“The most important tool of my trade was a mirror” – Lana Turner

Lana Turner was one of the most famous women of the 20th century. She was a Hollywood actress, sex symbol, pinup girl and a film, theatre and television icon who had one of the longest and most illustrious careers of any professional actress, a career that spanned almost 50 years and turned her into one of Hollywood’s highest-paid stars and is an example of what many consider to be the fulfillment of the American Dream as she started with nothing and ended up with the world at her feet.

Lana Turner was born on 8 February 1921 in the small mining town of Wallace, Idaho as Julia Jean Turner and was known as Judy by many of her childhood friends.  She showed an obvious interest in the performing arts even as a toddler performing dance routines for anyone who would watch her.

The family struggled to make ends meet in Idaho and so when Judy was only six years old they relocated to San Francisco. Things changed after this move though as her mother and father soon separated and when Turner was only around 9 years old in 1930, her father was found bludgeoned to death having been robbed of some money he had won in a craps game. His death affected Turner deeply and she commented on the great sense of loss in her life and her need to grow up too quickly. She also occasionally commented on how difficult things were, remembering that it would be common for her to only have crackers and milk to live on for most of the week.

As happens on occasion her fortunes changed by

accident when at the age of 15 she was spotted by the publisher of the

Hollywood Reporter, William R. Wilkerson buying a soda at the Top Hat Malt Shop

on Sunset Boulevard having skipped a lesson at the Hollywood High School she

was attending in Hollywood, California.

After gaining consent from her mother to follow

up on an offer from Wilkerson to get into the movie industry she was referred

by Wilkerson to Zeppo Marx who in turn passed her on to the movie director

Mervyn LeRoy and he immediately signed her to a $50 per week contract with

Warner Brothers. This was on 22 February 1937 when Turner had only just

celebrated her 16th birthday. It was LeRoy who suggested she change

her name to Lana.

Lana Turner starred in her first role in the

film They Won’t Forget in 1937 in which she played a murder victim. This role

would be the start of a movie career that regularly saw Lana appearing as a

woman of intrigue and mystery but also set the tone for her physical appearance

as she was required to wear a tight form-fitting sweater in the movie. Something

that she was embarrassed about at the time, even sinking lower and lower down

into her seat at the movie’s premiere noting that it was the first time she had

ever seen herself walk.

Later in 1937, she followed LeRoy from Warner

Brothers to MGM where he had been hired as an executive and signed a new

contract worth $100 per week. During her early MGM career, she worked alongside

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and even screen-tested for the part of Scarlett

O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, a part which eventually went to Vivien Leigh.

However, despite her career starting to take off in the late 1930s, it truly

blossomed in the 40s and 50s when she was widely considered one of the most

beautiful actresses in Hollywood.

During the 1940s she starred in such films as, Ziegfeld Girl, a musical in which she had a lead role opposite James Stewart, Hedy Lamarr, and