Dutch collector card.
French postcard by Edition Erving, Paris, no. 702. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984).
Czech postcard by Cinema GmbH, Praha. Kathleen Turner in Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985).
Her looks and her distinctive smoky voice suited a classic femme fatale
Mary Kathleen Turner was born in Springfield, Missouri, in 1954. She was the third of four children of Patsy (née Magee) and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer. As the daughter of a diplomat, Turner grew up in Canada, Cuba, Washington, Venezuela, and England. "The start of real acting for me began during high school in London", she stated in her 2008 memoir 'Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles'.
While attending high school in London, she regularly went to the theatre. She was so impressed by stage greats like Diana Rigg, Christopher Plummer, and Angela Lansbury that she enrolled in acting classes at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After her father's death, the family returned to the United States. There, Turner first attended Southwestern Missouri State University in Springfield and then earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 1977.
She moved to New York City, worked as a waitress, and performed in Off-Broadway productions. Turner made her Broadway debut as Judith Hastings in 'Gemini' by Albert Innaurato, staged at The Little Theatre (later the Helen Hayes Theater) and starring Danny Aiello. In 1978, she was cast as Nola Dancy Aldrich in the long-running soap opera The Doctors, but was let go after one season. Her film debut opposite William Hurt in the Neo-Noir Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981) made her a star and a sex symbol. Her looks and her distinctive smoky voice suited a classic femme fatale. Turner was nominated for the Best Newcomer award at both the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards for her role as the ruthless Matty Walker.
Turner solidified her new status in Hollywood with a comedic role, as Steve Martin's co-star in The Man with Two Brains (Carl Reiner, 1982). She played a shady heroine, a prostitute, in Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984). Then, she won the Golden Globe for the exhilarating adventure film Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984) with Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. Romancing the Stone was a surprise hit and became one of the top-ten-grossing films of 1984. The next year, the sequel The Jewel of the Nile (Lewis Teague, 1985) was released, starring the same actors. In 1989, the trio once again played the lead roles in the black comedy The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito, 1989).
She won a second Golden Globe for Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985) with Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. Turner was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the comedy Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Ford Coppola, 1986), which co-starred Nicolas Cage. She played Housewife Peggy Sue, who suddenly travels back in time and relives her school days at a school reunion. When she gets the opportunity to change the past, a planned divorce takes an unusual turn. Turner also lent her voice to the cartoon femme fatale Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis, 1988). Her line "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" became a classic.
Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. 2.
Spanish postcard in the Collección 'Estrellas Cinematográficas' by Cacitel, no. 37, 1990.
Matthew Parry's cross-dressing dad
However, the Sara Paretsky film adaptation V.I. Warshawski (Jeff Kanew, 1991), in which Kathleen Turner played the title role, was a flop. In 1992, Turner began experiencing inexplicable pains and fevers. Her career was subsequently increasingly hampered by a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis and the associated physical limitations and significant weight gain caused by the medication. She also blamed her age, stating, "When I was 40, the roles started slowing down; I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers."
Her last hilarious starring role was in Serial Mom (1994), a black comedy directed by John Waters and co-starring Ricki Lake. She played the mother of the Lisbon sisters in The Virgin Suicides (1999), the directing debut of Sofia Coppola based on a novel by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Turner tried to cope with the pain caused by her illness by drinking alcohol. In 1999, she voluntarily entered a rehabilitation clinic for her alcohol addiction. Her rheumatoid arthritis progressed for about eight years. Then, thanks to newly available treatments, it went into remission.
In later years, Turner appeared intermittently as a character actress in film and television roles. She appeared in three episodes of Friends (2001) as Charlie Bing, Chandler Bing's (Matthew Perry) cross-dressing father. Till his death, Matthew Perry called her "Dad". She also played guest roles as Sue Collini on Californication (2009) and as Roz Volander on The Kominsky Method (2019–2021). The series reunited her with Michael Douglas for the first time since The War of the Roses.
Kathleen Turner was particularly successful in stage roles. She received two Tony nominations for Broadway roles that Elizabeth Taylor had played in films: in 1990 for Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams's 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and in 2005 for Martha in Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Turner was married to real estate developer Jay Weiss from 1984 through 2007. They have a daughter, Rachel Ann Weiss (1987).
French postcard by Ebullitions, no. 12. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984).
Vintage poster postcard, no. XX900/40. French poster of Kathleen Turner in Crimes of Passion / China Blue (Ken Russell, 1984).
French Poster Postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 295. Design: Bernard Bernhardt. Kathleen Turner and Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985). Caption: Hitmen by day, lovers by night, until their next contract...
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
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