Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress. Known for her distinctive husky voice,[1][2] she is the recipient of two Golden Globes, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy, and two Tony Awards.
Kathleen Turner
Actress
1977–present
1
After debuting both off and on Broadway in 1977, followed by her television debut as Nola Aldrich on the NBC soap opera The Doctors (1978–1979), Turner rose to prominence with her portrayal of Matty Walker in Body Heat (1981), which brought her a reputation as a sex symbol.[3] She worked solidly throughout the 1980s, in films such as The Man with Two Brains (1983), Crimes of Passion, Romancing the Stone (both 1984), Prizzi's Honor, The Jewel of the Nile (both 1985), Switching Channels, The Accidental Tourist (both 1988), and The War of the Roses (1989). For her portrayal of the title character in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Turner was nominated for the 1987 Academy Award for Best Actress. Subsequent credits include V.I. Warshawski (1991), Serial Mom (1994), Baby Geniuses, The Virgin Suicides (both 1999), Beautiful (2000), Marley & Me (2008), and Dumb and Dumber To (2014).
Outside film, Turner guest-starred as Sue Collini on Showtime's Californication (2009) and Roz Volander on Netflix's The Kominsky Method (2019–2021). She also played Charles Bing, the drag queen father of Chandler Bing, on the seventh season of Friends (2001). Turner's voice work includes Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Constance in Monster House (2006), as well as characters on television series such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill, and Rick and Morty.
In addition to her work on stage and screen, Turner has taught acting classes at New York University.[4][5]
Early life[edit]
Born June 19, 1954, in Springfield, Missouri,[6] to Patsy (née Magee)[7] and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer who grew up in China (where Turner's great-grandfather had been a Methodist missionary), 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 conservative Christian home, Turner's interest in performing was discouraged by both of her parents: "My father was of missionary stock", she later explained, "so theater and acting were just one step up from being a streetwalker, 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 at The 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 a coronary 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 local Planned Parenthood office.[4]
She attended Southwest Missouri State University[17] for two years, studying theater. During this period, director Herbert Blau saw her performance in The House of Blue Leaves, and invited her to spend her senior year at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,[18] where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977.[19] During that period, Turner acted in several productions directed by film and stage director Steve Yeager.[20]
