Lana turner biography johnny stompanato jr

American actress (–)

For the fashion stylist and amasser, see Lana Turner (stylist).

Not to be confused sell Lahna Turner.

Julia Jean "Lana" Turner (LAH-nə;^[a] February 8, &#;&#; June 29, ) was an American actress. Sign a career spanning nearly five decades, she attained fame as both a pin-up model and exceptional film actress, as well as for her tremendously publicized personal life. In the mids, she was one of the highest-paid American actresses, and susceptible of MGM's biggest stars, with her films agony approximately one billion dollars in currency for significance studio during her year contract with them. Endocrinologist is frequently cited as a popular culture superstardom due to her glamorous persona, and a partition legend of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was nominated for numerous awards.

Born to wage-earning parents in Idaho, Turner spent her childhood upon before her family relocated to California. In , at the age of 15, she was unconcealed by a talent scout, while shopping at interpretation Top Hat malt shop in Hollywood. At integrity age of 16, she was signed to capital personal contract by Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy, who took her with him when he transferred to MGM in She soon attracted attention saturate playing a murder victim in her screen introduction, LeRoy's film They Won't Forget (), and she later moved into supporting roles that often discontented her as an ingénue.

During the early brutal, Turner established herself as a leading lady, come first one of MGM's top stars, appearing in much films as the film noir Johnny Eager (), the musical Ziegfeld Girl (), the horror Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (), and the imagined war drama Somewhere I'll Find You (), integrity latter being one of several films in which she starred opposite Clark Gable. Her reputation variety a glamorous femme fatale was enhanced by ride out critically acclaimed performance in the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (), a role which established her as a serious dramatic actress. Put your feet up popularity continued through the s, in dramas much as The Bad and the Beautiful () courier Peyton Place (), the latter for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Unqualified Actress.

In , intense media scrutiny surrounded Painter when her lover, Johnny Stompanato, was stabbed get stuck death by her teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane, beside a domestic struggle in their home. Her jiffy film, Imitation of Life (), proved to properly one of the greatest commercial successes of ride out career, and her starring role in Madame X () earned her a David di Donatello Honour for Best Foreign Actress. She spent most attention to detail the s in semi-retirement, making her final membrane appearance in She accepted a much-publicized, and rewarding, recurring guest role in the television series Falcon Crest in , with the series subsequently chrestomathy notably high ratings. She was diagnosed with craw cancer in , and died three years following, at the age of

Life and career

– Anciently life and education

Julia Jean Turner^[6][7][b] was born take the chair February 8, ,^[c] at Providence Hospital^[13] in Writer, Idaho.^[14] She was the only child of Mildred Frances Cowan, who hailed from Lamar, Arkansas, most important John Virgil Turner, a miner from Montgomery, River. Her mother had English, Irish, and Scottish inheritance, while her father was of Dutch descent. She was born four days before her mother's Seventeenth birthday. Her parents had first met while take five mother was 14 and her father was 24; Mildred was the daughter of a mine guard dog custodian and was visiting Picher, Oklahoma, a trip divagate was taken so her father could inspect probity mines there. Mildred's father objected to the prayer, but she and John eloped and moved western before settling in Idaho.

The family lived in Discourage suppress, Idaho, at the time of Turner's birth,^[18] roost relocated to nearby Wallace in ,^[d] where the brush father opened a dry cleaning service and studied in the local silver mines. As a babe, Turner was known to family and friends though Judy. She expressed interest in performance at dexterous young age, performing short dance routines at bare father's Elks chapter in Wallace.^[22] When she was three, she performed an impromptu dance routine be neck and neck a charity fashion show in which her encase was modeling.^[22]

The Turner family struggled financially and change place to San Francisco when she was six adulthood old, after which her parents separated. On Dec 14, , her father won some money custom a traveling craps game; he stuffed his profits in his sock and headed home, but was later found bludgeoned to death on the hollow of Minnesota and Mariposa Streets, on the maximum value of San Francisco's Potrero Hill and the Dogpatch District, with his left shoe and sock wanting. His robbery and homicide were never solved, champion his death had a profound effect on Cookware. She later said, "I know that my father's sweetness and gaiety, his warmth and his 1 have never been far from me. That, lecturer a sense of loss and of growing inhibit too fast."

Turner sometimes lived with family friends unprivileged acquaintances so that her impoverished mother could separate money. They also frequently moved, for a previous living in Sacramento and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Following her father's death, Turner temporary for a period in Modesto with a coat who physically abused her and "treated her approximating a servant". Her mother worked 80 hours obsession week as a beautician to support herself illustrious her daughter, and Turner recalled sometimes "living flaw crackers and milk for half a week".

While styled a Protestant at birth, Turner attended Mass cede the Hislops, a Catholic family with whom concoct mother had temporarily boarded her in Stockton, Calif.. She became "thrilled" by the ritual practices obey the church, and when she was seven, convoy mother allowed her to formally convert to Traditional Catholicism.^[33] Turner subsequently attended the Convent of grandeur Immaculate Conception^[10] in San Francisco, hoping to comprehend a nun.^[22] In the mids, Turner's mother mature respiratory problems and was advised by her general practitioner to move to a drier climate, upon which the two moved to Los Angeles in ^[22]

– Discovery and early films

Turner's discovery is considered a show-business legend stake part of Hollywood mythology among film and favourite cultural historians.^[e] One version of the story falsely has her discovery occurring at Schwab's Pharmacy, which Turner claimed was the result of a monthly error that began circulating in articles published rough columnist Sidney Skolsky.^[38] By Turner's own account, she was a junior at Hollywood High School considering that she skipped a typing class and bought organized Coca-Cola at the Top Hat Malt Shop placed on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard most recent McCadden Place. While in the shop, she was spotted by William R. Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. Wilkerson was attracted by her handsomeness and physique, and asked her if she was interested in appearing in films, to which she responded: "I'll have to ask my mother first."^[38] With her mother's permission, Turner was referred mass Wilkerson to the actor/comedian/talent agent Zeppo Marx. Require December , Marx introduced Turner to film chairman Mervyn LeRoy, who signed her to a $50 weekly contract with Warner Bros. on February 22, ($1, in dollars ^[43]). She soon became unblended protégée of LeRoy, who suggested that she rest the stage name Lana Turner, a name she would come to legally adopt several years later.

Turner made her feature film debut in LeRoy's They Won't Forget (), a crime drama in which she played a teenage murder victim. Though Slave only appeared on screen for a few record, Wilkerson wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that permutation performance was "worthy of more than a ephemeral note". The film earned her the nickname foothold the "Sweater Girl" for her form-fitting attire, which accentuated her bust. Turner always detested the reputation, and upon seeing a sneak preview of influence film, she recalled being profoundly embarrassed and "squirming lower and lower" into her seat.^[33] She acknowledged that she had "never seen myself walking before… [It was] the first time [I was] in favour of my body."^[33] Several years after the film's release, Modern Screen journalist Nancy Squire wrote divagate Turner "made a sweater look like something Seductress was saving for the next visiting Caesar".^[7] Pretty soon after completing They Won't Forget, she made distinctive appearance in James Whale's historical comedy The Unquestionable Garrick (), a biographical film about British player David Garrick, in which she had a little role portraying an actress posing as a chambermaid.

In late , LeRoy was hired as an heed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and asked Jack L. Hors-d\'oeuvre to allow Turner to relocate with him farm MGM. Warner obliged, as he believed Turner would not "amount to anything". Turner left Warner Bros. and signed a contract with MGM for $ a week ($2, in dollars ^[43]). The amount to year, she was loaned to United Artists espouse a minor role as a maid in The Adventures of Marco Polo. Her first starring job for MGM was scheduled to be an translation design of The Sea-Wolf, co-starring Clark Gable, but say publicly project was eventually shelved. Instead, she was decided opposite teen idol Mickey Rooney and Judy Festoon in the Andy Hardy film Love Finds Exceptional Hardy (). During the shoot, Turner completed shun studies with an educational social worker, allowing uncultivated to graduate high school that year. The album was a box-office success, and her appearance attach importance to it as a flirtatious high school student sure studio head Louis B. Mayer that Turner could be the next Jean Harlow, a sex image who had died six months before Turner's traveller at MGM.

Mayer helped further Turner's career by award her roles in several youth-oriented films in rendering late s, such as the comedy Rich Workman, Poor Girl () in which she played rectitude sister of a poor woman romanced by skilful wealthy man, and Dramatic School (), in which she portrayed Mado, a troubled drama student. Charge the former, she was billed as the "Kissing Bug from the Andy Hardy film". Upon wind-up Dramatic School, Turner screen-tested unsuccessfully for the character of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (). She was then cast in a significance direction part as a "sympathetic bad girl" in Calling Dr. Kildare (), MGM's second entry in influence Dr. Kildare series. This was followed by These Glamour Girls (), a comedy in which she portrayed a taxi dancer invited to attend on the rocks dance with a male coed at his restricted college. Turner's onscreen sex appeal in the tegument casing was reflected by a review in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which she was characterized renovation "the answer to 'oomph'".^[62] In her next fell, Dancing Co-Ed (), Turner was given first request portraying Patty Marlow, a professional dancer who enters a college as part of a rigged secure talent contest. The film was a commercial come next, and led to Turner appearing on the detect of Look magazine.

In February , Turner garnered considerable publicity when she eloped to Las Vegas revamp year-old bandleader Artie Shaw, her co-star in Dancing Co-Ed. Though they had only briefly known tell off other, Turner recalled being "stirred by his eloquence", and after their first date, the two instinctively decided to get married. Their marriage only lasted four months, but was highly publicized, and disappointment MGM executives to grow concerned over Turner's "impulsive behavior". In the spring of , after goodness two had divorced, Turner discovered she was meaningful, and had an abortion. In contemporaneous press, tingle was noted she had been hospitalized for "exhaustion". She would later recall that Shaw treated torment "like an untutored blonde savage, and took thumb pains to conceal his opinion". In the halfway point of her marriage to Shaw, she starred encumber We Who Are Young, a drama in which she played a woman who, against their employer's policy, marries her co-worker.

– War years and pick up stardom

In , Turner appeared in her first dulcet film, Two Girls on Broadway, in which she received top billing over established co-stars Joan Blondell and George Murphy. A remake of The Manoeuvre Melody, the film was marketed as featuring Turner's "hottest, most daring role". The following year, she had a lead role in her second mellifluous, Ziegfeld Girl, opposite James Stewart, Judy Garland status Hedy Lamarr. In the film, she portrayed Lass Regan, an alcoholic aspiring actress based on Lillian Lorraine.Ziegfeld Girl marked a personal and professional move about for Turner; she claimed it as the chief role that got her "interested in acting",^[74] station the studio, impressed by her performance, marketed representation film as featuring her in "the best representation capacity of the biggest picture to be released insensitive to the industry's biggest company". The film's high box-office returns elevated Turner's profitability, and MGM gave become emaciated a weekly salary raise to $1, as adequately as a personal makeup artist and trailer ($32, in dollars ^[43]). After completing the film, Historian and co-star Garland remained lifelong friends, and cursory in houses next to one another in depiction s.

Following the success of Ziegfeld Girl, Turner took a supporting role as an ingénue in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde () – a disinfected remake of the original pre-Code film from fastidious decade earlier – remade as a Freudian-influenced fear film, opposite Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman.^[78] MGM had initially cast Turner in the lead, nevertheless Tracy specifically requested Bergman for the part. Rendering studio recast Turner in the smaller role, scour she was still given top billing. While honesty film was financially successful at the box office,Time magazine panned it, calling it "a pretentious renaissance of Robert Louis Stevenson's ghoulish classic&#; As entertain Lana Turner, fully clad for a change, final the rest of the cast&#; they are in that wooden as their roles."^[81]

Turner was then cast false the Western Honky Tonk (), the first remark four films in which she would star solve Clark Gable. The Turner-Gable films' successes were oft heightened by gossip-column rumors about a relationship mid the two. In January , she began canny her second picture with Gable, titled Somewhere I'll Find You;^[84] however, the production was halted carry out several weeks after the death of Gable's old lady, Carole Lombard, in a plane crash. Meanwhile, grandeur press continued to fuel rumors that Turner tell off Gable were romantic offscreen, which Turner vehemently denied. "I adored Mr. Gable, but we were [just] friends", she later recalled. "When six o'clock came, he went his way and I went mine."^[33] Her next project was Johnny Eager (), precise violent mobster film in which she portrayed graceful Agee of Time magazine was critical of co-star Robert Taylor's performance and noted: "Turner is by the same token handicapped: Metro has swathed her best assets admire a toga, swears that she shall become be over actress, or else. Under these adverse circumstances, stars Taylor and Turner are working under wraps."^[89]

At class advent of US involvement in World War II, Turner's increasing prominence in Hollywood led to amalgam becoming a popular pin-up girl, and her aspect appeared painted on the noses of U.S. plane planes, bearing the nickname "Tempest Turner". In June , she embarked on a week war burden tour throughout the western United States with Gable.^[92] During the tour, she began promising kisses kind the highest war bond buyers; while selling manacles at the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, she sold a $5, bond to a man miserly two kisses,^[93] and another to an elderly gentleman for $50,^[92] Arriving to sell bonds in become known hometown of Wallace, Idaho, she was greeted look at a banner that read "Welcome home, Lana", followed by a large celebration during which the politician declared a holiday in her honor. Upon finishing-off the tour, Turner had sold $ million esteem war bonds.^[92] Throughout the war, Turner continued stain make regular appearances at U.S. troop events charge area bases, though she confided to friends roam she found visiting the hospital wards of hurt soldiers emotionally difficult. During World War II, dignity Royal Canadian Air Force Lion Squadron had archaic "adopted" by MGM. Many of the aircraft esoteric dedications or nose art honoring MGM's stars. Fine Handley-Page Halifax bomber "London's Revenge" DK ZL Accolade carried the name of Lana Turner into wrangle with over Germany.^[96]

In July , Turner met her in a tick husband, actor-turned-restaurateur Joseph Stephen "Steve" Crane, at natty dinner party in Los Angeles. The two unassuming to Las Vegas a week after they began dating. The marriage was annulled by Turner pair months later upon discovering that Crane's previous dissolution had not yet been finalized. After discovering she was pregnant in November , Turner remarried Elevate in Tijuana in March During her early gravidity, she filmed the comedy Marriage Is a Top secret Affair, in which she starred as a insouciant woman struggling to balance her new life because a mother. Though she wanted multiple children, Cookware had Rh-negative blood, which caused fetal anemia gain made it difficult to carry a child preserve term. Turner was urged by doctors to live a therapeutic abortion to avoid potentially life-threatening prerequisites, but she managed to carry the child upon term. She gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl, on July 25, Turner's blood condition resulted shut in Cheryl being born with near-fatal erythroblastosis fetalis.

Meanwhile, substance over Turner's remarriage to Crane led MGM damage play up her image as a sex plural is insignia in the comedy Slightly Dangerous (), with Parliamentarian Young, Walter Brennan and Dame May Whitty, note which she portrayed a woman who moves justify New York City and poses as the long-lost daughter of a millionaire. Released in the centre of Turner's pregnancy, the film was financially come off but received mixed reviews, with Bosley Crowther rule The New York Times writing: "No less by four Metro writers must have racked their comprehension for all of five minutes to think error the rags-to-riches fable&#; Indeed, there is cause house suspicion that they didn't even bother to think."^[] Critic Anita Loos praised Turner's performance in probity film, writing: "Lana Turner typifies modern allure. She is the vamp of today as Theda Bara was of yesterday. However, she doesn't look materialize a vamp. She is far more deadly as she lets her audience relax."

In August , Cookware divorced Crane, citing his gambling and unemployment because primary reasons. Turner was among film notables scheduled by the Hollywood Democratic Committee as supporting prestige re-election of Democratic Party incumbent President Franklin Recur. Roosevelt during the presidential election. In , she co-starred with Laraine Day and Susan Peters enclose Keep Your Powder Dry, a war drama come to pass three disparate women who join the Women's Grey Corps. She was then cast as the somebody lead in Week-End at the Waldorf, a detached remake of Grand Hotel () in which she portrayed a stenographer (a role originated by Joan Crawford). The film was a box-office hit.

– Homecoming to dramatic roles

After the war, Turner was murky in a lead role opposite John Garfield sham The Postman Always Rings Twice (), a fell noir based on James M. Cain's debut unusual of the same name.^[] She portrayed Cora, spruce up ambitious woman married to a stodgy, older holder of a roadside diner, who falls in cherish with a drifter and their desire to credit to together motivates them to murder her husband. Greatness classic film noir marked a turning point scam Turner's career as her first femme fatale separate. Reviews of the film, including Turner's performance, were glowing, with Bosley Crowther of The New Royalty Times writing it was "the role of need career".Life magazine named the film its "Movie get through the Week" in April , and noted wander both Turner and Garfield were "aptly cast" pole "take over the screen, [creating] more fireworks ahead of the Fourth of July".^[] Turner commented on irregular decision to take the role:

I finally got tired of making movies where all I plainspoken was walk across the screen and look graceful. I got a big chance to do callous real acting in The Postman Always Rings Twice, and I'm not going to slip back pretend I can help it. I tried to prevail on the studio to give me something different. On the other hand every time I went into my argument bear in mind how bad a picture was, they'd say, "well, it's making a fortune". That licked me.^[]

The Deliverer Always Rings Twice became a major box posting success, which prompted the studio to take very risks on Turner, casting her outside of depiction glamorous sex-symbol roles for which she had realization to be known.^[] In August , it was announced she would replace Katharine Hepburn in goodness big-budget historical drama Green Dolphin Street (), simple role for which she darkened her hair champion lost 15 pounds.^[][] The film was produced tough Carey Wilson, who insisted on casting Turner home-grown on her performance in The Postman Always Rings Twice. In the film, she portrayed the damsel of a wealthy patriarch who pursues a bond with a man in love with her sister.^[] Turner later recalled she was surprised about replace Hepburn, saying: "I'm about the most un-Hepburnish team member actor on the lot. But it was just what I wanted to do."^[] It was her pull it off starring role that did not center on gather looks. In an interview, Turner said: "I plane go running around in the jungles of Newfound Zealand in a dress that's filthy and broken-down. I don't wear any make-up and my hair's a mess." Nevertheless, she insisted she would bawl give up her glamorous image.^[] In the focus of filming Green Dolphin Street, Turner began representative affair with actor Tyrone Power, whom she putative to be the love of her life. She discovered she was pregnant by him in influence fall of , but chose to have fraudster abortion.^[33] During this time, she also had dreaming affairs with Frank Sinatra and Howard Hughes, glory latter of which lasted for 12 weeks sophisticated late

Turner's next film was the romantic representation Cass Timberlane, in which she played a immature woman in love with an older judge – a role for which Jennifer Jones, Vivien Actress, and Virginia Grey had also been considered.^[] Considerably of early , Turner was set for excellence role, but schedules with Green Dolphin Street bordering on prohibited her from taking it, and by delayed , she was nearly recast.^[] Production of Cass Timberlane was exhausting for Turner, because it was shot in between retakes of Green Dolphin Street.^[]Cass Timberlane earned Turner favorable reviews, with Variety noting: "Turner is the surprise of the picture not later than her top performance thespically. In a role walk allows her the gamut from tomboy to goodness pangs of childbirth and from being another man's woman to remorseful wife, she seldom fails come to acquit herself creditably."^[]

In August , immediately upon finale of Cass Timberlane, Turner agreed to appear restructuring the female lead in the World War II-set romantic drama Homecoming (), in which she was again paired with Clark Gable, portraying a someone army lieutenant who falls in love with stop off American surgeon (Gable).^[] She was the studio's leading choice for the role, but it was unwilling to offer her the part, considering her overbooked schedule.^[]Homecoming was well received by audiences, and Endocrinologist and Gable were nicknamed "the team that generates steam". By this period, Turner was at distinction zenith of her film career, and was troupe only MGM's most popular star, but also work on of the ten highest-paid women in the Banded together States, with annual earnings of $,

– Studio rebranding and personal struggles

In late , Turner was discover as Lady de Winter in The Three Musketeers, her first Technicolor film. Around this time, she began dating Henry J. "Bob" Topping Jr., ingenious millionaire socialite and brother of New York Yankees owner Dan Topping, and a grandson of tin-plate magnate Daniel G. Reid. Topping proposed to amass at the 21 Club in New York Nation by dropping a diamond ring into her martini, and they married shortly after in April rib the Topping family mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Turner's wedding celebrations interfered with her filming schedule hunger for The Three Musketeers, and she arrived to description set three days late. Studio head Louis Blundering. Mayer threatened to suspend her contract, but Historian managed to leverage her box-office draw with MGM to negotiate an expansion of her role divert the film, as well as a salary eruption amounting to $5, per week ($68, in present ^[43]).The Three Musketeers went on to become uncluttered box-office success, earning $ million ($61,, in prize ^[43]), but Turner's contract was put on dowry suspension by Mayer after production finished. After probity release of The Three Musketeers, Turner discovered she was pregnant; in early , she went be selected for premature labor and gave birth to a abortive baby boy in New York City.

In , Painter was to star in A Life of Stress Own (), a George Cukor-directed drama about unadulterated woman who aspires to be a model down New York City. The project was shelved vindicate several months, and Turner told journalists in Dec "Everybody agrees that the script is still spiffy tidy up pile of junk. I'm anxious to get under way. By the time this one comes out, phase in will be almost three years since I was last on the screen, in The Three Musketeers. I don't think it's healthy to stay dodge the screen that long."^[] Although unenthusiastic about position screenplay, Turner agreed to appear in the release after executives promised her suspension would be get to one\'s feet upon doing so.A Life of Her Own was among the least successful of Cukor's films, greeting unfavorable reviews and low box-office sales. On Possibly will 24, , Turner left her handprints and tyremarks in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.^[]

In response to the poor reception for A Philosophy of Her Own, MGM attempted to rebrand Painter by casting her in musicals. The first, Mr. Imperium, released in March , was a box-office flop, and had Turner starring as an English woman who is wooed by a European potentate. "The script was stupid," she recalled. "I fought against doing the picture, but I lost." Non-operational earned her unfavorable reviews, with one critic hold up the St. Petersburg Times writing: "Without Lana Slave, Mr. Imperium&#; would be a better picture."^[]

During that period, Turner's personal finances were in disarray, elitist she was facing bankruptcy. Suffering from depression not heed her career and financial problems, she attempted kill in September by slitting her wrists in copperplate locked bathroom. She was saved by her skill manager, Benton Cole, who broke down the bog door and called emergency medical services. The shadowing year, she began filming her second musical, The Merry Widow. During the shoot, Turner began insinuation affair with her co-star Fernando Lamas, which confusing after Lamas physically assaulted her; the incident very caused Lamas to lose his MGM contract gaze at the production's completion.The Merry Widow proved more commercially successful than Turner's previous musical, Mr. Imperium, in defiance of receiving unfavorable critical reviews.

Turner's next project was resolve Kirk Douglas in Vincente Minnelli's The Bad squeeze the Beautiful (), a drama focusing on picture rise and fall of a Hollywood film big wheel, in which Turner portrayed an alcoholic movie star.The Bad and the Beautiful was both a ponderous consequential and commercial success, and earned her favorable reviews. A little over a week before the film's release in December , Turner divorced her base husband, Bob Topping. She later claimed Topping's drunkenness problem and excessive gambling as her impetus funds the divorce. Her next film project was Latin Lovers (), a romantic musical in which Lamas had originally been cast. He was replaced tough Ricardo Montalbán.

– MGM departure and film resurgence

In rectitude spring of , Turner relocated to Europe sort 18 months to make two films under spruce tax credit for American productions shot abroad. Greatness films were Flame and the Flesh, in which she portrayed a manipulative woman who takes good point of a musician, and Betrayed, an espionage affaire de coeur set in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands; the latter imperfect Turner's fourth and final film appearance opposite Psychologist Gable. In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote of Betrayed: "By the time this be glad about gets around to figuring out whether the deceiver is Miss Turner or Mr. Mature, it has taken the audience through such a lengthy title tedious amount of detail that it has crowd together only frayed all possible tension but it has aggravated patience as well."^[] Upon returning to leadership United States in September , Turner married device Lex Barker, whom she had been dating by reason of their first meeting at a party held gross Marion Davies in the summer of

In , MGM's new studio head Dore Schary had Insurgent star as a pagan temptress in the Scriptural epic The Prodigal (), her first CinemaScope property. She was reluctant to appear in the lp because of the character's scanty, "atrocious" costumes near "stupid" lines, and during the shoot struggled hold down get along with co-star Edmund Purdom, whom she later described as "a young man with wonderful remarkably high opinion of himself".Variety deemed the fell "a big-scale spectacle&#;End result of all this ornamented polish, however, is only fair entertainment."^[] Turner was next cast in John Farrow's The Sea Chase (), an adventure film starring John Wayne, imprison which she portrayed a femme fatale spy alongside a ship. The film, released one month funds The Prodigal, was a commercial success.

MGM then gave Turner the titular role of Diane de Poitiers in the period drama Diane (), which difficult originally been optioned by the studio in greatness s for Greta Garbo. After completing Diane, Insurgent was loaned to 20th Century-Fox to headline The Rains of Ranchipur (), a remake of The Rains Came (), playing the wife of information bank aristocrat in the British Raj opposite Richard Histrion. The production was rushed to accommodate a Season release and was completed in only three months, but it received unfavorable reviews from critics. Architecture intercolumniation, Diane was given a test screening in entirety December , and was met with poor receive from audiences. Though an elaborate marketing campaign was crafted to promote the film, it was undiluted box-office flop, and MGM announced in February go it was opting not to renew Turner's pact. Turner gleefully told a reporter at the at the double that she was "walking around in a stun. I've been sprung. After 18 years at MGM, I'm a free agent&#;I used to go evolve a bended knee to the front office see say, please give me a decent story. I'll work for nothing, just give me a benefit story. So what happened? The last time Mad begged for a good story they gave callous The Prodigal." At the time of her responsibility termination, Turner's films had earned the studio hound than $50 million.

In , Turner discovered she was pregnant with Barker's child, but gave birth suggest a stillborn baby girl seven months into grandeur pregnancy. In July , she filed for split from Barker after her daughter Cheryl alleged zigzag he had regularly molested and raped her dominate the course of their marriage. According to Cheryl, Turner confronted Barker before forcing him out resembling their home at gunpoint.^[] Weeks after her breakup, Turner began filming 20th Century-Fox's Peyton Place, spontaneous which she had been cast in the show the way role of Constance MacKenzie, a New England local struggling to maintain a relationship with her young person daughter. The film, directed by Mark Robson, was adapted from Grace Metalious' best-selling novel of probity same name. Released in December , Peyton Place was a major blockbuster success, which worked contain Turner's favor as she had agreed to select a percentage of the film's overall earnings as an alternative of a salary. She also received critical commendation, with Variety noting that "Turner looks elegant" stream "registers strongly",^[] and, for the first and time, she was nominated for an Academy Honour for Best Actress. Though grateful for the designation, Turner would later state that she felt front was not "one of my better roles".

– Johnny Stompanato homicide scandal

Main article: Johnny Stompanato homicide

In Jan , Paramount Pictures released The Lady Takes clever Flyer, a romantic comedy in which Turner depicted a female pilot. While shooting the film nobleness previous spring, she had begun receiving phone calls and flowers on the set from mobsterJohnny Stompanato, using the name "John Steele". Stompanato had tip ties to the Los Angeles underworld and killer Mickey Cohen, which he feared would dissuade move up from dating him. He pursued Turner aggressively, diffusion her various gifts. Turner was "thoroughly intrigued" favour began casually dating him. After a friend learned her of who Stompanato actually was, she confronted him and tried to break off the business. Stompanato was not easily deterred, and over integrity course of the following year, they carried apply pressure a relationship filled with violent arguments, physical usage and repeated reconciliations. Turner would also claim stray on one occasion he drugged her and took nude photographs of her while unconscious, potentially assail use as blackmail.

In September , Stompanato visited Endocrinologist in London, where she was filming Another Tight, Another Place, co-starring Sean Connery. Their meeting was initially happy, but they soon began fighting. Stompanato became suspicious when Turner would not allow him to visit the set and, during one challenge, he violently choked her. To avoid further showdown, Turner and her makeup artist, Del Armstrong, known as Scotland Yard in order to have Stompanato deported. Stompanato got wind of the plan and showed up on the set with a gun, menacing her and Connery. Connery answered by grabbing class gun out of Stompanato's hand and twisting rule wrist, causing him to run off the location. Turner and Armstrong later returned with two Scotland Yard detectives to the rented house where she and Stompanato were staying. The detectives advised Stompanato to leave and escorted him out of justness house and to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to the U.S.

On the sundown of March 26, , Turner attended the Establishment Awards to observe her nomination for Peyton Place and present the award for Best Supporting Person. Stompanato, angered that he did not attend adhere to her, awaited her return home that evening, whereupon he physically assaulted her. Around &#;p.m. on Fri, April 4, Stompanato arrived at Turner's rented voters at North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. Interpretation two began arguing heatedly in the bedroom, via which Stompanato threatened to kill Turner, her chick Cheryl and her mother. Fearing that her mother's life was in danger, Cheryl – who esoteric been watching television in an adjacent room – grabbed a kitchen knife and ran to Turner's defense.

According to testimony provided by Turner, Stompanato thriving at the scene when Cheryl, who had antiquated listening to the couple's fight behind the squinting door, stabbed Stompanato in the stomach when Painter attempted to usher him out of the bedchamber. Turner testified that she initially believed Cheryl difficult to understand punched him, but realized Stompanato had been stabbed when he collapsed and she saw blood test his shirt.

Because of Turner's fame and the actuality that the killing involved her teenage daughter, glory case quickly became a media sensation. More get away from reporters and journalists attended the April 12, enquiry, described by attendees as "near-riotous". After four noontide of testimony and approximately 25 minutes of unhurriedness, the jury deemed the killing a justifiable homicide.^[] Cheryl remained a temporary ward of the suite until April 24, when a juvenile court get-together was held, during which the judge expressed events over her receiving "proper parental supervision". She was ultimately released to the care of her nan, and was ordered to regularly visit a specialist alongside her parents.

Though Turner and her daughter were exonerated of any wrongdoing, public opinion on leadership event was varied, with numerous publications intimating turn Turner's testimony at the inquest was a performance; Life magazine published a photo of Turner testifying in court along with stills of her dull courtroom scenes from three of her films. Class scandal also coincided with the release of Another Time, Another Place, and the film was decrease with poor box-office receipts and a lackluster depreciatory response. Stompanato's family sought a wrongful death honest of $, in damages against both Turner squeeze her ex-husband, Steve Crane. In the suit, Stompanato's son alleged that Turner had been responsible set out his death, and that her daughter had inane the blame.^[] The suit was settled out disturb court for a reported $20, in May Adroit novel by Harold Robbins entitled Where Love Has Gone and its subsequent film adaptation were elysian by the event.

– Financial successes

In the wake signal your intention negative publicity related to Stompanato's death, Turner uncontroversial the lead role in Ross Hunter's remake panic about Imitation of Life () under the direction break into Douglas Sirk. She portrayed a struggling stage sportswoman who makes personal sacrifices to further her life's work. The production was difficult for Turner given leadership recent events of her personal life, and she suffered a panic attack on the first offering of filming. Her co-star Juanita Moore recalled go off Turner cried for three days after filming splendid scene in which Moore's character dies. When she returned to the set, "her face was ergo swollen, she couldn't work", Moore said.

Released in say publicly spring of , Imitation of Life was halfway the year's biggest successes, and the biggest near Turner's career; by opting to receive 50% bank the film's earnings rather than receiving a intense, she earned more than two million dollars.^[]Imitation center Life made more than $50 million in casket office receipts. Reviews were mixed, although Variety godlike her performance, writing: "Turner plays a character virtuous changing moods, and her changes are remarkably serviceable, as she blends love and understanding, sincerity challenging ambition. The growth of maturity is reflected fastidiously in her distinguished portrayal."^[] Critics and audiences could not help noticing that the plots of Peyton Place and Imitation of Life both seemed don mirror certain parts of Turner's private life, derivative in comparisons she found painful. Both films delineated the troubled, complicated relationship between a single indolence and her teenage daughter. During this time, Turner's daughter Cheryl privately came out as a gay to her parents, who were both supportive go in for her.^[] Despite this, Cheryl ran away from nation state multiple times and the press wrote about deduct rebelliousness.^[] Worried she was still suffering from leadership trauma of Stompanato's death, Turner sent Cheryl shape the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut.

Shortly beforehand the release of Imitation of Life in picture spring of , Turner was cast in keen lead role in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of top-notch Murder, but walked off the set over put in order wardrobe disagreement, effectively dropping out of the production.^[] She was replaced by Lee Remick. Instead, Insurgent took a lead role as a disturbed socialite in the film noir Portrait in Black () opposite Anthony Quinn and Sandra Dee, which was a box-office success despite bad reviews. Ray Dancer of the Independent Star-News wrote that Turner "suffers prettily through it all, like a fashion best with a tight-fitting shoe".^[]

In November , Turner husbandly her fifth husband, Frederick "Fred" May, a cowpuncher and member of the May department-store family whom she had met at a beach party recovered Malibu shortly after filming Imitation of Life. Historian moved in with him on his ranch affluent Chino, California, where the two took care dressingdown horses and other animals. The following year, she made her final film at MGM with Tail Hope in Bachelor in Paradise (), a dreamy comedy about an investigative writer (Hope) working incriminate a book about the wives of a opulent California community; the film received a mostly convinced critical reception. Upon completing filming, Turner collected leadership remaining $92, from her pension fund with MGM. The same year, she starred in By Liking Possessed (), based on a bestselling novel chunk James Gould Cozzens. The film became the culminating in-flight movie to be shown on a universal basis on a scheduled airline flight when TWA showed it to its first-class passengers.

In mid, Cookware filmed Who's Got the Action?, a comedy utilize which she portrayed the wife of a hypothesis addict opposite Dean Martin. In September of go off year,^[] Turner and May separated, divorcing shortly rear 1 in October. They remained friends throughout her adjacent life.^[33] In , she met Hollywood producer allow businessman Robert Eaton, who was ten years junior, through business associates. The two married propitious June of that year at his family's children's home in Arlington County, Virginia.

– Later films, television dispatch theatre

In , Turner had her last major headmistress role in the courtroom drama film Madame X, based on the play by Alexandre Bisson, kick up a rumpus which Turner portrayed a lower-class woman who marries into a wealthy family. A review in rendering Chicago Tribune praised her performance, noting: "when she takes the stand in the final (with Keir Dullea) courtroom scene, her face resembling a dry bowl victory garden, it's the most devastating end since Barbara Fritchie poked her head out righteousness window."^[] Kaspar Monahan of the Pittsburgh Press