will soon see her in the best role of the biggest picture to be released by the industry's biggest company within the next few months-the part of Sheila Regan in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Ziegfeld Girl.

Although her favorite color is red, her temperament unstable, and her education limited co three months of second-year high, she is now making 1,250 a week as stipulated in the second-year clause of a seven-year
contract which in five more years will be paying her $4,500 every seven days. She is regarded by her employers as the most important of their youngsters and described by Lillian Burns, the company's dramatic
coach, as 'the most brilliant girl I've ever caught.'"

Source: Niven Busch, "Lana Turner: She Was Sipping a Strawberry Malt When Fame Walked in to Make her the Movie Sweater Girl," Life, December 23, 1940, pp. 62-67.

Frame grab from Ziegfeld Girl Ziegfeld Girl: final staircase scene

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)



More Postman frame captures.

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The Bad and the Beautiful (1953)

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Screen shot from The Bad and the Beautiful.

1942 "Lana Turner's bedroom reflects her personality completely."Hollywood, November 1942.

Turner's bedroom

1951 Santa Barbara, California

Lana Turner and Cheryl Crane, Santa Barbara 1951

"Lana Turner lunching by pool at the Coral Casino with daughter Cheryl Crane." Color transparency by Earl Theisen for Look magazine.
Source: Shorpy.

Circa 1955

Love Has Many Faces (1965): The "Million-Dollar Wardrobe"

Love Has Many Faces

The Prodigal (1955)

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Lobby card for The Prodigal.

Turner, Johnny Stompanato, Cheryl Crane: 1957-58

View video documentary, narrated by Robert Wagner (7 minutes).

Additional newspaper coverage of the murder.

LanaStompanato.JPG Newspaper front page
Mirror-News source: Larry Harnisch, "Johnny Stompanato, RIP," in "The Daily Mirror," Los Angeles Times.

The National Enquirer, November 20, 2001, front page
Click here for larger image.

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"Cheryl Crane," Women Who Kill (The Globe, 2014)

Women Who Kill: Cheryl Crane
Women Who Kill: Cheryl Crane Women Who Kill: Cheryl Crane

Lana Turner (Brenda Bakke) and Johnny Stompanato (Paolo Seganti) in LA Confidential (1997)


Portraits from Richard Dyer, "Lana: Four Films of Lana Turner," Movie, no. 25, 30-52.

Portrait A (below).
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Portrait B.
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Portrait C.
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Portrait D.
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Portrait E.

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Portrait F.
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Turner with Ava Gardner.
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Production still of Turner in Imitation of Life, with Dan O'Herlihy. Haute couture!
Imitation of Life publicity still
Frame grabs from the scene above.
Imitation of Life  frame grab
Imitation of Life  frame grab


Email contact: jgbutler@gmail.com
Original material copyright © 1994-2024 Jeremy G. Butler.
Last revised: 27 August 2019 21:25:13