--- name: "Lana Turner" canonical: "https://film.one/person/lana-turner" roles: ["Actor"] born: "8 February 1921" died: "29 June 1995" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T22:39:22.706209+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lana Turner Actor. Born 8 February 1921 in Wallace, Idaho, USA. Died 29 June 1995. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 8 February 1921, Wallace, Idaho, USA - **Died:** 29 June 1995 - **Also known as:** Julia Jean Turner, Лана Тёрнер, Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 acting, 1 other - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lana_Turner, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q201034, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001805/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/29623 ## Fi1m on Lana Turner > Lana Turner played women who were being looked at and knew it, and for twenty years the studio system asked little more of her. It works best when the part is a performer too; when it is not, there is not much underneath. Coney Island, the summer of 1947. Lora Meredith has lost her small daughter on the beach, a photographer takes her picture, and by nightfall she has acquired a housekeeper she cannot pay. Lana Turner plays Lora in *Imitation of Life* (1959) as a woman who cannot stop performing, and in her scenes with John Gavin's Steve we found it hard to tell the character's acting from the actress's. That is Turner in a sentence. When the part is a performer, it is a virtue. When it is not, the film has to manage without her. She was found, not trained. A talent scout spotted her in Hollywood in 1936, at fifteen or sixteen; Mervyn LeRoy signed her, gave her a debut in *They Won't Forget* (1937) as Mary Clay that made her the Sweater Girl, and took her to MGM in 1938, where she stayed under contract until 1956. The ingénue parts of the late 1930s became leading roles in the 1940s, four of them opposite Clark Gable. The turn came with *The Postman Always Rings Twice* (1946), where she played Cora Smith, a scheming wife, and critics who had noticed only the sweater started noticing the actress. She said that year that she was tired of walking across the screen and looking pretty, and that she did not intend to slip back. She mostly did not slip back. *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952) gave her Georgia Lorrison, a sustained dramatic part in a film about Hollywood; *Peyton Place* (1957) put her at the centre of a large ensemble as Constance MacKenzie. *Imitation of Life*, produced by Ross Hunter and directed by Douglas Sirk, was the comeback and one of her most successful late films. After it the parts thinned, and there were occasional films and television, including *Falcon Crest* in 1982 and 1983. The case against her is old and has not changed: wooden, limited, cast for her looks rather than her technique, with *A Life of Her Own* (1950) the film usually cited. The case for her is that in noir and melodrama, playing the good girl gone bad, the ambitious woman who is also frightened, the looks were the technique. Audiences watched her whoever else was in the frame. That is not nothing, and it is not the same as acting. We know this because of *Imitation of Life*. It is the film of hers we rate highest, and the reason is not Turner. Watching Lora's half we felt the film idling, and we caught ourselves waiting for Juanita Moore to come back on screen, because Moore does so little and means so much of it, and next to her Turner is visibly working. Most critics have come round to the film, and so have we, on the strength of the housekeeper's story rather than the star's. Start there. Then watch it again for Moore. ## Biography Lana Turner was an American actor. Discovered by MGM at the age of sixteen, she first appeared in They Won't Forget (1937). She played featured roles in films including Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) before establishing herself as a leading actor in the early 1940s with Johnny Eager (1941), Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and Somewhere I'll Find You (1942). Turner appeared in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Her later films included The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Peyton Place (1957) and Imitation of Life (1959), in which she played Lora Meredith. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Peyton Place. In the 1980s she had a recurring role in the television series Falcon Crest. Turner made her final television appearance in 1991. She died in 1995. *Sources: britannica.com, imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Performed in (1) — the average rests on these - *Imitation of Life* (1959), Fi1m 86, as Lora Meredith — [page](https://film.one/film/imitation-of-life.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Singin' in the Rain* (1952), Fi1m 93, as Actress in The Royal Rascal (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/singin-in-the-rain.md) ## Complete filmography (70) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *1939: Secrets of Hollywood's Golden Year* (2023), series, Actor - *Reflections of Evil* (2002), as Tracy Carlyle Hastings (archive footage) - *That's Entertainment! III* (1994), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *La Classe américaine* (1993), as Isabelle (archive footage) - *Murderers, Mobsters, & Madmen: Volume 6: Hollywood Police Files* (1992), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Showbiz Goes to War* (1982), as (archive footage) - *Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid* (1982), as (in "Johnny Eager" / "The Postman Always Rings Twice") (archive footage) - *Falcon Crest* (1981), series, as Jacqueline Perrault - *Witches' Brew* (1980), as Vivian Cross - *The Hollywood Clowns* (1979), as (archive footage) - *The Love Boat* (1977), series, as Elizabeth Raley, Elizabeth Raleigh - *Bittersweet Love* (1976), as Claire - *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), as (archive footage) - *Persecution* (1974), as Carrie Masters - *Harold Robbins' The Survivors* (1969), series, as Tracy Carlyle Hastings - *The Big Cube* (1969), as Adriana Roman - *Madame X* (1966), as Holly Parker - *Love Has Many Faces* (1965), as Kit Jordon - *Who's Got the Action?* (1962), as Melanie Flood - *Bachelor in Paradise* (1961), as Rosemary Howard - *By Love Possessed* (1961), as Marjorie Penrose - *Portrait in Black* (1960), as Sheila Cabot - *Imitation of Life* (1959), as Lora Meredith — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/imitation-of-life.md) - *Andy Hardy Comes Home* (1958), as Cynthia Potter (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Another Time, Another Place* (1958), as Sara Scott · Co-Producer - *The Lady Takes a Flyer* (1958), as Maggie Colby - *Peyton Place* (1957), as Constance MacKenzie - *Diane* (1956), as Diane de Poitiers - Countess de Breze - *The Rains of Ranchipur* (1955), as Lady Edwina Esketh - *The Sea Chase* (1955), as Elsa Keller - *The Prodigal* (1955), as Samarra - *Betrayed* (1954), as Carla Van Oven - *Flame and the Flesh* (1954), as Madeline - *Great Lady Has an Interview* (1954), as The Star - *Latin Lovers* (1953), as Nora Taylor - *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952), as Georgia Lorrison - *The Merry Widow* (1952), as Crystal Radek - *Singin' in the Rain* (1952), as Actress in The Royal Rascal (uncredited) — Fi1m 93, [page](https://film.one/film/singin-in-the-rain.md) - *Mr. Imperium* (1951), as Fredda Barlo - *A Life of Her Own* (1950), as Lily Brannel James - *The Three Musketeers* (1948), as Lady De Winter - *Homecoming* (1948), as Lt. Jane 'Snapshot' McCall - *Cass Timberlane* (1947), as Virginia 'Jinny' Marshland - *Green Dolphin Street* (1947), as Marianne Patourel - *The Postman Always Rings Twice* (1946), as Cora Smith - *Week-End at the Waldorf* (1945), as Bunny Smith - *Keep Your Powder Dry* (1945), as Valerie Parks - *Marriage Is a Private Affair* (1944), as Theodora "Theo" Scoffield West - *Twenty Years After* (1944), as (archive footage) - *Du Barry Was a Lady* (1943), as Lana Turner (uncredited) - *Slightly Dangerous* (1943), as Peggy Evans aka Carol Burden - *The Youngest Profession* (1943), as Lana Turner - *Somewhere I'll Find You* (1942), as Paula Lane - *Johnny Eager* (1941), as Lisbeth Bard - *Honky Tonk* (1941), as Elizabeth Cotton - *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* (1941), as Beatrix 'Bea' Emery - *Ziegfeld Girl* (1941), as Sheila Regan - *We Who Are Young* (1940), as Marjorie White Brooks - *Two Girls on Broadway* (1940), as Pat Mahoney - *Dancing Co-Ed* (1939), as Patty Marlow - *These Glamour Girls* (1939), as Jane Thomas - *Calling Dr. Kildare* (1939), as Rosalie Lewett - *Dramatic School* (1938), as Mado - *Rich Man, Poor Girl* (1938), as Helen - *Four's a Crowd* (1938), as Passerby (uncredited) - *Love Finds Andy Hardy* (1938), as Cynthia - *The Adventures of Marco Polo* (1938), as Maid - *The Great Garrick* (1937), as Mlle. Auber - *Topper* (1937), as Nightclub Patron (uncredited) - *They Won't Forget* (1937), as Mary Clay ## Gallery - ![Lana Turner](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-3a15df5bddac.jpg) Lana Turner — MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Lana_Turner_-_Marriage_is_a_Private_Affair_portrait.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Portrait of Lana Turner from 1940s](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-322e04312912.jpg) Portrait of Lana Turner from 1940s — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Lana_Turner_1940s_portrait.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lana Turner in a 1940s publicity portrait by MGM](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-501e5ab9d9cd.jpg) Lana Turner in a 1940s publicity portrait by MGM — MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Lana_Turner_1940s_publicity_portrait.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lana Turner in Madame X (1966)](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-f56c1b498f31.jpg) Lana Turner in Madame X (1966) — Universal Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Lana_Turner_-_Madame_X_publicity_photo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lana Turner](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-85d1a9361ed0.jpg) Lana Turner — Image via TMDB - ![Lana Turner](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-9fa63c473256.jpg) Lana Turner — Image via TMDB - ![Lana Turner](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-20ab57f80849.jpg) Lana Turner — Image via TMDB - ![Businessman Frederick "Fred" May and his bride Lana Turner, 1960](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-8da384fa1725.jpg) Businessman Frederick "Fred" May and his bride Lana Turner, 1960 — Photographer not credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Businessman_Fred_May_and_his_bride_Lana_Turner%2C_1960.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Businessman Robert P. Eaton and his bride Lana Turner, 1965](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-a1600356dcc7.jpg) Businessman Robert P. Eaton and his bride Lana Turner, 1965 — Photographer not credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Businessman_Robert_P._Eaton_and_his_bride_Lana_Turner%2C_1965.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lana Turner](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-8da51473bb78.jpg) Lana Turner — Image via TMDB - ![Lana Turner](https://film.one/media/person/294148/gallery-3db563732d08.jpg) Lana Turner — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1958: Best Actress (nominated), for *Peyton Place* ### Other awards — 2 won - Donostia Award 1995: Donostia Award (won) - Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award 1975: Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award (won), for *Persecution* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lana-turner