Celebrity Nooz: Kathleen Turner

Kathleen Turner (Actress) - Romancing the Stone

Updated: 1/21/20

Name: Kathleen Turner

Birth Name: Mary Kathleen Turner

Born: June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri, USA

Claim To Fame: Kathleen Turner is an American film and stage actress best nown for her distinctive gritty voice and memorable roles in Body Heat, Romancing the Stone, and Peggy Sue Got Married.

Family Life: Turner married real estate entrepreneur Jay Weiss in 1984, and they had one daughter, Rachel Ann Weiss, who was born on October 14, 1987. In 2006, Turner and Weiss and she were planning a trial separation. Turner and Weiss then officially divorced in December 2007.

Info: Born to Patsy and Allen Richard Turner, a career U.S. Foreign Service officer who was imprisoned in China by the Japanese during World War II.

Has one sister and two brothers.

Was raised in Canada, Cuba and England where her father was a diplomat.

Speaks Spanish fluently.

Former accomplished gymnast.

She attended high school at the American School in London, graduating in 1972.

She also attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England.

Attended the Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU) in Springfield, Missouri; transferred after two years University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland; B.F.A., 1977. She was involved in SMSU's Tent Theatre in the same summer as Tess Harper.

By her own admission, she turned down every role offered of a victimized, weak woman.

Turner has won two Golden Globe Awards for Romancing the Stone, and Prizzi's Honor (1985), and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Peggy Sue Got Married.

Has been a long time member of the People For the American Way Foundation Board of Directors, and was previously on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of America.

In December of 1999, she checked herself into Marworth in Waverly, Pennsylvania, for alcohol abuse.

Received a lifetime achievement award from the Savannah College of Art and Design at the Savannah Film Festival.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1990 Tony Award as Best Actress for portraying Maggie the Cat in a revival of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

Turner discovered she had developed rheumatoid arthritis in 1992, but did not publicly disclose her illness until 1994. It got so bad that she could not easily turn her head, and was already having difficulty walking, and her doctors told her that she was most likely going to be needing a wheelchair to remain mobile. By the late 1990s, the progression of the illness and the medications began to change her appearance. Due to newly available drugs and other treatments, her Rheumatoid Arthritis has been in remission since 2006.

At the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, she presented Quentin Tarantino with the Palme d'Or for Pulp Fiction (1994).

Was nominated for Broadway's 2005 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play for portraying Martha in the 2005 revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

Was awarded the 2006 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for her performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

Trivia: Lobbied hard for the lead role in 9 1/2 Weeks but lost out to Kim Basinger.

Was 9 months pregnant with her daughter Rachel Ann Weiss when she completed recording Who Framed Roger Rabbit and actually went into labor on the final day of recording.

Turner named Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as her favorite film in an American Film Institute poll.

Is one of 20 actresses who did not receive an Oscar nomination for their Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Golden Globe-winning performance; hers being for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor.

In 1995, she was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history (#73).

Broke her nose while filming V.I. Warshawski.

Upon meeting the legendary Lauren Bacall, to whom she has often been compared, she reportedly introduced herself by saying, "Hi, I'm the young you."

Has played Chandler Bing's (Matthew Perry) cross-dressing father Charles Bing on Friends. To this day, Matthew Perry still calls her "Dad".

Turner said the director she has learned the most from is Francis Ford Coppola.

Where Are They Now: Turner has been working consistently since the late 1970s. As of 2020 her most recent television appearance was on the hit CBS sitcom Mom. Looking forward to see what she's going to do next.

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