Born February 8, 1921, Julia Jean Turner was born in Wallace, Idaho, to John Virgil and Mildred Frances Cowan Turner. Her mother was only 15 when she married her father, who was a Tennessean by birth. He worked as a clerk but was a known gambler, and he was murdered for his winnings when she was a child. In 1936, when she was 15, she was discovered by film journalist, William R. Wilkerson at the Top Hat Café in Hollywood. He introduced her to Zeppo Marx who was also a talent agent, and she was soon signed as Lana Turner to MGM.
In her debut in “They Won’t Forget” (1937), she earned the nickname “sweater girl,” and reached the pinnacle of her fame in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a popular pin-up girl in World War II because of the success of her two films, “Johnny Eager” and “Zeigeld Girl.” She also made two films with Clark Gable, whose successes were heightened by rumors about a relationship between the two actors.
Her career hit a new high with the release of the film- noir classic “ The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946) co-starring John Garfield. Her public persona and personal life were sliding like a runaway roller coaster during the 1950s, and she was married eight times to seven different husbands. Scandal reared it ugly head in the late 1950s when her daughter, Cheryl Crane, fatally stabbed her lover, gangster Johnny Stompanato.
She appeared in some television roles during the 1970s and 1980s, but for the most part lived quietly outside of the public eye for the remainder of her life. She died at the age of 74 on June 29,1995 of complications from throat cancer. Her only child, Cheryl Crane, and her female life partner, whom Turner accepted as a second daughter, inherited her estate.
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