Kathleen Turner’s popularity rose in the 1980s due to her solidity and charming look. Many people think about her that she was the most beautiful actress in Hollywood.
She passed through many good and bad times in her professional career over the years.
Kathleen Turner’s childhood was very uneven and she grew up in a family with four children.
Her siblings grew up in London and Venezuela. The actual disaster came when her father died while mowing the lawn of their Hampstead home.
she faced many problems at a young age. After the death of her father foreign service turned out from the UK.
Turner and her family moved to Springfield, Missouri, mourning their father’s death and former home.
After moving to New York Tuner finally found peace and went after her acting career.
she had a good fate on stage but the actual crack-down came when she was performing the role of femme fatale in 1981’s “Body Heat.”
She performed next to William Hurt three years after that she was given a chance to co-star with Michael Douglas in “Romancing the Stone.” Turner and Douglas felt some attraction to each other as Douglas’s rugged separation from his wife in those days.
“We were in the process of falling in love – fervent, longing looks and heavy flirtation. Then Diandra came down and reminded me he was still married,” Kathleen said.
After some time she married the property developer from the film, Jay Weiss, in 1984. soon they had only a daughter together.
Rachel Ann Weiss was born on October 14, 1987.
Unluckily, the couple’s relationship cracked down as they raised their daughter.
“I’d make the movie companies give me long weekends or provide extra tickets so my daughter and husband could come to me. But there was a sense in the marriage that the effort was all on his side, which made me feel guilty. It was one of the reasons it ended. I started to feel very oppressed. I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, you’ve done very well out of being married to me also,’” Kathleen explained.
Turner performed as Martha in the Broadway revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, in 2005.
At that time Turner’s matrimonial life was disturbed badly. She became diligent while performing eight shows in a week. When she was home Weiss had no time for her when she was at home.
Amicably, they separated each other and Turner earned Tony Award nod as Martha.
Not only this but she also got an Oscar nomination back in 1987 for her role in “Peggy Sue Got Married.”
Her film career reached its peak in the 80’s. She started to perform in blockbusters three of which were with Michael Douglas.
In 90’s she suffered from some medical problems and her neck locked, she even couldn’t move her head.
Her hands were swelled too much that she wouldn’t be able to use them.
“It was crippling,” Kathleen said. “You stop taking things for granted when you lose them, even temporarily. What I took for granted – my athleticism, my ability to throw myself around, and just being able to move however I wanted to. When I lost that, that was a real crisis of self: who am I if I cannot do this?”
Unluckily, she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition specified by the swelling of the lining in our joints. This condition causes persistent pain that can be difficult to bear.
“When it was first diagnosed, I was terrified because they said I’d be in a wheelchair,” Kathleen explained. “I thought, ‘If I can’t move, I can’t act.’ Acting isn’t just what I want to do. I was born to do it. It’s at every point of my life. The idea of not being able to do it was the most frightening part – that and the constant pain.”
Turner started to take pills and alcohol to cope with this pain. She started to take vodka and this habit became miserable for her and she had to lead her passing out during rehearsals for shows like 2002’s stage production of “The Graduate.”
Today she living a healthy life and does yoga to control the pain and remain active.
Feeling better in her health condition she started to focus on stage career. She eventually worked in television and films, but she returned to her roots she even worked in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on stage.
“Because I knew that the better roles as I got older would be in theatre, which is absolutely true, so that was a little foresight on my part of which I am justly proud,” Kathleen said
This helped the star to focus on her passions like volunteering at Amnesty International and working for Planned Parenthood of America.
She is a stalwart believer in feminism and she spent incredible power to empower other women.
Her ideologies are represented clearly in Gloria Feldt’s 2008 memoir of the star, Send Yourself Roses.
“We are the first generation of financially independent women. Women are going back to work,” Kathleen said. “They’re reinventing themselves. I thought I could support that, even increase that. So it has got a lot of philosophy in it and a lot of my beliefs.”