About Kathleen Turner, Gloria Feldt
Though she came to prominence in the 1980s, Kathleen Turner, with
her blend of raw sexuality, beauty, intelligence, and drive, could give
golden age-sirens like Lana Turner and Ava Gardner a run for their
money. After years of working as a relative unknown in way-off-Broadway
productions and in the television soap opera The Doctors, Turner burst
onto the movie scene in a star-making blaze when she was cast as femme
fatale Matty opposite William Hurt in Lawrence Kasdan's neo-noir
thriller Body Heat (1981). She continued to wreak havoc on the opposite
sex throughout the decade, appearing in a variety of popular movies
that ranged from drama to lighthearted adventure to jet-black comedy.
The daughter of a U.S. ambassador, Turner experienced a peripatetic
upbringing in a fiercely competitive environment. Living in Canada,
Cuba, Washington, D.C., Venezuela, and England, she learned to adjust
to new situations at a very young age. She later claimed the experience
molded her as an actress and taught her to constantly refashion herself
to meet the needs of particular situations. Turner first became
conscious of wanting to be an actress while living in England, where,
during her weekly visits to the theater, she was thrilled by the work
of Diana Rigg, Christopher Plummer, Angela Lansbury, and others. While
attending high school, Turner enrolled in classes at London's Central
School of Speech and Drama. She studied there until 1973, when her
father's death forced her mother to move the family back to her
hometown of Springfield, MO. It was there that Turner would take voice
lessons at Southwest Missouri State University, where she later
enrolled. Finding the campus devoid of the culture she craved, however,
Turner transferred to the University of Maryland and in 1977 graduated
with a degree in theater. Following graduation, she moved to New York
and, in between waiting tables, found work in television commercials
and obscure stage productions until deciding it was time to try
Hollywood.
Turner had just finished an unsuccessful audition when, fortuitously
enough, she encountered the casting agent for Body Heat. Her subsequent
portrayal of the murderous Matty proved to be her breakthrough and led
to a series of widely varied starring roles. For her sophomore effort,
she tried her hand at comedy with The Man With Two Brains (1983), in
which she starred opposite Steve Martin. Again, as with her previous
role, she played a woman who used her feminine wiles to manipulate a
man. In the erotic Crimes of Passion (1984), she once more was cast as
a woman using sex for manipulation, playing a fashion designer/hooker
who gets involved with a street preacher. Understandably not wanting to
get typecast by this point, Turner next played a dowdy author who finds
herself caught up in an exciting South American adventure with dashing
Michael Douglas and sleazy Danny De Vito in Romancing the Stone (1984).
The film was a smash hit and Turner found herself a star. The following
year, the trio reunited for the sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, and in
1989, they once again collaborated for The War of the Roses, Danny
DeVito's grimly funny dissection of a messy divorce. Other high points
of that period included Turner's performance as a beautiful but
ruthless hit woman in Prizzi's Honor (1985) and her Oscar-nominated
turn as a dissatisfied housewife who gets a second chance to alter her
life in Francis Ford Coppola's moving Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).
In 1988, Turner re-teamed with William Hurt for a supporting role in
Kasdan's The Accidental Tourist (1988). That same year, she gave a
devastatingly sexy performance as the voice of Jessica Rabbit in Who
Framed Roger Rabbit? Unfortunately, despite these successes, Turner
subsequently had a hard time finding quality roles, and her appearances
during the early to mid-'90s were sporadic. One highlight of this
period was her turn as the completely psychotic suburban housewife who
goes on a killing spree in John Waters' funny but uneven Serial Mom
(1994). In the latter half of the 1990s, Turner began to find more
quality work in films like Moonlight and Valentino (1995) and The Real
Blonde (1997). In 1999, she could be seen starring in the children's
comedy Baby Geniuses, The Prince of Central Park, and Sofia Coppola's
eagerly awaited adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides,
which cast Turner as the matriarch of a profoundly dysfunctional
family.
Kathleen Turner is the Chair of the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America Board of Advocates and has appeared in their TV and radio ad
campaigns that actively lobbied for the organization in Washington,
D.C., and has testified before Congress on Title X, America's family
planning program, and on the Equity of Prescription Insurance
Contraception Coverage Act (EPICC). She is passionate and outspoken
about changing the current social climate in America to one that
respects women's health and women's health choices.
~ From Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide & Various Sources
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