Turner as private eye V.I. Warshawski

Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress.

Early days

Born Mary Kathleen Turner in Springfield, Missouri, the daughter of diplomat Richard Turner, she had lived in four foreign countries by the time she entered college. She has two brothers and a sister. She was a gymnast as a teenager. While attending high school in London, she also took classes at the Central School of Speech and Drama. When her father died in 1973, the family moved back to Springfield.

Career

She attended Southwest Missouri State University at Springfield for two years, then gained her Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland in 1977. In 1978 Turner was hired as the second Nola Turner on NBC daytime soap The Doctors, but was fired the next year because the producers felt she was "not hot enough". Turner had the last laugh as she became a movie star a few years later in Body Heat, which many consider one of the sexiest films (with Turner giving one of the sexiest performances) in the history of cinema. Turner remained a film star up to the early 90's, but has since rarely appeared in major productions.

In addition to the television work listed above, she has also appeared as a guest on Friends, King of the Hill (voice), The Simpsons (voice), and Saturday Night Live, which she hosted twice.

In 2000 Turner starred as Mrs Robinson in the London revival of The Graduate, appearing fully nude (albeit in darkly lit sequences).

Awards

She was nominated for an Oscar for best actress in 1987 for her role in Peggy Sue Got Married. She received two Golden Globe awards, both for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, for Romancing the Stone (1984) and Prizzi's Honor (1985).

Personal life

Turner married New York real-estate mogul Jay Weiss in 1984. They have a daughter, Rachel Ann Weiss, born 1988. Turner was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1992.

Filmography

• Body Heat (1981)
• The Man with Two Brains (1983)
• A Breed Apart (1984)
• Romancing the Stone (1984)
• Crimes of the Passion (1984)
• Prizzi's Honor (1985)
• The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
• (1986) (voice)
• Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
• Julia and Julia (1987)
• Switching Channels (1988)
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit ([[1988]) (voice)
• The Accidental Tourist (1988)
• Tummy Trouble (1989) (short subject) (voice)
• The War of the Roses (1989)
• Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990) (short subject) (voice)
• V.I. Warshawski (1991)
• A Day at a Time (1992) (documentary) (narrator)
• Naked in New York (1992)
• Trail Mix-Up (1993) (short subject) (voice)
• House of Cards (1993)
• Undercover Blues (1993)
• Serial Mom (1994)
• Moonlight and Valentino (1995)
• Bad Baby (1997) (voice)
• A Simple Wish (1997)
• The Real Blonde (1997)
• Baby Geniuses (1999)
• The Virgin Suicides (1999)
• Beautiful (2000)
• Prince of Central Park (2000)
• Without Love (2004)
• Last of the Wild Chimps (2004) (short subject) (narrator)
• Monster House (2006) (currently in post-production)

External link