Died on this day thirty years ago: scandalous golden age Hollywood screen diva, “sweater girl” and glamour icon Lana Turner (née Julia Jean Turner, 8 February 1921 - 29 June 1995). I cherish consummate movie star Turner’s performances in both genuinely great films (like The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), A Life of Her Own (1950), Imitation of Life (1959)) and sublimely trashy ones (including Peyton Place (1957), Portrait in Black (1960), By Love Possessed (1961) (as the most elegant alcoholic in cinema history), Love Has Many Faces (1965) (as the most elegant nymphomaniac in cinema history), The Big Cube (1969) and long-forgotten hagsploitation flick Persecution (1974)). And of course, her fierce guest star appearances on 1980s nighttime soap Falcon Crest! I’ll give the last word to deviant “filth elder” Boyd McDonald. “Just as for sex, I find a hot piece of meat preferable to a wonderful human being, so in showbiz I enjoy a star more than someone who’s merely a great actor. Actors work to get what stars get without trying: attention,” he muses. In the chapter “Grand Larceny: Lana Turner Steals “Night of Stars”” in in his compilation of essays Cruising the Movies: A Sexual Guide to Oldies on TV, originally published in 1985, McDonald reflects on Turner’s appearance on the glitzy 1985 TV Special Night of 100 Stars. “Lana looks hard at 65, but she’s had to be; she’s had to put up with something the softer 69-year-old Olivia (de Havilland) never had – a general attitude among reviewers that her work isn’t very good … After her film clips were shown, Lana, who like most of the women in the show and in the audience, was wearing a glitter gown, strolled casually onstage and took her ovation without surprise or gratitude, without even a full smile (how refreshing after all the jaw-breaking smiles the TV stars gave). Without quite touching her lips, she blew a kiss with both hands to the $1,000 seats. It was a gesture as stylized and unreal as ballet.” Pictured: Polaroid of Lana Turner by Andy Warhol, 1985.
