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Lana Turner

Lana Turner

"The Private Diary of My Life With Lana", a memoir, written by one of her closest friends, Eric Root, was published one year after her death. Root, a long time friend and hairdresser of Turner's, has a large collection of jewelry that belonged to Miss Turner. He still owns the beauty salon in Beverly Hills where Turner and many other iconic stars were clients.

According to Richard Burton's biography "And God Created Burton" Turner had an affair with the actor when they were filming The Rains of Ranchipur (1955) together.

According to the book "Golden Girls of MGM" by Jane Ellen Wayne, she lost her eyebrows due to the glue used to attach false ones to give her an Asian look.

Although diagnosed with throat cancer in 1992, Turner continued to smoke until almost the very end of her life.

Billy Wilkerson of The Hollywood Reporter found her sipping a Coke in a drugstore and was so taken by her he blurted out that standard Hollywood line, "How'd you like to be in pictures?". Her first role, sure enough, had her in a tight skirt and even tighter sweater sitting at a drugstore counter.



Born at 12:30pm-PST

Campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1944 presidential election.

Fainted during her 1953 wedding to Lex Barker.

Featured in "Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film" by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry (McFarland, 1998).

February 14, 1954, CBS: This episode was an hour long tribute to help celebrate MGM's 30th anniversary. Lana Turner made a live appearance on the show and performed the "Madame Crematante" number (aka "A Great Lady Has An Interview") that Judy Garland had performed in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies". Among the male singers/dancers featured were Steve Forrest, Edmund Purdom, and John Ericson.

Her auburn hair was bleached for Idiot's Delight (1939). She was withdrawn from the film, but the fact that she had become a blonde not only changed her screen image but gave her such an outgoing, swinging personality that Hollywood called her the Nightclub Queen.

Her daughter, Cheryl Crane, wrote a book about her life with her mother, her mother's 7 husbands and numerous boyfriends and living in Hollywood. It was entitled "Detour: A Hollywood Story" and was published in 1988 (ISBN:o-380-70580-X)

In her autobiography, she stated that her true birthdate is February 8, 1921. She stated that "I am one year younger than the records show."

In Italy, almost all of her films were dubbed by either Lidia Simoneschi or Rosetta Calavetta. She was occasionally dubbed by Dhia Cristiani.

In the movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) with Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman she was originally supposed to play the part of Ivy, the tart, and Bergman was supposed to play the innocent girl engaged to Tracy but Bergman wanted Turner's part and so the roles were switched.

Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"

Is portrayed by Brenda Bakke in L.A. Confidential (1997)

Measurements: 34C-25-34 ("The Sweater Girl" -1940), 35 1/2C-24 1/2-36 (from "Movieland Pin-Ups"- 1954), 34C-26-38 (from her autobiography), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

Once said that her turn as Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) was "the role I liked best".

Once she was forced to evacuate her apartment building when a fire broke out. Having only minutes to collect what she needed, Lana grabbed her lipstick, her eyebrow pencil and her hairdryer.

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