Lana Turner’s Marriages: Drama, Scandal, and a Shocking Legacy
- Lana Turner was married eight times to seven different men.
- Many of Turner’s marriages were riddled with abuse and scandal.
- Cheryl Crane stabbed Turner’s boyfriend, with the judge ruling it justifiable homicide.
- Turner claimed to have found God after her tumultuous relationships.
- Part of her story includes profound lessons about humor and resilience.
The Enigmatic Life of Lana Turner Begins Here. Turner, born Julia Jean Mildred on February 8, 1921, in charming Wallace, Idaho, was blessed with looks, talent, and that iconic blonde hair that set her on a path to stardom. But, oh boy, if Hollywood defined her life, it also twisted it in dramatic ways. Let’s get all gossip-y and dive into her marriages, which felt like a season of a soap opera rather than the glamorous highs of Tinseltown. Turner herself once said, “I am not just a manufactured something, a ‘star’ from Hollywood’s golden age. I am a real, live, breathing human being, with faults and good points like anybody else.” And, those faults!? Let’s just say they got her married eight times (to seven husbands, no less!). Indeed, it was a ride full of tall tales, thrills, and unfortunate episodes of violence and tragedy. But hang on tight, because we’re just getting started—let’s unwrap the tangled web of her marital escapades, shall we? Artie Shaw: The Tempting Dream Gone Sour. Lana’s first trip down the aisle was with none other than Artie Shaw, a composer with a flair for drama. They married in 1940, with Shaw being 11 years her senior and a twice-married man already. Talk about a romantic whirlwind! According to Lana, Shaw ‘stirred’ her soul—”Artie would paint me a romantic dream with a white picket fence around it,” she shared. Unfortunately, this romantic dream shattered in just four months due to Shaw’s temper that could rival a raging bull. “He was a very intelligent man, but he didn’t treat women well,” said Turner—and that was just the tip of the iceberg in her rollercoaster love life that often resembled a highlight reel of domestic chaos. After their split, Artie went on to have four more marriages, bouncing around like a ping pong ball, until he passed peacefully at the ripe old age of 94.
Lana Turner: A Hollywood Icon with a Tumultuous Love Life
The Next Flings and Their Unraveling. For some reason, Turner seemed magnetically drawn to chaos. After Crane, she married Henry J. Topping Jr. in 1948, a socialite who apparently preferred to keep secrets. Their romance lasted from April to December, and while they honeymooned in England like any good couple, the relationship flatlined without much left to tell. Next came Lex Barker, the man best known for portraying Tarzan, who married Turner in 1953. But, as it turned out, he had his own dark secrets—he came under fire after Cheryl claimed he abused her. Turner didn’t hesitate to step in protectively, confronting Barker with a gun before they sealed their fate with a divorce in 1957. Now that’s the stuff of Hollywood legends, or should I say, horror stories? Then came Frederick May; their marriage was so low-key that all we really know is it happened from 1960 to 1962, right after all that courtroom chaos. Next was Robert P. Eaton, an MGM producer who was ten years younger. Turner once gushed over how enamoured she was with him, claiming he introduced her to a world of beautiful physical love. But divine interventions have a funny way of crumbling when scandal rears its head; Eaton’s involvement in a project based on Cheryl’s murder trial sent Lana into a tailspin, leading her to a swift exit from that relationship. And just when you think it can’t get any crazier—there was Ronald Pellar, the mystic hypnotist she married in 1969, just three months after meeting him. Ah, sweet madness! In a twist of events, Pellar passed away in 2013, but really, he had his work cut out keeping up with Turner’s vivacious escapades—if he even could!
The Scandalous Marriage to Joseph Stephen Crane and the Knife Incident. Now, here’s where the drama thickens—Turner also tied the knot with the charming but duplicitous actor Joseph Stephen Crane, which sounds like a bad premise for a thriller. They first wed in July 1942 but got an annulment after discovering he hadn’t cut ties with his first wife. Fast-forward to 1943, the couple got hitched again, and in July of that year, they welcomed their daughter, Cheryl. But hold onto your hats! In 1958, little did anyone know that Cheryl would become the protagonist of a real-life horror story by stabbing Turner’s abusive boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato. At just 14 years old, Cheryl was in a situation straight out of a movie script! Having detailed the incident in her memoir, she described that horrifying moment when she acted to defend her mother: “I picked the knife up off the floor…He ran on the blade. It went in.” Following the calamitous courtroom drama, where Cheryl was acquitted due to ‘justifiable homicide,’ Turner publicly said, “It was a humiliating ordeal to explain… But all my emotions were secondary compared to Cheryl’s release—that was what mattered now.” Isn’t it chilling how those love stories get twisted into dark tales? After that, Cheryl struggled with her own demons, but it seems Turner ultimately decided that enough was enough when it came to her tumultuous life.
Lana Turner’s life was a theatrical performance, full of twists, heartbreaks, and shocking revelations that still boggle the mind. From her whirlwind marriages, lauded films, to the dramatic court cases, she showcased resilience and an ability to rise above the chaos. At the end of it all, she learned to find laughter and spirituality amidst chaos, saying she found God and leaning heavily on her sense of humour. Despite her flaws and turbulent relationships, Turner remains a beacon of what Hollywood was and, unfortunately, the dark realities that often accompanied it.
