Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress. Known for her distinctive deep husky voice,[1][2] she is the recipient of twoGolden Globes, as well as nominations for anAcademy Award, aGrammy, and twoTony Awards.
Born June 19, 1954, inSpringfield, Missouri,[6] to Patsy (née Magee)[7] and Allen Richard Turner, aU.S. Foreign Service officer[7] who grew up in China (where Turner's great-grandfather had been aMethodistmissionary), Turner is the third of four children, and the only one to be born in the United States.[8] She has a sister, Susan, and two brothers.[9][10][11]
Raised in a strictly conservativeChristian home, Turner's interest in performing was discouraged by both of her parents: "My father was of missionary stock", she later explained, "sotheater and acting were just one step up from being astreetwalker, you know? So when I was performing in school, he would drive my mom [there] and sit in the car. She'd come out at intermissions and tell him, 'She's doing very well.'"[10][12]
Owing to her father's position with the Foreign Service, Turner grew up in Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, and London, England.[13] She attended high school atThe American School in London,[14] graduating in 1972.[9] "The start of real acting for me began during high school in London", she stated in her 2008 memoir. "There were seven of us who were sort of a theater mafia. We produced, directed, acted, chose the plays, got one teacher fired and another one hired."[15] Her father died of acoronary thrombosis one week before her graduation,[16][9] and the family returned to Springfield, Missouri. At the age of 19, Turner began volunteering at a localPlanned Parenthood office.[4]
In 1973, Turner spent the summer with her mother inMidland, Texas. There, at theYucca Theater, Turner made history when she was cast as the first female villain in theSummer Mummers 1973melodrama,Plodding Among the Planets.
Several months after moving to New York City in 1977, Turner took over the female lead in Michael Zetter's playMister T, which co-starredJonathan Frakes and played atSoho Repertory Theatre. That production marked heroff-Broadway debut. Several months later, Turner made herBroadway debut as Judith Hastings inGemini byAlbert Innaurato, staged at The Little Theatre (now known as theHelen Hayes Theater) and starringDanny Aiello. It opened May 21, 1977, during the time when she was appearing in the soapThe Doctors.[21]
In 1978, Turner made her television debut in theNBC daytime soapThe Doctors as the second Nola Dancy Aldrich. She made her film debut in 1981 as the ruthless Matty Walker in the thrillerBody Heat; the role brought her to international prominence.Empire cited the film in 1995 when it named her one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History.[22]The New York Times wrote in 2005 that, propelled by her "jaw-dropping movie debut [in]Body Heat ... she built a career on adventurousness and frank sexuality born of robust physicality".[12] Turner ultimately became one of the top box-office draws, and most sought-after actresses of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Turner stated in 2018, "Body Heat was a blessing because I went straight to being a leading actor and I didn't have to suffer any of this predatory male behaviour like many young actresses. It doesn't frustrate me that nearly four decades after that film I'm still referred to as a sexual icon. I got over that a long time ago."[23]
Because of her deep, husky voice, Turner was often compared to a youngLauren Bacall. When the two met, Turner reportedly introduced herself by saying, "Hi, I'm the young you."[24]
AfterBody Heat, Turner steered away fromfemme fatale roles to "preventtypecasting" and "becausefemme fatale roles had a shelf-life". Consequently, her first project after this was the 1983 comedyThe Man With Two Brains. Turner co-starred inRomancing the Stone withMichael Douglas andDanny DeVito. Film criticPauline Kael wrote of her performance as writer Joan Wilder, "Turner knows how to use her dimples amusingly and how to dance like a woman who didn't know she could; her star performance is exhilarating."[25]Romancing the Stone was a surprise hit: she won aGolden Globe for her role in the film, and it became one of the top-ten-grossing movies of 1984.[26] Turner teamed with Douglas and DeVito again the following year for its sequel,The Jewel of the Nile. Pre-production for the movie was fraught with conflict, because Turner refused to commit to the "terrible" script she had been delivered. When she said no,20th Century Fox threatened her with a US$25 millionbreach of contract lawsuit. Eventually Douglas, also the film's producer, agreed to undertake rewrites on the script to make it more acceptable to Turner, which led to much back-and-forth between the two as the script was retooled right up to when shooting started inFez, Morocco.[27]
In 1988's toon-noirWho Framed Roger Rabbit, she was the speaking voice of cartoonfemme fataleJessica Rabbit, intoning the famous line, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." Her uncredited, sultry performance was acclaimed as "the kind of sexpot ball-breaker she was made for".[29] (Amy Irving provided Jessica Rabbit's singing voice in the scene in which the character first appears in the movie.) That same year, Turner also appeared inSwitching Channels, which was a loose remake of the 1940 hit filmHis Girl Friday; this, in turn, was a loose remake of theBen Hecht-Charles MacArthur comedyThe Front Page.[30]
Turner was the subject of the 1986 song"The Kiss of Kathleen Turner" by Austrian techno-pop singerFalco. In 1989, Turner teamed with Douglas and DeVito for a third time, inThe War of the Roses, but this time as Douglas's disillusioned wife, with DeVito in the role of a divorce attorney who told their shared story.The New York Times praised the trio, saying that "Mr. Douglas and Ms. Turner have never been more comfortable a team ... each of them is at his or her comic best when being as awful as both are required to be here ... [Kathleen Turner is] evilly enchanting."[31] In that film, Turner played a former gymnast and, as in other roles, did many of her own stunts. (She broke her nose two years later, filming 1991'sV.I. Warshawski.)[32][33]
Turner remained an A-list film star leading lady in the early 1990s, starring inV.I. Warshawski andUndercover Blues, untilrheumatoid arthritis seriously restricted her activities. She also blamed her age, stating, "when I was 40, the roles started slowing down, I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers."
In 1992, during the filming ofSerial Mom, she began experiencing "inexplicable pains and fevers."[34] The rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis was made about a year later. By the time she was diagnosed, she "could hardly turn her head or walk, and was told she would end up in a wheelchair".[12] Of this period, she has said: "My body could respond only with excruciating pain whenever I tried to move at all. The joints in my hands were so swollen, I couldn't hold a pen. Some days I couldn't hold a glass to get a drink of water. I couldn't pick up my child... my feet would blow up so badly that I couldn't get them into any kind of shoes, let alone walk on them."[35]
Turner's appearance changed after the rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. "The press were merciless," she states in her memoir. "They snipped that I had become fat and unrecognizable because I was an angry, washed-up diva, an out-of-control has-been, when in truth the changes in my physical appearance were caused by drugs and chemotherapy and were not within my control. Still, I did not reveal what was happening to me."[36]
As her rheumatoid arthritis progressed, alcohol consumption became a problem. "I drank consciously at first to kill the pain....Later, after I got the new medicines and the pain began to subside, I kept drinking too much... It didn't damage my work, but it damaged me personally."[37]
Turner has admitted that the drinking made her difficult to be around.[38] In 2005, an article inThe New York Times stated: "Rumors began circulating that she was drinking too much." In her memoir, she said: "I went on letting others believe anything they wanted to about my behavior and physical changes. Many people bought the assumption that I'd turned into a heavy drinker. I couldn't publicly refute them because I believed it was worse to have people know that I had this terrible illness. They'd hire me if they thought I was a drunk, because they could understand drinking, but they wouldn't hire me if I had a mysterious, scary illness they didn't understand. We – Jay, my agent, myself – felt it was imperative to keep my rheumatoid arthritis quiet."[37]
Despite drug therapy to help her condition, the disease progressed for about eight years. Then, thanks to newly available treatments, her rheumatoid arthritis went intoremission. She was seen increasingly on television, including three episodes ofFriends, where she appeared asChandler Bing's father, a drag performer.
In 2006, Turner guest-starred on FX'sNip/Tuck, playing aphone sex operator in need of laryngeal surgery. She appeared in a small role in 2008'sMarley & Me and also played a defense attorney onLaw & Order. In 2009, she played the role of Charlie Runkle's sexually hyperactive boss in season three of the television seriesCalifornication.
She appeared in two episodes of theHulu seriesThe Path (2016–17), starred in an episode of the anthology seriesDolly Parton's Heartstrings (2019) and guest-starred on two episodes of the CBS comedy seriesMom in 2020. On the Netflix dramedy seriesThe Kominsky Method, Turner was a guest in season 2 (2019) and became a main cast member in season 3 (2021). The series reunited her with fellow actor Michael Douglas for the first time sinceThe War of the Roses.
After 1990s roles in Broadway productions ofIndiscretions andCat on a Hot Tin Roof (for which she earned aTony Award nomination for Best Actress), Turner moved to London in 2000 to star in a stage version ofThe Graduate. TheBBC reported that initially mediocre ticket sales forThe Graduate "went through the roof when it was announced that Turner, then aged 45, would appear naked on stage". While her performance as the seductive Mrs. Robinson was popular with audiences, with sustained high box office for the duration of Turner's run, she received mixed reviews from critics.[41] The play transferred to Broadway in 2002 to similar critical reaction.
In 2005, Turner beat a score of other contenders (includingJessica Lange,Frances McDormand, andBette Midler)[12] for the role of Martha in a 2005 Broadway revival ofEdward Albee'sWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at theLongacre Theatre. Albee later explained to theNew York Times that when Turner read for the part with her eventual co-starBill Irwin, he heard "an echo of the 'revelation' that he had felt years ago when the parts were read by[Uta] Hagen andArthur Hill." He added that Turner had "a look of voluptuousness, a woman of appetites, yes ... but a look of having suffered, as well."[12]
As the man-eating Martha, Ms. Turner, a movie star whose previous theater work has been variable, finally secures her berth as a first-rate, depth-probing stage actress ... [A]t 50, this actress can look ravishing and ravaged, by turns. In the second act, she is as predatorily sexy as she was in the movieBody Heat. But in the third and last act, she looks old, bereft, stripped of all erotic flourish. I didn't think I would ever be able to seeVirginia Woolf again without thinking of Ms. Hagen [Uta Hagen]. But watching Ms. Turner in that last act, fully clothed but more naked than she ever was inThe Graduate, I didn't see the specter of Ms. Hagen. All I saw was Ms. Turner. No, let's be fair. All I saw was Martha.[42]
As Martha, Turner received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play, losing toCherry Jones. The production was transferred to London'sApollo Theatre in 2006. She starred in Sandra Ryan Heyward's one-woman show,Tallulah, which she toured across the U.S.
In August 2010, Turner portrayed the role of Sister Jamison Connelly in Matthew Lombardo's dramaHigh at HartfordTheaterWorks.[43] The production transferred to Broadway at theBooth Theater where it opened in previews on March 25, 2011, officially on April 19, 2011, and an announced quick closing on April 24, 2011.[44] However, in a rare move, the production was revived, still headed by Turner, to undertake a national tour which began in Boston in December 2012.[45]
Turner was considered one of the most prominent sex symbols of the 1980s,[51] a designation largely attributed to her performance inBody Heat.[52] Turner worked to avoid being typecast in similar roles.[53] She described "rage" as a common theme running through most of her characters.[53] Her deep, husky voice is considered a trademark throughout her career.[54] Ann Lee ofThe Guardian described her as "magnetic" on screen "fierce, bold and sultry, with an impeccable sense of comic timing to match that oh-so-husky and commanding voice".[53]
Turner marriedreal estate entrepreneur Jay Weiss of New York City in 1984, and they had one daughter, singer Rachel Ann Weiss, who was born on October 14, 1987. Turner and Weiss divorced in December 2007, but Turner has said, "[Jay]'s still my best friend."[55]
By the late 1980s, Turner had acquired a reputation for being difficult, whatThe New York Times called "a certifiable diva". She admitted that she had developed into "not a very kind person", and actressEileen Atkins—with whom she starred in the playIndiscretions on Broadway—referred to her as "an amazing nightmare".[12] In 2018, she commented on her reputation, stating: "The 'difficult' thing was pure gender crap. If a man comes on set and says, 'Here's how I see this being done', people go, 'He's decisive.' If a woman does it, they say, 'Oh, fuck. There she goes.'"[27] Turner has defended herself against Atkins' claims, saying that Atkins harbored animosity towards her because she was having trouble memorizing her lines, which Atkins found very unprofessional. Turner later realized that medication she was taking for her rheumatoid arthritis was making her "fuzzy." She added that, on days when the rheumatoid arthritis in her wrist was especially bad and she warned the other cast members not to touch it, Atkins would intentionally sit on it during a scene where Turner had to play dead, causing Turner extreme pain.[27] Speaking about the major differences between theatre and film acting in terms of the dynamics between the individual and the collective, performing arts scholarOctavian Saiu praised Turner for her great generosity as a veritable team player who finds herself more at home on stage for that reason.[56]
Turner slammed Hollywood over the difference in the quality of roles offered to male actors and female actors as they age, calling the disparity a "terrible double standard".
A few weeks after leaving the production of the playThe Graduate in November 2002, she was admitted into the Geisinger Marworth Treatment Center inWaverly, Pennsylvania, for the treatment ofalcoholism. "I have no problem with alcohol when I'm working", she explained. "It's when I'm home alone that I can't control my drinking ... I was going toward excess. I mean, really! I think I was losing my control over it. So it pulled me back."[12]
In the mid-2000s, Turner collaborated withGloria Feldt on the writing of her memoirs,Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles. The book was published in 2008.[58][59] In the book, Turner claimed that, while they were filmingPeggy Sue Got Married, her co-starNicolas Cage had got drunk and stolen aChihuahua that he liked.[60] In turn, Cage filed a lawsuit against Turner and her book publisher in the UK, who took an excerpt from the book and posted it on their website (before publication).[60] Cage argued defamation and damage to character and won the case, resulting in retractions, legal fees, and a donation to charity.[60] Turner later publicly apologized.[61] During an interview onThe View, Turner apologized for any distress she might have caused Cage regarding an incident that took place 20 years earlier.[62][63]
On August 7, 2018,Vulture published an in-depth interview with Turner, wherein she expressed her opinion on a wide range of issues, fromElizabeth Taylor's acting skills to what it was like meetingDonald Trump in the 1980s.[64] Turner's frankness and certain revelations she made caused the article to be widely shared in different media outlets, which led to her name trending on Google.[65]
^abcTurner, Kathleen."I'm still a dip kid".Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. RetrievedOctober 7, 2013.
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